11 March 2009 (gig)
12 March 2009
Melody Gardot possesses a voice that is both entrancing and that pleads for a kind and gentle ear. She writes songs that draw the listener in to them in such a way that you emerge, blinking, into the light when ‘she’ has decided to let you go. And last night she almost blew the show at the Union Chapel by letting the best things about her be overshadowed by a string section that was simply too loud and too intrusive.
Her music is made for a small, smoky jazz club and I was lucky enough to experience Ms Gardot last year at the Bloomsbury theatre where the intimacy between the performer and the individual members of the audience was almost palpable.
She achieved this a few times last night when she played without the benefit of the string section and when she allowed her voice to play through but too often, mainly on the new material, the eight piece orchestra took all of the attention away from her and broke the mood.
Of course there were some complete triumphs – ‘Les Etoiles’ was magical and ‘Goodnight’ had the audience clicking their fingers with her, rapt in the moment, but ‘Baby I’m A Fool’ should have been magnificent except that her vocals were lost behind the strings.
Maybe put it down to trying to do something different – I will never castigate an artist for trying to progress – but the best moments were when she played to her strengths; those moments were absolutely 5 star. Overall this was a good rather than a great night but my guess is that this lady will only go on from here to triumphs and I hope that I can be there to enjoy them.
