The shift to streaming has turned best-of packages into relics of another age, I suppose, as the services rely on algorithms to create hit-laden playlists for mosts artists. Apple Music has three for jazz chanteuse Melody Gardot, for example: The Essentials, Love Songs and Chill. And then there’s the on-the-fly “hey Siri, play [insert artist/band name here]” mixes that somehow include the same track several times due to its inclusion on various collections. Yet there’s something to be said for a carefully curated set—and the recent resurgence in record sales has provided artists and labels alike an excuse to pluck such songs from the great library in the sky and press them to vinyl.
The two-LP Essential Melody Gardot, which was released to streaming on Friday but won’t see its vinyl version reach fans until December 13, contains 25 tracks that she selected herself. The cuts span her six studio albums, from Worrisome Heart in 2007 to Entre eux deux in 2022, and include remixes, live recordings, and two previously unreleased tracks. It’s a throwback, to an extent, but a throwback well worth many listens. It’s a great set.
I’m sure some reading this will be, “Melody who?” For the uninitiated, she’s a jazz artiste who, long ago, played piano bars on the side while studying fashion at the Community College of Philadelphia. One day, while riding her bike, she was seriously injured when an SUV slammed into her. She was 19. The resulting head trauma left her with memory loss, time dysphoria, and sensitivities to light and sound, while her spinal and pelvic injuries meant she was confined to a hospital bed for a year. Somewhere in there, a doctor suggested music therapy to rebuild the neural pathways in her brain. Music therapy soon morphed into music as art and, by 2005, she self-released an EP and began playing Philly-area clubs.
I recount my introduction to her music (and share select songs) here, and recall the first time Diane and I saw her in concert here. She is a riveting live performer, by the way, with her dulcet tones filling both the heart and hall. She’s also an artist who rarely replicates past works. The sparse Worrisome Heart led to the noir-laden My One and Only Thrill, which in turn gave way to the Coimbra-flavored fado found on The Absence, before jumping feet-first into sinewy R&B with The Currency of Man.
This collection gathers not just the best of the best, but also the best of the rest. It opens with two standouts from My One and Only Thrill—“Baby I’m a Fool” and “If The Stars Were Mine”—and goes on to mix-and-match moods and musings in mesmerizing fashion. Among the treats are covers of “Over the Rainbow,” “La Vie en rose,” “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Moon River,” plus Lesley Duncan’s “Love Song,” which is likely best known for the version found on Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection. Gardot’s originals are equally luminous, while the two previously unreleased tracks (“First Song” and “La Llorona”) are enchantments pressed to wax.
The tracks:
The Old Grey Cat 