Waiting for Love and Gardot

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Comedienne and social commentator Sandra Bernhard once wrote, “love is the only shocking act left on the face of the earth.” In contrast to last week’s SWIK post and the sexually explicit music from Peaches and Amanda Blank, which in this day and age is really not all that shocking, Bernhard may have been onto something. Amid the eroticism, the commercialization of sex, and the horrors of the daily news (recession, war, terror, torture, starvation etc.) an act of love may, in fact, be truly shocking. This weekend, I was thinking about love. No, I haven’t met a new man. But autumn is the time that I most want to be in love. It’s my favorite season. I like the colors and the crisp, cool air that tells us winter is coming. I find the season romantic. Maybe it’s because many of my relationships began in the fall? Or it’s that When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite romantic comedies? Whatever. As fall comes to a close and the weather gets a little colder, the season evokes the kind of love that warms you inside. Comfortable, but still sexy. My sentiments about love and the season are captured in Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version of “Autumn in New York.” I’ve been waiting to find more songs like this and have finally found a slew of them in Melody Gardot. She captures what sounds like love, or at least a wonderful love affair, on her latest album, My One and Only Thrill. Perhaps this is the beginning of something shocking?



I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to include Melody Gardot here. Another of my music-pushers, Nowell, introduced me to her several months ago. Nowell is married to one of my best friends, Sadie, who I went to Montreal with a few weeks ago (See North of the Border post). Not only are they two of my favorite individuals, they are one of my favorite couples. They were married in Tuscany several years ago. What’s not romantic about Italy? I find it amusing, and appropriate, that I discovered this amazing songstress from them.




A quick background on Gardot. Although she’s been singing since she was a child and is a classically trained pianist, it was a severe car accident that led her to songwriting and eventually recording albums. At 19 Gardot was hit by a SUV while riding her bike in Philadelphia. She ended up in the hospital for more than a year. She couldn’t sit at a piano so she learned to play guitar. Music therapy helped her overcome the injuries and to communicate. Gardot continues to suffer short-term memory loss. She uses a cane for stability and wears sunglasses due to extreme light sensitivity. Her recovery and the resulting music are incredible and, for me, only further attest to the power of music.

My One and Only Thrill is Gardot’s second album. Her first, Worrisome Heart, was released in 2008. Gardot’s voice is deep and sultry. She’s been compared to Julie London, Peggy Lee, and even Judy Garland, but I find her husky vocals more akin to Astrud or Bebel Gilberto (see post) or even Chryssie Hynde of the Pretenders (if she sang jazz). Gardot’s songs are warm and slightly haunting. They took me down memory lane and led me to sift through my love affairs. Even though none of them lasted, most were wonderful at the time. Some of these men broke my heart, although I’m not blameless. I may have left some battle scars along the way. No matter. The past is past and somehow with time we all mange to recover.


Gardot’s songs aren’t sad. They may be tinged with pain, but they also capture all the good feelings about a love affair. I realized that I have a fondness for most of my past relationships and, in the end, at least I learned something. Gardot’s music has me smiling about the past and reminds me, in what may be a shocking revelation, that there is still love to find.

Gardot’s song “Your Heart is as Black as Night” brings me back to one of my first love affairs and I can recognize how far I’ve come. At the time it felt like love, but the reality was a dramatic love affair with a very difficult man. In the end, I realized he wasn’t going to change and I finally moved on. The sound here is eerie, yet sexy. Exactly the sentiments that drew me in to that relationship.

The title track from the album, "My One and only Thrill” captures a different feeling. When you’re with someone and the conversation is so amazing that everything around you falls away. A good kiss can do this, but a good conversation seems to be more difficult to find. This song brought me back to a different love affair, someone I dated on and off for about 15 years. Although we didn’t spend much time in the same country, every moment that we were together he made me feel like the most beautiful and amazing woman on earth. Gardot’s music slips right over you in the way that great conversation does and everything else falls away. It was from this man that I learned what it felt like to be someone’s one and only thrill, even if only for a few weeks at time.

Gardot seems to have a song for every kind of love affair. We’ve all had the one that was purely physical, captured here in “Lover Undercover.” While she may be referring to something a bit more illicit, this song reminds of an affair that was spent merely wrapped in someone’s arms. Maybe there wasn’t enough conversation to be become a relationship of any sort? Although we talked about dating, and wondered why we didn’t take the step and actually date, neither of us made the effort and we never asked for anything more.

One of my favorites on the album “Baby I’m A Fool” reminds me of my most recent love affair. The guy I thought for a brief moment was "the" guy. It included wonderful conversation, laughter, as well as all the usual good stuff. Although it didn’t work, it reminded me that love is out there, waiting. At the time that was all I needed.

There are many more men, many more affairs, and many more songs on Gardot’s album that articulate them. She captures those exciting moments when you first fall in love (“If The Stars Were Mine”). Her music is soothing and comfortable like familiarity that comes with loving someone for a long time (“Our Love Is Easy”). I wouldn’t call the album romantic, but I might call it love. The best part of love, the love affair. Occasionally tinged with pain, but mainly soothing and sultry.

So is love the only shocking act left on the face of the earth? Very little shocks me these days, so I would say yes. I can’t help but admire, and maybe even be a little awed, by those who have found love and managed to keep it going for years, through marriage, children, illness, career changes, and all the regular crap that makes life challenging.

For some of us, the shocking thing may be that despite the fact that we haven’t found love, we still look for it, believe in it, wait patiently for it, and eagerly embrace the next love affair. To the doubters and disbelievers, who aren’t shocked by the act of love, I’ll quote Gardot, “I would never tell, if you became a fool, and fell in love.”