It is not easy to welcome a young artist who has not yet achieved an international fame at the Olympia, Paris. Next month, Jazz fans will have the chance to attend two concerts for Melody Gardot, who, two years ago, performed on less prestigious theaters in the French capital, where she created a wide circle of fans around her. Perhaps this explains why her concerts’ tickets have been sold out once they were put on sale.
As jazz has been associated with strong voices of black singers, Melody's "humming" sets her in what might be called the white jazz. However, the New Jersey-born singer does not hum intentionally, but because she had an accident that deprived her for years from the ability to concentrate and speak.
In 2003, Melody was a young teenager riding her bike when she was hit by a car that caused her a concussion and kept her in the hospital for a year. Gardot affirms that music therapy has been effective in her recovery. And because the fractures in her back prevented her from sitting steadily in the hospital bed, her mother brought her a guitar so she can support her back and play on it. Since she was a piano player, she used the guitar’s strings like keys before she learned to play them correctly. In the injury bed, she composed her first songs and then tried to market them in a CD entitled "Some Lessons". Since then, Melody has moved forward with ambition and desire to compensate what she missed, without finding the courage to reveal her eyes. She keeps them hidden behind black glasses.
She debuted her journey singing in Philadelphia clubs, and local radio stations began to broadcast her songs, which encouraged her to release a CD entitled "Worrisome Heart." At first she mixed Jazz and Country Music, and then performed the songs of Billy Holiday, Judy Garland and Bessie Smith, which draw the attention of producer Larry Klein, who produced her second CD "My One and Only Thrill ". The album included the song “Who Will Comfort Me" which saw a great success and marked a place on the top 10 songs list.
Two years ago, Melody visited Paris and fell in love with the city so she decided to settle there. Standing on the "Olympia" theater remained her dream until she finally fulfilled it. In an interview with a French television, the American singer spoke in fluent French and explained what caused the bike accident and its impact on her speech capacities. It was a happy disability, that in some ways, made her sing with a throaty humming that has become her special voice print and the key to her success.
Melody didn’t only perform in Paris, but, she toured the cities of Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg and Orleans. Today, when she wanders through the flower market, in the center of the capital, and buys her daily bread, she looks like any Parisian girl from the city, who loves the hidden and mysterious look behind the black glasses.
