Melody Gardot
@ the PizzaExpress Jazz Club
3 August 2015

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Biography

Melody Gardot was born in New Jersey USA and currently resides in Philadelphia.
In 2003 she was run over by a car while riding her bicycle, leaving her disabled in hospital for over year. She had to re-learn certain aspects of life most of us take for granted such as speech and walking. She also developed ‘over-sensitivity’ to sound and light resulting in her all-day use of dark sunglasses.

Her musical career began with piano lessons at the age of nine and music became her main therapy during her recovery to a normal life. Since her brain suffered neural-pathway damages she trained her voice by humming and eventually singing into a tape recorder. She also learned to play the guitar while being hospitalised.

She began writing songs and made them available on iTunes and later began performing them around Philadelphia venues. Radio station WXPN, who helped launch Norah Jones career, took notice of Gardot. They encouraged her to make a demo which soon sparked the interest at Universal Records. She released her first album “Worrisome Heart” in 2006 (later re-released on Verve Records in 2008).

Fast forward a few years…

International best-selling singer, songwriter and musician, Melody Gardot, releases her 4th studio album, “Currency of Man.”

The highly-anticipated “Currency of Man” is an intensely creative milestone, transcending musical distinctions of jazz, blues and R&B, to offer a stirring social and musical statement. On the new album, Gardot joins forces again with Grammy Award-winning producer Larry Klein. This striking musical partnership saw their last collaboration, 2009’s “My One and Only Thrill”sell over 1.5 million copies, and produced songs that have become modern classics.

“Currency of Man” marks a substantial leap forward indeed, as we see Gardot take her gift for songwriting in a completely different direction to her last record, the critically acclaimed release “The Absence.”

As Melody Gardot explains: “Every album is a journey and this disc in some ways is a leap into the unknown. After spending time in LA, the songs all became about the people I’d meet: people who were experiencing life on the fringe…”

Gardot’s extraordinary voice, and underlying attitude, which exudes both strength and grace, is unmistakably Melody Gardot. The music world will be reminded instantly of the rare combination of natural talent and musical sophistication with which Melody effortlessly captures and holds her audience in the palm of her hand.

The singer adds, “We have a slamming horn section and these cinematic and somewhat existential arrangements. It’s a body of work where Larry and I discover an electric side of the songs, something I’ve never done before.. It’s all an exploration, but it feels good to have something new, and even a bit strange.”