Melanie Charles and Axel Tosca Laurgert Live at Shrine- Harlem NY

Melanie Charles sings "Ex-Factor" (Lauryn Hill)  live at Shrine NYC

Woman Of The Ghetto

Woman Of The Ghetto (Reimagined)

Detour Ahead

Detour Ahead (Reimagined)

Beat by:Teppo Mayknen (UK)
Track -Lyrics & Melody written and Produced by D'flower
Flute: Played and Arranged by D'flower

Say No- D'flower

OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzBFopm4EQ8


The Brooklyn based project is introducing their debut EP "GUNS THAT SHOOT BUBBLES". This concept EP blends electronica, soul, hip-hop, indie rock, sprinkled with a hint of Haitian Swag and explores what it means to be a 20-30 something "RAT" looking for love and stability while dealing with rejection and the complexities of family dynamics. 

Daddy Issues

The Lunacy of Not Believing

The New School For Jazz Graduate recruited LA & NY's finest musicians: Donald Barrett, drums; Chris Cadenhead Piano; Brandon Eugene Owens bass; Dave Sampson guitar; Bendji Allonce percussion; and Chris Sorem, engineer and founder of @ Nest Recorders LA for a 6 hour recording session to submit a 5 song audition tape to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Vocal competition 2015. After receiving an unexpected and shocking rejection letter, Melanie decided to flip the loss into an opportunity to share what was submitted to the competition on the exact day the competition is set to happen. This disappointment led Charles to embark on a mission to reclaim and re-position JAZZ. Making it a “life form” for those who are creating art independently from the “corporate jazz museum”.


Damaballa Wedo is a Haitian Voodoo Folk song from the point of view of Damballa and Ayida the two medicinal "Loa" or 'Gods". The songs says that if you do not celebrate these Gods faithfully, when you decide to return, you will cry. Charles interpretation is inspired by an arrangement by guitarist Eddy Bourjolly. This basic mix perfectly displays Melanie’s natural, authentic Jazz aesthetic, mixed in with her edgy Brooklyn personality utilizing her Haitian culture to tie it all together.






Damballa Wedo (SINGLE)

Melanie Charles recruited LA & NY's finest musicians: Donald Barrett, drums; Chris Cadenhead Piano; Brandon Eugene Owens bass; Dave Sampson guitar; Bendji Allonce percussion; and Chris Sorem, engineer and founder of @ Nest Recorders LA for a 6 hour recording session to submit a 5 song audition tape to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Vocal competition 2015. After receiving an unexpected and shocking rejection letter, Melanie decided to flip the loss into an opportunity to share what was submitted to the competition on the exact day the competition is set to happen. This disappointment led Charles to embark on a mission to reclaim and re-position JAZZ. Making it a “life form” for those who are creating art independently from the “corporate jazz museum”.

Damaballa Wedo is a Haitian Voodoo Folk song from the point of view of Damballa and Ayida the two medicinal "Loa" or 'Gods". The songs says that if you do not celebrate these Gods faithfully, when you decide to return, you will cry. Charles interpretation is inspired by an arrangement by guitarist Eddy Bourjolly. This basic mix perfectly displays Melanie’s natural, authentic Jazz aesthetic, mixed in with her edgy Brooklyn personality utilizing her Haitian culture to tie it all together.

Damballa Wedo (extended)

01 Last Night

03 Telephone Interlude Pt. I

04 Unfamiliar

05 Mel + O's Vibe Interlude

06 My Love

08 One In A Million

09 Telephone Interlude Pt. II

I Never Cried Without Tears

11 If You Could See Me Now

B Side
Produced by Swarvy and Melanie Charles
Mixed and Mastered by Swarvy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZgGqlIERTs

2/20/2017

How Glad I Am (B side)

How Glad I Am
Produced by Melanie Charles

2/20/2016

How Glad I Am

Trill Suite No.1 Daydreams and Skylarks 






Charles brainchild Make Jazz Trill Again, traces the Journey of American music and its ties to the Black Diaspora. Re-working Haitian Folk songs to Negro Spirituals, from the Blues to Nancy Wilson and Hugh Masekela. Charles creates a space where tradition meets present time, using SP’s, loop pedals, and flute to blur the lines between  social classes, cultures, genders, and theories to create a world where opposing elements can co-exist.
 
With Trill Suite No.1 Melanie Charles, stretches as an arranger and producer exploring  2 pivotal compositions; Aretha Franklins “Daydreaming” and Hoagy Carmichaels standard “Skylark” .The trifecta of Jonathan Michel on Upright Bass, Luke Carlos O’reilly on Rhodes and Organ, and IGNABU on drums weave throughout Charles soundscape of Sp202 ,303 and flute for a “trill” take on these timeless classics. Co-produced and mixed by Daniel Schlett at Strange Weather Recordings  Mastered by Bae Bro.

Trill Suite No.1 Daydreaming/Skylark

Mixed by Melanie Charles
MAstered by BaeBro


Make Jazz Trill Again

Lamp Is Low (You used to love me Live Bootleg)

Go Away Interlude sketch (ruff)

Although Charles may be new to some, she has held a long spanning relationship with music that goes back to girlhood. She was raised by a Haitian mother in Brooklyn where the sound waves in their home was filled with artists like Johnny Hodges, Frank Sinatra, Chaka Khan, and Nat King Cole. She attended the famed arts high school, LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts where she studied flute and vocals. Her early life was full of stage performances; as a kid she participated in musical theater, pageants, and talent shows in New York City. Eventually, she landed at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School for college where she met artists like alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and others. Perhaps better known as a singer, Charles has earned her title as a bonefide flutist. Her playing adds vibrant swaths of color and emotional texture to her music.

The album opens with a breathtaking rendition of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” This song, and the album overall, flexes Charles’ impressive arrangement skills. The song features a powerful group of musicians—Benjamin Julia on electric guitar, Dezron Douglas on upright bass, Anwar Marshall on drums, Shedrick Mitchell on organ, and Tayzaro on cello. On flute and vocals, Charles floats above the soulful current of the band, singing the song over a dramatic blanket of electronic sound. The lyrics ring with equal power as the music. When Charles sings the lines “Yes, the strong get more/While the weak ones fade,” the connection to black women’s struggle is palpable. “My experience moving in the world as a black girl has always been, I have to be strong. I have to keep it together; I have to sort of live up to the standard,” says Charles.

At its core, Y’all Don’t (Really) Care is a clarion call for a more intersectional vision of the world in which black women can live more freely. The interlude “Pay Black Women” offers the most explicit instruction on some of the ways that care can be expressed. It contains a sample from a film project produced by Charles in 2021 entitled Love Letter to Black Jazz Girls.  Through the voices of three black women, the track draws attention to the racial gender wage gap but also to the treatment of black women artistic producers more broadly.

Melanie Charles is D'flower

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