It’s nearly impossible to describe the musical identity of Melody Gardot, and artist of such caliber and depth, with her singular history and estimable body of work.
Melody’s music feels timelessly original and free of category, yet she is clearly akin to the enduring vocal tradition of cool mood, hushed intimacy, and self-possessed femininity of Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee or Edith Piaf.
As part of a slow and painful recovery process following a debilitating accident at 19 years old, Melody had to recover memories and relearn motor and communication skills. Finding herself overly sensitive to light and sound, music therapy proved the most effective recuperative tool, the “lightning bolt” (as she calls it) that brought her back. “I was singing and writing songs before I remembered how to speak. The message is music is all-powerful force.” The music she listened to — and in which she discovered her identity — was guided by restraint and delicacy. Within years of her recovery, she launched her career, developing her sound and songwriting, all in a spotlight that can be unfairly unforgiving at the first misstep. Since then, she has leaped and changed course, but never faltered.
Melody’s latest release, The Essential Melody Gardot, is much more than a mere best-of. It is an album made from a 14-year run of albums, generously comprised of 25 tracks.