It’s time for me to get to my 2-Year Meme! Juliet recommended Melody Gardot’s album Worrisom Heart. She’s a fellow Jersey girl and like me, she bears little resemblance to the stereotype. After a serious accident, Gardot picked up a guitar, using music to aid in her therapy. The Washington Post review describes her as from a “generation of young women who are combining the elastic phrasing and harmonic sophistication of jazz with the personal lyrics of singer-songwriter folk.” If you enjoy kicking back on a comfy couch with a glass of wine and a fire to listen to the silky stylings of Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong, you will enjoy Gardot.

My idea with this meme was to identify some of the art that readers of this blog are interested in; art that transcends genre was my highest hope. I enjoyed listening to Gardot, but I have to admit to having no connection to jazz. I’ve tried and tried, but it doesn’t speak to me. 

In early November, I attended the Sheffield Doc/Fest and was asked to moderate Q&A for a new film, The Jazz Baroness by Hannah Rothchild. The film delves into the story of her great aunt, Pannonica Rothchild, an heiress who left her family and fortune in England to become a patron to Thelonius Monk and his compatriots in the NYC jazz scene. When I watched the film, it seemed like a rather standard bit of biographical/historical fare. But the as the lights came up and folks started to chat with the director, it was obvious that for those who had an interest in the subject, the movie clearly connected on a deeper level. Hannah’s last memory of her aunt was in a smoky basement bar listening to the music she loved so much. I’d like to have the experience of falling into this music. I hope it is like eating mushrooms or onions; it takes time for the taste to develop, but once it does, you can’t imagine how you were so stupid as to not like them in the first place.