album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Jazz / orchestral jazz / bossa nova / torch song / contemporary jazz. Sunset in the Blue is the fifth studio album by Melody Gardot (born Sarah Melody Gardot, Philadelphia, 1985), the American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose career has been built around an intimate, nuanced vocal style rooted in jazz and blues. The album was conceived as an orchestral celebration of her jazz roots, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Studio One at Abbey Road Studios, London — the first recording session in that space after its 90-year closure during the COVID-19 lockdown. Gardot herself joined the session remotely from Paris, alongside her long-time producer Larry Klein participating from Los Angeles — both visible on large screens as they communicated with the engineers and musicians. The album mixes originals and standards, features Donny McCaslin on tenor saxophone and Till Brönner on trumpet, and includes the bonus track 'Little Something', a Latin-inflected duet with Sting, co-written with Sting's guitarist Dominic Miller. For 'From Paris with Love', Gardot invited unemployed musicians from around the world — USA, Armenia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Norway — to record their parts at home and send them electronically; she insisted they be paid UK studio union rates. Arranger Vince Mendoza, a four-time Grammy winner, provided the orchestral arrangements.
Label: Decca Records (Universal Music), released 23 October 2020.
Producer: Larry Klein.
Recording studios: Abbey Road Studios (Studio One), London, UK (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra sessions); additional recordings in the USA and Europe. Engineers: Al Schmitt and Steve Genewick (primary); Frédéric Deces and Stan Neff (additional). Orchestral recording: Andrew Dudman, Liam Nolan, Rupert Coulson, Simon Rhodes, Zach Pyles.
Critical reception: Sunset in the Blue was received with warmth and admiration. AllMusic's Matt Collar wrote that it 'holds you in its deeply rapturous glow', praising the 'production dream team' around Gardot. The Arts Desk described it as 'a real joy — a transport of delight to dappled squares in Paris or Lisbon.' The Sunday Times called it 'torrid torch-song mode with nine of her most swoonsome performances.' The critic at musicOMH praised the technical achievement: 'Listening to it, you'd swear that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were in the same studio as Gardot, rather than virtually accompanying her.'
Commercial success: Sunset in the Blue was a strong seller across Europe, particularly in France, where Gardot has a devoted following, and in Japan, where a bonus-track edition was released. A deluxe edition with five additional tracks followed in April 2021. The album demonstrated Gardot's ability to connect emotionally with a mainstream audience during a period of unprecedented global disruption.
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