Description
Melody Gardot’s hallmark is intimacy and storytelling. Stylistically, she fuses the naked, febrile emotion of Parisian chanteuse Edith Piaf with the cool coquettish artifice of Peggy Lee and comes up with a unique sound defined by a hushed, torch-song-like delivery complete with a tremulous vibrato. Her approach is often decidedly low key but it’s also high on emotion. Over the course of four studio albums for Decca Records – Worrisome Heart (2008), My One & Only Thrill (2009), The Absence(2012) and Currency Of Man (2015), where she explored jazz, blues, world music, soul and gospel – Melody Gardot has carved a unique niche for herself as a singer and performer. And she’s scored some hit singles along the way (‘Worrisome Heart’, ‘Who Will Comfort Me’, ‘Baby I’m A Fool’) and also accrued a big fanbase in Europe, where’s she’s racked up several Gold and Platinum albums.
It perhaps fitting, then, given the acclaim she’s enjoyed on the continent, that her latest opus presents a clutch of songs recorded on tour there between the years 2012 to 2016, in locations that range from Barcelona and Lisbon to Paris, Utrecht, Amsterdam and London. This is not the first time that the Philadelphia-raised singer has released live recordings – as two EPs, Live In Soho (2009) and Live In Paris (2010) – both attest, but Live In Europe, a double-CD and triple-LP collection comprising 17 tracks, is her first full live album.
