Word: dreamland
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...Holiday, but, of course, she's not. Her name is Madeleine Peyroux. She is a 22-year-old American ex-expatriate who had been living in Paris, singing in the streets for money, but recently returned to the U.S. to pursue a more mainstream singing career. Her debut album, Dreamland (Atlantic), just out, is a bewitching blend of jazz, folk and blues--as well as the most exciting, involving vocal performance by a new singer this year. Peyroux's days of needing to play in the streets for cash are probably over...
...vocals on Dreamland are immediately arresting. Like Holiday, Peyroux has a bittersweet, brokenhearted alto; she lingers and slides off notes, finding emotion in the slow, sad fade rather than the obvious vocal burst. "When I first heard [Peyroux], I thought, 'Hmmm--this is fascinating,'" says Cyrus Chestnut, an acclaimed young pianist who plays on Dreamland. "A lot of singers do Billie imitations, but this was something completely different. It didn't sound contrived. She had the nuances, the huskiness down. And she has her own story to tell: with her voice, her heart, her spirit...
...Dreamland shows that Peyroux is more than a vocal Ouija board. On the very first track she stretches beyond jazz with a patient, deeply pleasing rendition of Walkin' After Midnight, a song made famous by country star Patsy Cline. And in a nod to her French roots, Peyroux delivers a vibrant version of Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose. Dreamland features an impressive cast of supporting players. Pianist Chestnut provides restrained invention on Reckless Blues, guitarist Vernon Reid (formerly of the rock band Living Colour) enlivens Muddy Water, and up-and-coming jazz stars Marcus Printup (trumpet) and James...
There are also acts with more and less experience worth watching out for this fall. In terms of freshmen, there's the ska band the Blue Beats, whose Dance with Me (October) will be released on tiny Moon Records, and vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, whose Dreamland (Oct. 1) is an enchanting mix of jazz, country and blues. As for returning upperclassmen, saxman Joshua Redman's Freedom in the Groove (Sept. 24) is wonderfully listenable, and the reformed New Edition's Home Again (Sept. 10) no doubt aims to recreate the R.-and-B. group's old chart appeal...
Witnesses identify McVeigh as the man who rented a Ryder van under a false name on April 17. During the days leading up to the blast, they place him and his truck at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas, about 200 miles from Oklahoma City, where he was registered under his own name. Other witnesses say that in the moments before the explosion they saw McVeigh, a Ryder truck and the beige Mercury in which McVeigh was later arrested all in front of the Alfred P. Murrah building...