Picture from interviewmagazine.com
We often hear of stories from rags to riches, from the garage to the world stage, from musicians who have made a big impact in the world of audible art. Yet rarely do I come across an artist as inspirational to me as Melody Gardot.
Melody was born in New Jersey in 1985 and was largely raised by her Polish-immigrant grandparents. Her mother worked as a traveling photographer and they moved around frequently, often having only the possessions in her suitcase to live off of. She graduated from the Community College of Philadelphia with a degree in fashion. In 2003, when she was about 18 years old, she was hit by a Jeep while riding her bike in Philadelphia. She suffered severe damage to her brain and spinal column, as well as her pelvis being broken in two separate locations. She stayed in the hospital for about a year.
Her vision became highly sensitive, which required her to wear sunglasses at all times. Her short-term and long-term memories were in shambles as she often wakes up without any sense of time or purpose. Simple tasks such as talking and walking became extremely difficult for her due to the nervous system damage. However even with these major hindrances, Melody started to compose songs, particularly ones dealing with her experiences and pains. As thoughts turned into hums and hums into songs, Melody started to write songs not only to help her rehabilitation, but for her love of music. To this day Melody still requires physiotherapy and a cane to walk.
Today Melody is a Grammy-nominated singer and a recipient of the VSA International Young Soloist Award and she is constantly trying to evolve her sound into something even more sublime.
Melody’s music has a lot of various influences. Like George Gershwin and Stan Getz, her music has often has a very integral, emotional, and smooth string ensemble accompaniment (not to mention the other jazz instruments are used to great effects as well.) Also in her music is an element of the blues; a very down-toned, sorrowful, and realistic outcry to the world for its misfortunes. To me she is similar to Frank Sinatra in that her range is relatively diverse and her strong yet mellow and soft timbre resonates across to the listener a profound depth of emotions. For any lovers of jazz, easy listening, or if you are just curious about her unique voice visit her website at http://www.melodygardot.com/
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