One of the most important figures in the international contemporary jazz scene, Melody Gardot, will come to Athens this summer to perfom a concert on July 12 at Herodeion as part of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival.
This is an artist who keeps the sense of old melodic jazz cool, balancing between soul, bossa and blues, taking each time the special interpretive character that she gives to her music.
Melody Gardot, at the start of her career after a terrible accident that essentially caused her to make a second start in life, in the first decade of the 21st century became a distinctive new American singer, pianist and guitarist with elements of old school jazz.
Today she has a great and special position in jazz by writing and presenting mainly her own music and her own songs, keeping within them all the tradition that can characterise the broad and creative art of a Nina Simone or a Joni Mitchell.
Born in 1985 in New Jersey, Melody Gardot began her relationship with music early while living in Philadelphia and learning the piano, which she put to use in her teenage years by playing a special mix of jazz, blues and rock songs in local clubs.
Unfortunately, at the age of 19, a car hit her bike and she ended up in the hospital for a whole year, having escaped with her life but with serious problems to deal with – and she dealt with them with both physiotherapy and... music therapy!
The accident left her with a special photosensitivity and sound sensitivity that made her wear dark glasses ever since. This has now become a component of her style.
In 2009, 'My One and Only Thrill' made Melody Gardot famous worldwide as a new voice and a fresh presence in the world of jazz and pop-jazz giving her the ticket to a major international career.
The combination of the appearance reminiscent of a star of the 40s, the sunglasses that protect her sensitive eyes, her fragile health, her soulful interpretations, her jazz, helps make up one of the most sui generis personas in modern music.
It is no coincidence that that the world's jazz publications deify her while the French "Jazzman" compares her to a David Lynch heroine.
In 2022 came her creative collaboration with Philippe Baden Powell who, although bearing the heavy surname of the legendary Brazilian guitarist, has an independent compositional and interpretive talent that is perfectly reflected in their joint album "Entre Eux Deux".
With Melody Gardot in tracks, they have written together - plus a Francis Lai cover of a piece from Claude Lelouch's A Man and a Woman - which retain all the beauty and charm of the classic.
Tickets are on sale HERE.
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