Jazz Articles about Madeleine Peyroux

Madeleine Peyroux: Bare Bones

by Marcia Hillman
April 8, 2010

Bare Bones, is vocalist Madeleine Peyroux's third in the last four years and most personal, since she was involved in the writing of all 11 tracks and providing lyrics that are highly introspective. Peyroux also accompanies herself on acoustic guitar throughout. Her core band is Jim Beard (piano and Wurlitzer), Dean Parks (electric guitar), Larry Klein (bass) and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, with additional instrumentalists on some of the tracks, including Larry Goldings (both Hammond and Estey organs), Carla Kihlstedt (violin) ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Half the Perfect World

by Aaron Basiliere
September 26, 2008

On Half the Perfect World, southern-born chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux follows in the footsteps of the collaborative Got You On My Mind (Waking Up, 2004), creating a pleasant medley of jazz, blues, and pop. With her backing band and Billy Holiday-inspired vocals, Peyroux crafts her own renditions of songs from the likes of folk-rock heroes Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Joni Mitchell. Whether in the key of jazz or blues, Peyroux has certainly fashioned an album that's both coffeehouse-ready, and fit ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Half The Perfect World

by Suzanne Lorge
December 6, 2006

Madeleine Peyroux confidently walks the line where jazz, country and blues collide--her understated vocals and Billie Holiday-esque phrasing are what pull the disparate elements of her performance together into an engaging pastiche. Peyroux's bailiwick is pop covers with stylized jazz arrangements: On the Leonard Cohen/Anjani Thomas title cut, “Half The Perfect World," her accompaniment is light Latin rhythm guitar, and in an unhurried duet with k.d. lang on Joni Mitchell's “River, minimal piano. Peyroux and lang share ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Half The Perfect World

by Gina Vodegel
September 5, 2006

Madeleine Peyroux co-wrote four of twelve songs on Half The Perfect World. Leonard Cohen/Anjani Thomas connoisseurs will recognize the title, but not the track itself. Peyroux stripped it from Anjani's stilled elegance and turned it into a soft tropical breeze, a melancholy bossa nova with a sense of longing and desire that makes you wonder whether you should be happy or sad, or maybe even both. Although she's known, loved and rejected for evoking and provoking the ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love

by Jim Santella
August 9, 2005

Bringing a wide variety of musical styles to her latest album, Madeleine Peyroux gives her audience warm interpretations that come from the heart. Hers is an emotional performance driven by love. Whether singing lightly Latin, old school swing, country & western ballads, or contemporary tales, she communicates naturally with subtle passion.

Since she was a teenager, Peyroux had taken to busking on the streets of Paris. Her desire to share with an audience comes from a thorough understanding ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love

by George Harris
March 6, 2005

Few recordings have been as intensely anticipated as the sophomore release by Madeleine Peyroux. Taking the music world by complete surprise back in '96 with her startling debut, Dreamland, Peyroux performed the ultimate “where's Waldo" and disappeared from the recording scene for eight years. Rounder deserves credit for resurrecting this artist's career.

So how does Peyroux fare following an eight-year hiatus? Pretty darned well, her voice still golden after all these years. There's still the hint of Billie ...

Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love

by David French
October 14, 2004

Madeleine Peyroux's first release in eight years is a moody, haunting masterpiece that will soon be playing in every coffee house and cozy bar in the country. It's a whale of a record. Peyroux's voice is amazing--grainy, intimate and unaffected, with a bluesy lilt that at times recalls mid-career Billie Holiday. In fact, her singing recalls not just Holiday but the generation of singers who came up in the 1930s--people like Lee Wiley, Connie Boswell, Maxine Sullivan and Cliff Edwards--who ...