Word: peyroux
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...Nirvana or Pearl Jam; she hasn't captured the passions or preoccupations of her generation; she is not a new flavor that launches 32 more. Instead, her success has called attention to the jazz-pop divas who came before her--Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall and Madeleine Peyroux. Most pop phenomena are lightning bolts, flashing quickly and dramatically across the zeitgeist. Jones is a light rain, touching everything and seeping permanently into the soil. In an age when knob-twiddling producers rule and lip-synching pop tarts stalk the stage, she has reintroduced the world to the human voice. Jones...
...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...
...Peyroux (prounounced like the country Peru) was born in Georgia, but after her parents divorced, her mother, a French teacher, moved to Paris along with her daughter. Young Madeleine soon began to explore the city. "I saw these street performers and I was fascinated," she says. Soon she was one of them, wandering the streets of Paris and Amsterdam, stealing rides on trains, sleeping in friends' apartments...
Several years later, while she was visiting New York, Yves Beauvais, a producer with Atlantic, saw Peyroux perform in a club. She spurned his first attempts to sign her--at age 17, she deemed herself too young--but then, last year, she felt she was ready. "I thought, 'I might as well try it,'" she says. "I had to make a commitment to myself...
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...