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Melody Gardot in concert she's in Seattle 6/19

Melody Gardot played Portland's Aladdin Theater last night, and her performance was nothing less than jaw-dropping. I've been a fan since hearing two cuts from her album in a New Years Eve countdown of the year's best releases on Portland's KMHD, but nothing could have prepared me for the power of her live performance. Twelve or fifteen songs from her two releases, most of which were done in a completely different style from the albums, and a band--drummer, bass, and a sax/flute player--with an astonishing range. THE most remarkable combination of vocal talent and songwriting ability that I've yet enountered.

Waiting for my wife outside the theater after the concert, I watched people come out of the theater in near disbelief: did we just hear that? Most concerts you come of of, people are talking afterward about where to go for a drink. The people I saw were all talking rapturously about the performance they'd just seen. Seattleites out there, do yourself a favor and get to the Moore Theater tonight. I'm sorely tempted to get on the road and see her a second time.
stewie
stewie OP
187 posts
 
BTV,
Thanks for the additional recommendations. I like the younger crowd too. I'm also mightily impressed by the stuff coming out of eastern Europe and the netherlands that's recorded on ECM. I know that the likes of Diana Krall and Wynton Marsalis are immense talents, but I don't find myself going back to their music much.
btv_jazz
8 posts
 
See the review here.

It's not a particularly good one, but it confirms that Irwin Hall was the sax player that night.
btv_jazz
8 posts
 
From Stewie:
Twelve or fifteen songs from her two releases, most of which were done in a completely different style from the albums, and a band--drummer, bass, and a sax/flute player--with an astonishing range.
If you haven't seen the following two videos before, you really should see them now. The supporting players, again, are two young musicians in their twenties, from the U.K. and Germany (I think), who have also joined Melody on several of her spring 2010 dates.

"Get Out Of Town" and "I Love Paris" at Olympia (Paris)
"La Chanson des Vieux Amants" (Jacques Brel) at Olympia (Paris)

In April she also did a somewhat different arrangement of Cole Porter's 'Get Out of Town' for a BBC Four Sessions program in London, accompanied by a guitarist and Irwin Hall on sax. This performance was on YouTube for a while, but has since been removed.

Perhaps some of these covers will appear on her next album, on which she has apparently begun working (according to a couple of her posts on Twitter).
btv_jazz
8 posts
 
See this article, currently online at Elle.com (but probably not for long). It dwells much more on the accident and its consequences, and her rather mysterious history prior to it, than the music. That said, it is quite well-written and seems to be more carefully researched than usual.

(Note: "Melody Gardot" turns out to be an adopted name.)
stewie OP
187 posts
 
Interesting article, and one does get the sense, seeing her live, of young woman, of immense talent, playing a role: the stilt-high heels, allusions to a trail of men, the air of European sophistication. If you look at some of her earliest clips, you see someone whose demeanor was like Eva Cassidy's. The comparison to Dylan in that regard seems perfectly apt. And the role works, too, especially since there's just a smidgen of irony about the whole thing.
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