Melody Gardot

Melody Gardot’s dusky and subtly shaded singing voice has won her a devoted following through her close-knit fusion of jazz with Latin and Brazilian elements. After overcoming a severe bicycle mishap that nearly ended her life at the outset of her professional path, she gained recognition via the 2007 release Worrisome Heart and the 2009 album My One and Only Thrill, which evoked echoes of Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Nina Simone, along with additional figures. Five of Gardot’s albums have reached the upper ranks of Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Albums listing, among them a pair of chart-toppers: the 2012 effort The Absence, crafted under Heitor Pereira’s production, and Currency of Man from 2015, overseen by Larry Klein. Her distinctive and mysterious artistic identity has been refined over time as she delves into personal, smoldering compositions alongside expansive interpretations of classic tunes, exemplified by the 2020 project Sunset in the Blue. Two years afterward came Entre Eux Deux, a paired effort alongside pianist and composer Philippe Baden Powell.

Born in 1985 in New Jersey to a single mother employed as a photographer, Gardot faced financial hardship that led to much of her childhood being spent in Philadelphia alongside her Polish immigrant grandmother. Piano instruction began at age nine, and by sixteen she was already appearing at neighborhood clubs, delivering a blend of jazz, pop, and rock covers. While enrolled at nineteen in a fashion program at the Community College of Philadelphia, she suffered a collision with an SUV that executed an illegal turn; the incident confined her to a hospital bed for a full year of rehabilitation. Lingering effects included heightened sensitivity to light and sound, prompting a turn toward gentler styles such as bossa nova, jazz, French chanson, and folk music. During extended periods of recovery while lying down, she also mastered guitar and started composing songs as therapeutic exercises, several of which formed the core of her 2005 debut EP Some Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions, which received local radio airplay in Philadelphia.

Following discharge from intensive care, Gardot pressed forward with her musical ambitions despite enduring physical aftereffects. The ongoing sensitivity prompted her adoption of dark glasses, an accessory that became a signature element of her appearance. For years she traveled with a physiotherapist and performed while fitted with a Transcutaneous Electro-Nerve Stimulator, or TENS device, to ease neuralgic muscle discomfort. These challenges notwithstanding, she completed her first full-length album, Worrisome Heart, issued by Verve in 2007; the well-received set reached number two on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Albums chart.

Her 2009 Verve successor, My One and Only Thrill, arrived with production by Larry Klein and arrangements by Vince Mendoza, both recognized for prior collaborations with Joni Mitchell and other prominent jazz and pop figures; that release also peaked at number two on the Traditional Jazz Albums tally. Gardot’s third studio album, The Absence, followed in 2012. Produced by guitarist and composer Heitor Pereira, it revealed a deeper embrace of Brazilian-, Spanish-, and African-tinged idioms including samba, tango, bossa nova, and calypso. The project advanced her commercial standing, entering the Top 30 of the Billboard 200 and claiming the summit of the U.S. Jazz Albums chart.

Currency of Man, released in 2015, further broadened her palette through another partnership with Klein on an entirely original collection shaped by R&B, blues, and jazz and marked by social awareness. A comprehensive live set, Live in Europe, appeared in 2018 and documented performances captured between 2012 and 2016. Sunset in the Blue reunited her with Klein in 2020 and incorporated contributions from veteran arranger Vince Mendoza and engineer Al Schmitt.

The 2022 release Entre Eux Deux presented a duo collaboration with French-born pianist and composer Philippe Baden Powell, son of the celebrated Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell. Nine of its ten selections were originals developed chiefly by the pair, while the sole cover offered a close reading of “Plus Fort Que Nous,” the 1966 theme from Claude Lelouch’s film Un Homme et Une Femme (A Man and A Woman), written by Francis Lai and Pierre Barouh.