Biography

Melanie Charles is a Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter, actress, and flutist of Haitian descent with creative fluidity spanning jazz, soul, experimental, and Haitian roots music. The Village Voice has described Charles’ myriad talents as “Collaging her musical DNA into jazz-studded multi-instrumentalism and dipping a toe into the experimental [...] There’s an uncanny cohesion to Charles’ music, her wandering threads braided into something strong as rope.” She is a graduate of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and has worked with Jazz Giants; Herlin Riley, Ellis Marsalis, Pedrito Gonzales, ELEW, hip-hop legend Jean Grae, SZA, and Jussie Smollet of Fox’s EMPIRE, with appearances on Good Morning America and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In April 2017, Charles collaborated with the Gorillaz on their latest album, "Humanz.” Charles has strong ties to her Haitian culture, and has been acknowledged by author Ralph Boncy and the Haitian Jazz Foundation as one of the most important women in Haitian music. With all of these accolades under her belt, Charles, under the moniker D’flower, now embarks on a solo experience using Roland SPs, loop pedals, and the flute to create a Chaka Khan meets Badu-esque "sonic collage" fusing RnB, jazz, samples and Haitian folk songs. This project aims to blur the lines between social classes, cultures, genders, genres, and theories to create a world where opposing elements can co-exist.