MELANIE CHARLES

BLUE NOTE / MARCH 10 & 24

Melanie Jean-Baptiste Charles has Haitian ancestry, and it has served her spectacularly well as she mines the evocative spirituality of Vodou, melding its deepest mysticism into the realm of heartfelt, deep song of the blues, the rippling rhythms of jazz and the pulsations of rhythm & blues. Anyone who viewed her iconic broadcast on her NPR Tiny Desk concert would have been held breathless by her ability to scat and vocalize in patois, French and English, improvising with elegance as she invented melodic lines with inspired rhymes, harmonizing it all in an ambient electronic palette. That concert featured Melanie on flute; her younger brother, saxophonist Rogers; bassist Jonathan Michel, and drummer Diego Ramirez on drums. With any luck, we’ll get to hear this band at the Blue Note too. RDG