Melody Gardot – Sunset In The Blue (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:32 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca (UMO)
Sunset in the Blue is an orchestral celebration of her jazz roots. She is reunited with the multi-Grammy award winning production team of her platinum-selling album My One and Only Thrill: Producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock), arranger and composer Vince Mendoza ((Björk, Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello) and the legendary engineer Al Schmitt (Frank Sinatra, Joao Gilberto, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney).
An underlying theme of determination to create and evolve her craft has always been present in Melody Gardot’s work but never more so than during the production of Sunset in the Blue, despite all obstacles she has assembled a stunning new body of collaborations in this most challenging of times.
In 2015, Melody Gardot stepped out of her comfort zone with Currency of Man, an album which suited her entirely but displayed a more soul’n’blues side. That is not to say that her brilliant past efforts were not in keeping with her musical personality, but it was with this record that she confirmed her love for Philadelphia, the town in which she grew up and where groove holds a different meaning. Five years later, Sunset in the Blue holds all the hallmarks of a return to the singer’s old days which made Melody Gardot’s name. The album is a stripped-back approach to jazz and bossa-nova as imposed by the unexpected circumstances of the year 2020. When the album was beginning development, the pandemic brought a halt to everything an forced the American to rethink the project. She hence proposed that her associates, spread out all over the world, work from a distance. Melody Gardot was based in Paris, her arranger and conductor Vince Mendoza in Los Angeles and the majority of her musicians in England! Despite these constraints, the miracle record was on course for creation which would span a period of roughly five months. And so, Mendoza found himself conducting on-screen from California with musicians playing in London’s Abbey Road Studios (things weren’t made any easier considering the various time-differences). In addition to Mendoza, Melody Grant recruited a set of silky smooth sound connoisseurs who were also instrumental in the success of 2009’s My One and Only Thrill: the producer Larry Klein and sound engineer Al Schmitt.
Upon listening to the end result, however, we soon forget the last-minute DIY means with which this album was made. Because throughout Sunset in the Blue, Melody Gardot maintains a fascinatingly solid and intimate direction. Here we see a return to Gardot whispering hypnotically into the ear as she sings amid intermittent piano phrases and guitars. Her voice gracefully lounges upon a bed of refined and perfectly balanced violin strings. This formula reaches an irresistible climax with the album’s title track as she turns to her much-loved Brazil with tracks like Ninguém, Ninguém and Um Beljo, before she returns to the exquisite-sounding Moon River and I Fall in Love too Easily. A beautiful album which finishes with a somewhat intrusive track, Little Something, a pop duet with Sting that doesn’t really fit in with Sunset in the Blue’s general mood. – Marc Zisman
Tracklist:
01. Melody Gardot – If You Love Me (04:35)
02. Melody Gardot, António Zambujo – C’est Magnifique (04:52)
03. Melody Gardot – There Where He Lives In Me (05:49)
04. Melody Gardot – Love Song (03:58)
05. Melody Gardot – You Won’t Forget Me (06:05)
06. Melody Gardot – Sunset In The Blue (04:32)
07. Melody Gardot – Um Beijo (04:06)
08. Melody Gardot – Ninguém, Ninguém (03:38)
09. Melody Gardot – From Paris With Love (Single Version) (04:47)
10. Melody Gardot – Ave Maria (04:27)
11. Melody Gardot – Moon River (03:48)
12. Melody Gardot – I Fall In Love Too Easily (03:09)
13. Melody Gardot, Sting – Little Something (02:41)
