Melody Gardot

My One and Only Thrill, Melody Gardot's 2009 album, is late-night music of the most intimate kind: a smoky contralto that never raises its voice, and a blend of jazz, blues, bossa nova, folk and pop that sounds unhurried and deeply lived-in. "Who Will Comfort Me" slinks along with a bluesy swing, a jazz-leaning track that still found a place on a rock station's countdown.

Her story is as striking as the music. At 19 the New Jersey singer, born in 1985, was hit by a car and suffered a serious head injury, and music became part of how she recovered, so much so that she has become a committed champion of music therapy, visiting hospitals and universities and, in 2012, putting her name behind a New Jersey music therapy program. The lingering effects are why she often performs seated and in dark sunglasses, keeping sensory overload at bay.

Her first album, Worrisome Heart, had already drawn attention, and she is now widely rated among the finest jazz vocalists of her generation. The Absence, Currency of Man and Sunset in the Blue followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.