Melusina carries a curse from childhood, transforming into a breathtaking creature each Saturday. Sometimes she’s a monster, sometimes a remarkable being—half woman, half serpent. When the weekend arrives, Melusina retreats from sight, guarding her secret away from her husband and the world. This secret remains hers alone, a private pact. Yet jealousy gnaws at the husband, and his breach of trust leads him to spy on her one Saturday. Discovering the truth, Melusina’s response is swift and radical, and she escapes by shifting into a flying dragon, leaving behind the life she has known.
The tale of Melusine moved across medieval Europe in the 12th century and now fuels the imagination of a bold artist of the present era. When the Florida-born singer first stepped into the limelight in 2010, her vocal command and storytelling prowess suggested she might become jazz’s next emblem. She quickly earned multiple Grammys and drew critical notice for a voice that can bend genres and carve out new spaces. Her latest project, Mélusine, advances this curiosity—an album that probes fear, desire, and transformation with fearless audacity. What revelations does Mélusine hold for listeners today?
Identity, desire and power
McLorin Salvant’s sixth studio work traverses centuries, continents, and cultures as if they were threads of a single tapestry. It reorders data and uncovers unlikely connections, suggesting a self that can be rewritten. The artist speaks through a persona that transforms herself, echoing a Renaissance mood even as it aligns with modern introspection. The project raises cryptic questions about who we are, what we want, and how power is negotiated within intimate bonds.
For the first time in her career, the artist sings largely in French, embracing her maternal language while weaving in moments of English. On the maternal side lies Occitan, spoken in family circles, and on the paternal side Haitian Creole—an echo of heritage threaded through her music. Mélusine blends covers with original compositions, drawing from eras long past and voices that might belong to yesterday or tomorrow. A melancholic Aragon poem, Live Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent?, sits alongside a seven-step energy that recalls a vintage, futuristic rock opera. The result is a playful, yet purposeful collage where genres blur and time folds in on itself.
Mélusine begins in a familiar musical language: a warm, intimate vocal line supported by piano, double bass, drums, and percussion. It feels grounded, safe, almost like a conversation you’ve had before. As the album unfolds, the soundscape grows strange and enveloping. The familiar instruments yield to ghostly keyboards and textures that thicken, then dissipate, revealing something almost human again. It feels as if the legend—Melusina—stirs within the performer, reminding listeners that myths can be mirrors. The work invites a reflection on how stories we tell ourselves shape who we are, and how identity can be a continuous, evolving performance.
Throughout Mélusine, the artist explores the delicate balance between outward poise and inner transformation. The music moves from recognizable, comforting pathways into uncharted territories where time, language, and genre interplay with myth. The narrative voice remains intimate and human even as the mythic current broadens, suggesting that legends endure because they illuminate parts of the human condition we all recognize—secrets we guard, powers we discover, and choices that define us.