Melody Gardot concert review

Melody Gardot

Last night I went to see jazz singer Melody Gardot and her band at the EnWave Theatre at Harbourfront. The show was very entertaining as Melody is a very engaging performer. So she comes out on stage in this little black dress slit up to her hip wearing these ridiculously high heels especially when you consider that she still walks with a cane. She plays piano, acoustic and electric guitar and also sings just with the microphone. On her CDs, she mostly performs her own songs like Les Etoils. She does perform some of those live but like most jazz singers, she also enjoys singing standards like Summertime and Caravan and even includes snippets of songs in her act. When a cellphone rang in the audience, she had some fun with it and teased the guy for having a lame ringtone. The bonus for this show is Melody's band was led by the internationally renowned bassist Charnett Moffett. Moffett started out in high school 25 years ago when he joined Wynton Marsalis' band at age 18. Since then, he's been one of the most in demand musicians in jazz and has played with just about everyone in the business. He leads his own band and Melody said that they met in a Tokyo elevator when both were on tour. His latest CD Treasure was released recently. Irwin Hall was the sax player on that album so Moffett brought him on this tour. Hall plays tenor sax, alto sax, flute and clarinet and he even channeled Rahsaan Roland Kirk by playing two instruments at once. Though Melody never identified the drummer, I think he is Charles Staab and he has worked with her for a couple of years. The band was a lot of fun to watch. The concert was enjoyable anyway but I certainly wasn't expecting Charnett Moffett to be in the band. That just adds that little bit of extra sauce. If you have the opportunity to see Melody Gardot in your town, be sure to check her out.