2023-07-03 01:27:50
The refined elegance of Melody Gardot radiated in the public of the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of the Place des Arts, Sunday evening, for her first concert at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.
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Her sunglasses on her nose, she simply appeared on the stage to sing a song for the occasion, You Won’t Forget Me. The premise of a grand evening.
A solid orchestra accompanied the golden voice of Melody Gardot, which she wanted to present to the public from the start. We found there the magnificent Philippe Powell on piano, Irwin Hall on saxophone and flute, Christopher Thomas on bass, Chuck Staab on drums, Jorge Bezerra on percussion and a string ensemble of eleven musicians, led by Jean-Michel Malouf .
His success Love Song resonated in the room, magnified by the sax of Irwin Hall, before continuing with the classic That’s wonderfulstill as effective.
The strings then launched the first bars of Our Love Is Easy, Melody Gardot embarked with her sublime voice. The timing was so perfect that the audience hanging on their lips didn’t realize the song was over. “That’s it“, she launched, before loud applause rang out.
Brazilian influences
After giving way to Philippe Powell, with whom she has just recorded a four-track EP, for an instrumental piece enriched by Jorge Bezerra’s brilliant percussion, Melody Gardot returned to the stage to perform This Foolish Heart Could Love Youand continued in duet with his pianist with Samba In Prelude [Un jour sans toi], a song composed by Baden Powell, Philippe’s father, and Pierre Barouh. A real moment of grace.
The 38-year-old grande dame of jazz continued the evening with wandering hearthis great success The starswarmly applauded by the public, From Paris With Loveto end, seated at the piano, with a song from her debut, My One and Only Thrill.
Nice discovery
Opening the evening, Mathew V, originally from British Columbia, came to entertain the audience with his succulent covers of great standards. Accompanied by a pianist, he immediately immersed himself in a cover of The Man I Loved’Ella Fitzgerald.
“I am very happy to be in Montreal, one of the cities I love the most in the world,” he added before continuing with Anything Goeswhich is also the title of his new album, on which he reinterprets with his soulful voice the great classics of American jazz, adding a queer nod to them.
His interpretation of Georgia On My Mind was splendid, with an original sensibility.
July 2 being the day of his birth, the public sang him an impromptu happy birthday. Very talkative after each song, the singer is also sympathetic and comical. Due to several diverted flights due to thunderstorms the day before, the singer almost never arrived for the concert. In desperation, he resigned himself to traveling between Hamilton (Ontario) and Montreal by night bus.
He finally interpreted with great sensitivity Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)by Cher, which was notably taken over by Frank Sinatra, before ending with the magnificent Moon River.
Melody Gardot will be in overtime, Monday, July 3 at 7 p.m., at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, with Laura Anglade and Sam Kirmayer in the first part.
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