Melody Gardot (born February 2, 1985) is a Philadelphia-based jazz singer and musical therapist advocate.
In November 2003, while riding her bicycle around Philadelphia, Gardot was struck by an SUV, suffering severe head, spinal, and pelvic injuries. Confined to a hospital bed for a year, she needed to relearn simple tasks and was left over sensitive to light and sound. Suffering from short and long-term memory loss, she struggled with her sense of time.
Encouraged by a physician who believed music would help heal her brain, Gardot learned to hum, then to sing into a tape recorder, and eventually to write songs. She had played in Philadelphia piano bars while studying fashion at the city’s Community College, but the accident triggered a previously hidden songwriting talent.
Given her oversensitivity to sound, she chose quieter music. On the treadmill, she listened to bossa nova by Stan Getz, specifically "The Girl from Ipanema". Unable to sit comfortably at the piano, she learned to play guitar on her back. Her debut EP, Some Lessons (2005), was recorded bedside while Gardot was still recovering from her injuries. Her full-length debut, Worrisome Heart, was recorded with producer Glenn Barratt and released independently at the end of 2006. The album was praised by critics, and brought Gardot to the attention of Verve Records, under whom she released a slightly altered version of Worrisome Heart in 2008, and her second album My One and Only Thrill in 2009.
Gardot released her next four albums, The Absence (2012), Currency of Man (2015), Sunset in the Blue (2020), and Entre eux deux (2022) under Decca Records.
Gardot is an advocate of music therapy, she visits hospitals and universities to discuss its benefits. In 2012, she gave her name to a music therapy program in New Jersey.
References
(2009). Gardot Melody. In C. Larkin (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4 ed.). Oxford University Press.albums by Melody Gardot
Songs by Melody Gardot
