Melody Gardot, Europe, June 29 – July 30, 2012, Stuttgart
Author: Anothertravelguide.com
It's said that music can heal one's life, yet for Melody Gardot (1985) music means more than just a healing therapy proscribed to restore her broken body and soul. Music become a vital part of her life after that tragic car accident in 2003 that made her eyes supersensitive to light and almost forever confined her to a wheelchair. Expressing herself through music became something like natural bodily functions that you just cannot suppress.
Her musical career began randomly when Melody Gardot was a 16-years old fashion design student. She was driving to Philadelphia, had no money and her car was almost out of gas, when she stopped at a roadside pub that eventually offered her a job of a piano player. Her initial resourceful idea to get some cash for gas developed into a regular concert activity with her repertoire embracing most diverse music genres, starting from Mamas and the Papas, modern Radiohead up to Billy Joel's classical music. It all lasted until an autumn day in 2003 when 19-years old Gardot was struck by a reckless SUV driver as she was riding her bicycle. The car went through a red light, leaving her lying helplessly on the road...
Having suffered severe injuries to her head, back and pelvis, Melody Gardot discovered healing power of music. It was more than just a casual pastime - in the course of several following years music gradually brought her back to life.
Today, the soul of American jazz star Melody Gardot sings not only pain-ridden broken melodies - she creates music that speaks to one's spirit, stirs emotions and tempts to listen it again and again.
Gardot's fists studio album Worrisome Heart (2008) comprised ten compositions of wistful piano music and amazing lyrics, conveying her painful and touching message.
The second studio album My One and Only Thrill (April 2009) was widely acclaimed and received three Grammy nominations.
The Absence is the third studio album by American jazz singer-songwriter Melody Gardot, released on May 29, 2012. It differs distinctly from her previous discs, her music evidently being influenced by her world travels, especially her last-minute trip to Marrakech and the desert. The singer seems pulling back from her smoky performance and introducing more sensual, rhythmical and exotic tones, under the accompaniment of a small jazz band.
Gardot's music exudes pessimism and hope, passion and lyricism and merges both youthful rhythms of Norah Jones and musical maturity of Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. Clad in dark sunglasses and a satin dress, leaning lightly on her gold-tipped cane, she delivers a performance that brings audience from reverential silence to ecstatic storm of applause.
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Keywords: concert, Strasbourg
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