WIN - Jazz FM's Album of the Week

On 25th October, Decca Records celebrate Melody Gardot’s 20-year anniversary in music with the release of The Essential Melody Gardot, a 25-track collection comprising music selected and sequenced by Gardot herself. Much more than a mere best-of, it is a listening experience intended to convey the length and depth of Gardot’s achievements as a recording and performing artist. “I tried to create a vibe as one would with a set list, especially for the vinyl, so that each side has a mood,” she notes. The Essential Melody Gardot is also intended to present her as she grew and developed her craft of singing and songwriting, capturing the journey she began in 2004 as she lay in a hospital bed, recovering from a debilitating car accident.

Two tunes on The Essential Melody Gardot have not been released until now. ‘La Llorona’ is a haunting Mexican ballad rife with tragedy and endless verses. Gardot chose to perform it to an appreciative crowd in Mallorca in 2019 with gentle guitar-and-cello accompaniment. ‘First Song’ is a masterfully delicate reading of an Abbey Lincoln/Charlie Haden composition that was the product of a magic moment of inspiration in the studio: bassist Haden, Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, and keyboardist Gil Goldstein all contributing. “Charlie was the catalyst,” Gardot recalled. “It was a random, heartbeat moment à la the Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach session Money Jungle. We were all there, and Charlie handed me the music and said, ‘I want you to sing this.’”

The majority of the music on The Essential Melody Gardot is drawn from Gardot’s six studio recordings, from 2008’s major label debut Worrisome Heart to her 2022 collaboration with Brazilian pianist Philippe Powell, Entre eux deux. A few are special remixes or versions that have not been readily available, such as her half-sung, half-spoken rendition of Elton John’s ‘Love Song’ (originally on 2020’s Sunset in the Blue), with trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf contributing emotive filigree. A number highlight Gardot’s multilingual skills, intoning in French (‘La chanson des vieux amants’, ‘La Vie en Rose’) and Spanish (‘La Llorona’) with the ease and flow of a native speaker. And four concert recordings add live punch to the set, capturing the fun and immediacy of her shows. “I love the vulnerability of a live performance” Gardot states, “It’s raw and honest.”

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