Madeleine Peyroux
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Madeleine Peyroux
| For The Record... |
| Born in 1974, in Athens, GA; moved to Paris, France, with her mother, a bank employee, c. 1987. Education: Attended schools in England and in Paris, France. Sang on Paris streets with Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band, c. 1990; signed to Atlantic label; released Dreamland, 1996; performed on Lilith Fair tour, 1997; worked as waitress, Nashville, TN, late 1990s; signed to Columbia label, 2001; signed to Rounder label, 2003; released Careless Love, 2004. Addresses: Record company—Rounder Records, 1 Camp St., Cambridge, MA 02140. Website—Madeleine Peyroux Official Website: http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com. |
Singer
Madeleine Peyroux's style was shaped by that of classic jazz vocalist Billie Holiday, and her singing uncannily resembles that of the famous Holiday. "I think it was in my early teens that I really paid attention to her for the first time," Peyroux told the Buffalo News. "She actively told a story in a song that I needed to hear and that I needed to be able to say." Many of Peyroux's fans, intensely loyal despite Peyroux's slender two-album output, identify her closely with Holiday's music. "The references to Billie Holiday have carried me very far," Peyroux admitted to the Toronto Star. "Any resemblance to her sound has been the center of my success."
Yet Peyroux couldn't be called a Billie Holiday imitator. She played the guitar, and there was a folk singer's attitude in her music. Like Norah Jones, whose success paved the way for Peyroux's reemergence in 2004, Peyroux recorded not just jazz and pop compositions, but also songs from other sources such as classic country and folk-rock—and from her own pen. Her stage presence, a deadpan, slightly distant slice of California cool, differed greatly from Holiday's world of sophisticated hurt. And this contradiction—Holiday channeler yet independent artist—was just one of several that Peyroux embodied: she was American and French, retro yet something of a rebel, a classic stylist yet an artist who agonized over finding her own voice, and an instant success who seemed to flee from the spotlight.
Peyroux was born in 1974, in Athens, Georgia. The last name that served her well during the French-influenced phases of her career came from her father, who had a Louisiana French background; she pronounces it "Peru." Peyroux grew up partly in Brooklyn and partly in southern California, but after her parents divorced she traveled to Europe with her mother, a bank employee. She studied at an English boarding school for a while but ran away and moved in with her mother in Paris, France, when she was 13 or 14. But even living under the same roof with her mother didn't keep Peyroux in school. Soon she was singing on the streets of Paris with French musicians who loved classic American jazz and blues. "It was a very advantageous position to be in—to have this music and be able to share it with people. And then at the same time to be outside it all." Peyroux told the Buffalo News.
Peyroux signed on at age 16 with an otherwise all-male group called the Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band, after impressing its members with her rendition of "Jeepers Creepers." She spent three years traveling around Europe, sleeping on floors or couches, and performing wherever the group could talk its way onto a stage or a street corner. Visiting New York when she was 17, Peyroux was spotted by French-born Atlantic Records executive Yves Beauvais while she was singing in a club. He offered her a recording contract, but she turned him down in favor of her street-musician lifestyle.
Beauvais, however, didn't give up. "He visited me in France. I'd say no. And then he'd call again," Peyroux recalled in conversation with the Los Angeles Times. Peyroux had dreams of becoming a writer, but finally she gave in. Her debut album, Dreamland, produced by Beauvais and Greg Cohen, was released in 1996, when she was 22. The album featured Peyroux's version of Holiday's "Gettin' Some Fun Out of Life," along with Fats Waller's "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" and other jazz-inspired tunes. But Peyroux also included Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" (a country classic with jazz roots), Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight," French vocal star Edith Piaf's "La vie en rose," and several of her own compositions. Peyroux was backed by several jazz instrumental stars, including reedman James Carter and pianist Cyrus Chestnut.
Audiences were electrified. Peyroux joined the Lilith Fair tour that featured top female rock and folk artists of the day, opened for pop star Sarah McLachlan and Cape Verdean diva Cesaria Evora, and was in heavy demand at jazz festivals and nightclubs in 1997. Dreamland sold over 200,000 copies, an impressive total for a jazz album, and Peyroux went into the studio with Beauvais to record a follow-up.
Then, seemingly on the verge of the mass success that Norah Jones would find a few years later, Peyroux dropped out of sight and returned to her wandering ways. Vocal cord surgery that interrupted work on a new album provided Peyroux with the opportunity to drop out. "I think I lost myself intentionally," Peyroux explained to the Buffalo News. "I spent some time trying to hide. That ends up working after a while." She immersed herself in religion and spirituality, lived in Nashville and waited tables, and occasionally sang in small clubs and on the streets. Beauvais arranged a contract for Peyroux with the Columbia label in 2001, but a recording project there fell through as well.
Then, in 2003, Peyroux was signed to the small, folk-oriented label Rounder and returned to the recording studio. Her new album, Careless Love, was produced by Larry Klein, best known for his work with the jazz-influenced folk songwriter Joni Mitchell. It followed in the mold of Dreamland but featured an even wider range of songs, including covers of two folk classics, Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" and Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love." For a piece of French-language material she turned, not to Edith Piaf, but to a French performer who was American-born like herself: the 1930s African-American expatriate star Josephine Baker.
On tour in 2004, Peyroux attracted the same level of praise that had greeted Dreamland eight years before. "She emits a heady aura of places lived and music absorbed that floats around her like a ghostly multiple exposure of faces and voices from the past," wrote New York Times critic Stephen Holden, who called Peyroux "a quiet but stalwart rebel against the tawdry glamour and brazen sexual provocation of much contemporary pop." Whether because of Rounder's limited marketing muscle or because Peyroux now faced competition from Norah Jones, Diana Krall, and other female jazz vocalists with a classic sound and a contemporary outlook, Careless Love started out more slowly than had Dreamland. Yet it seemed that there was still more to unravel in Peyroux's mysterious musical message.
Selected discography
Dreamland, Atlantic, 1996.
Careless Love, Rounder, 2004.
Sources
Periodicals
Boston Globe, October 28, 2004, p. H6.
Buffalo News, September 12, 2004, p. G1.
Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2004, p. E67.
New York Times, September 23, 2004, p. E3.
Ottawa Citizen, October 23, 1997, p. C6.
Seattle Times, January 27, 1997, p. E3.
Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), December 5, 2004, p. 132.
Toronto Star, March 27, 1997, p. H3.
Online
Madeleine Peyroux Official Website, http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com (December 19, 2004).
"Madeleine Peyroux," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (December 19, 2004).
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
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Madeleine Peyroux
- Genres: Vocal Music
Biography
Vocalist Madeleine Peyroux can best be thought of as a Billie Holiday for the 1990s. Like Holiday, Peyroux was marketed as a jazz singer, when what she seems to do best is sing blues music. Though Peyroux may remind some listeners of Holiday, there are differences; she has her own sense of phrasing and interpretation. Her 1996 Atlantic Records debut, Dreamland, is a brilliant recording, as Peyroux's distinctive voice is not hindered by overly intricate arrangements. Most of the accompaniment on the record is light and sparse, the way it should be for a singer with such a unique voice. Her debut album features a cast of top players from the New York jazz scene, including pianist Cyrus Chestnut, drummer Leon Parker, guitarists Vernon Reid and Marc Ribot, and saxophonist/clarinetist James Carter.Peyroux was born in Athens, Georgia, and raised between Southern California, Brooklyn, and Paris. She began singing at age 15, when she discovered the Latin Quarter in Paris and became enamored with several street musicians. By 1989, she was working with a group of musicians called the Riverboat Shufflers, and after working for a while as a hat passer for the group, she began singing with them. She then joined the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band at age 16, spending the next couple of years touring Europe while holding college in abeyance. That group formed the basis for her first album, for they performed the songs of Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, early Ella Fitzgerald, and others.
Though Dreamland was by no means a straight-ahead jazz album, Peyroux and her producers take a thoroughly modern approach to blues tunes from the 1920s and '30s. She interprets songs like Fats Waller's "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," Billie Holiday's "Gettin' Some Fun Out of Life," as well as tunes popularized by Bessie Smith, like "Reckless Blues" and "Lovesick Blues." But unlike Smith or Holiday, who weren't known as songwriters, Peyroux also recorded three of her own tunes on Dreamland, "Always a Use" (on which she accompanies herself on guitar), "Hey Sweet Man," and "Dreamland."
It took another eight years, however (the reasons for which were never very clear), for her follow-up, Careless Love, to hit shelves. This time working with producer Larry Klein on Rounder Records, Peyroux explored a more contemporary and eclectic mix of covers, including Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars," Bob Dylan's "You're Going to Make Me Lonesome," as well as older songs like Hank Williams' "Weary Blues." It was very well received and made the 2006 release of Half the Perfect World, again a combination of covers and originals, highly anticipated. The record, which featured a duet with k.d. lang, included versions of songs by Serge Gainsbourg and Tom Waits, among others. Peyroux's third Rounder release was 2009's Bare Bones, her first to feature all original compositions by Peyroux (some shared with co-writers), was greeted with favorable reviews and was followed by an international tour. Peyroux took some time off, and emerged in 2011 with a download single that foreshadowed Standing on the Rooftop, her debut for the Decca imprint. The digital-only single offered a restrained yet elegant cover of the Beatles' "Martha My Dear," and the original "The Things I've Seen Today," co-written with violinist Jenny Scheinman. Standing on the Rooftop, released in June of 10011, was produced by Craig Street, and featured a core band of guitarists Marc Ribot and Chris Bruce, bassist Me'Shell Ndegeocello, and drummer Charlie Drayton. There guest appearances by Patrick Warren and Allen Toussaint, among others. Peyroux, wrote or co-wrote eight of the album's 12 songs; the covers included the aforementioned Beatles' tune, Bob Dylan's "I Threw It All Away," and Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," as well as a the W.H. Auden poem, "Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love," set to music by Ribot. ~ Richard Skelly, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Madeleine Peyroux
| Madeleine Peyroux | |
|---|---|
 Madeleine Peyroux in Toronto |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Madi |
| Born | 1 January 1973 Athens, Georgia, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, blues |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, guitarist |
| Instruments | Voice, guitar, ukulele |
| Labels | Rounder, Atlantic, Decca |
| Associated acts | The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band |
| Website | http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com/ |
Madeleine Peyroux (born January 1, 1973, Athens, Georgia, United States) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Peyroux (French pronunciation: [madˈlɛn pɛˈʁu]) is noted for her vocal style, which has been compared to that of Billie Holiday.
Peyroux has cited Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Patsy Cline, Édith Piaf, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Mercer, Charlie Chaplin, Serge Gainsbourg and Bob Dylan as influences on her music.
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Contents
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Early life
Peyroux's family was in academia. When Peyroux was six, her father moved the family to Brooklyn so he could pursue a career in acting. She grew up in New York City and southern California; when her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to Paris at age 13.[1] In several interviews, Peyroux described her parents as "hippies" and classifies them as "eccentric educators", which helped her to pursue a career in music.[2] She has stated that her father would "listen to old records all the time" and her mother had a ukulele that she learned how to play while she was still a child.[3]
Career
Early career and Dreamland
Peyroux started singing at the age of fifteen, when she discovered street musicians in the Latin Quarter in Paris. She joined a group called the Riverboat Shufflers, first by passing around the hat, and then by singing. At sixteen she joined The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band and spent a number of years touring Europe performing jazz standards.[4][5]
Her experiences provided the basis for her first album, Dreamland. The album was released in 1996 by Atlantic Records, and gained widespread attention. It featured a cover of Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight", Édith Piaf's signature-song "La Vie en rose" and two Bessie Smith covers, among others. This first record resulted in her being referred to as the 21st century Billie Holiday, particularly owing to a "Getting Some Fun Out of Life" cover and to "Hey Sweet Man", an original song with a style highly reminiscent of Holiday. Time called it "the most exciting, involving vocal performance by a new singer this year". Peyroux began opening for artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Cesária Évora, and made appearances at jazz festivals and on the Lilith Fair tour. In 1997, she made an appearance at the Montreal Jazz Festival, where she performed with some guest artists, including James Carter. In this concert, Madeleine performed some standards like "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", a cover included on Montreal's 30-years Best Of.
When Peyroux was scheduled to start recording again, she was diagnosed with a health problem on her vocal cords.[6] By this time, she also had some disagreement with her record company, which led to a significant amount of time out of the spotlight and without recording.
1997–2003: pairing with William Galison
Peyroux spent much of the next six years busking in Paris, performing occasionally in clubs in the U.S., and generally living a low-key existence. She continued to contribute to works by other artists, but rarely appeared in clubs under her own name. In 1997, she covered the song "Life is Fine" as a Rainer Ptácek tribute.[7] She sings a soulful duet, "A Fool at the Other", with American singer/songwriter Mick Reed on the album Courtney's Farm, by The Spring Valley Studs, which was released in 2003. The song appears again with the 2011 release of Mick Reed's album, Goodnight, Texas. In May 2002, she joined multi-instrumentalist William Galison, and together they appeared at such venues as the Bottom Line, Joe's Pub, and the Tin Angel. In 2003 the duo released a seven-song EP entitled Got You on My Mind, which they sold at shows and online. However, in 2003, their relationship ended. At the time, Peyroux was in negotiations with Rounder Records and showed the EP as demo. Although Peyroux claims she told the record company it was co-written with Galison, this has resulted in an ongoing lawsuit.[clarification needed]
Got You on My Mind was re-released by Galison in August 2004; the original EP was expanded by the addition of four tracks by Galison.
Careless Love (2004) and Half the Perfect World (2006)
After signing up for Rounder, Peyroux was teamed with well-known record producer Larry Klein. In September 2004, she released her second solo album, Careless Love, to generally positive reviews. It went on to sell over a million copies worldwide and took her out of anonymity. The album opens with one of her best-known songs, a cover of Leonard Cohen's, "Dance Me to the End of Love", also featuring covers of Bob Dylan ("You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"), Elliott Smith ("Between The Bars"), and Hank Williams ("Weary Blues"), among others. As usual, the album also contained a French track, "J'ai Deux Amours", and the only original track on the album was "Don't Wait Too Long" (in collaboration with Jesse Harris and Larry Klein). The songs she covered were mostly from the first half of the 20th century but her choices showed, according to several reviews, "impeccable taste".
Her third solo album, Half the Perfect World, was released on September 12, 2006. She collaborated with several artists, including Jesse Harris, Walter Becker, Larry Klein (who also produced the album), and k.d. lang, with whom Peyroux performed a cover of the Joni Mitchell song "River". Once again, the songs were carefully chosen, and she sang covers of more contemporary artists. Notable covers include "Blue Alert" and "Half the Perfect World" by Leonard Cohen/Anjani Thomas; "Smile" by Charlie Chaplin, John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons; a rendition of Serge Gainsbourg's "La Javanaise" and Tom Waits' "(Looking for) the Heart of Saturday Night". Unlike her previous album, Half the Perfect World had four original tracks.[1]
On September 3, 2006, Peyroux performed a live session for Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios. She shared her episode with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snow Patrol; it was aired in the UK on Channel 4 and in the USA on the Sundance Channel.[8] On July 12, 2007, she was awarded Best International Jazz Artist at the BBC Jazz Awards.[9]
Bare Bones (2009)
Her fourth solo album, Bare Bones, released on March 10, 2009, was a turning point in Peyroux's career with all original tracks. The album was produced by Larry Klein and she collaborated with songwriters Walter Becker, Joe Henry, David Batteau, and Julian Coryell. The album featured a sole Peyroux-penned composition, "I Must Be Saved", and its first single was "You Can't Do Me", a song with a soul-rock beat, a new style for the vocalist. The album received mostly favorable reviews and the lyrics were praised.[10] After its release the singer toured in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia.
On November 23, 2009, Somethin' Grand, Peyroux's first live concert album, was released. The DVD was filmed and recorded in Los Angeles in January 2009. Her set included nine out of the eleven songs of Bare Bonesand some others from the previous albums. The DVD also contained a documentary, Somethin' Grand - A Portrait of Madeleine Peyroux, which offered a glimpse of her background and history.[11]
Standing on the Rooftop (2011)
On January 4, 2011, Peyroux announced through her website that she would release a new album that spring.[12] On March 15, she announced the actual release date to be June 14, 2011, under Decca Records, and that the album was to consist mainly of her newly written songs.[13] The album was produced by Craig Street (Norah Jones, k.d. Lang, Cassandra Wilson) and "signals a new approach for the musician as she carries her jazz sensibilities into rootsier territory".
She also offered a two-song preview of the new album: a cover of Beatles' song "Martha, My Dear" and a new original song "The Things I've Seen Today" which she co-wrote with vocalist/violinist Jenny Scheinman. The two-track EP was released on March 29. The album itself features contributions from Marc Ribot on guitar/banjo, Me'shell Ndegeocello on bass, drummer Charley Drayton (Keith Richards, Neil Young, Johnny Cash) and guitarist Chris Bruce (Seal, John Legend). The album was released on June 6, 2011. High-profile tour dates were to follow the release of the album.[14]
Collaborations
In 2003 she collaborated with Mick Reed singing a duet entitled "A Fool at the Other" which appears on the album "Courtney's Farm" by The Spring Valley Studs. The song also appears on Mick Reed's "Goodnight, Texas" (2011) album. In 2008, Peyroux collaborated with Phil Roy on his third album, The Great Longing, as a duo on the track "Exceptionally Ordinary". Madeleine Peyroux also covered "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" from the Still Breathing soundtrack and "Life Is Fine" for a Rainer Ptácek tribute.
Peyroux is represented by American International Artists, a management group whose other artists include James Carter and Sarah Pedinotti.
Image and publicity
Peyroux eschews publicity and keeps a low profile. She has dropped "out of sight" for extended periods of time, as when she spent several years busking after the release of her first record.[citation needed]
Peyroux is an American of French descent; she occasionally sings in French but the majority of her songs are in English.[citation needed]
The ballad "Don't Wait Too Long" was featured in an American national television ad campaign for Dockers San Francisco brand apparel and the entire song played over the closing credits of the movie The Answer Man, released in 2008. The song was also played in the 2006 film Last Holiday. A clip of her recording of "Blue Alert" was used in an Old Navy jeans advertisement in 2007. The song "A Prayer" from the album Dreamland was featured in the closing credits in the HBO television series Deadwood in the episode "E.B. Was Left Out".[citation needed]
Discography
- Spreading Rhythm Around and Best Of, with The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band
- 1996: Dreamland (Atlantic)
- 2004: Got You on My Mind, with William Galison (Waking Up)
- 2004: Careless Love (Rounder)
- 2006: Half the Perfect World (Rounder)
- 2009: Bare Bones (Rounder)
- 2011: Standing on the Rooftop (Emarcy/Decca)
References
- ^ a b NYT profile and interview
- ^ March 07, 2009 11:00PM (2009-03-07). "Madeleine Peyroux strips down to the Bare Bones | The Courier-Mail". News.com.au. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25147170-5003421,00.html. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ http://www.secondsundaysrmh.com/MadeleinePeyroux_Archive.htm
- ^ Richard Skelly. "Madeleine Peyroux". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p194772/biography. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ Madeleine Peyroux — brief biography on 'all about jazz'
- ^ "That's why the lady sings the blues | | guardian.co.uk Arts". Arts.guardian.co.uk. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1816036,00.html. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ "Madeleine Peyroux". Furious.com. http://www.furious.com/perfect/madeleinepeyroux.html. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ Abbey Road
- ^ Wins BBC Jazz Award
- ^ Peyroux Goes 'Bare' On New Album
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "New album to be released in spring!". http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com/news.html.
- ^ "MADELEINE PEYROUX PREVIEWS NEW ALBUM 'STANDIN' ON THE ROOFTOP' (JUNE 7, DECCA) WITH BEATLES' TRACK "MARTHA, MY DEAR" AND BRAND NEW ORIGINAL SONG". http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com/news.html.
- ^ "Shore Fire Media Press Release". http://www.shorefire.com/index.php?a=pressrelease&o=4781.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Madeleine Peyroux |
- Information
- Madeleine Peyroux — official site.
- Madeleine Peyroux discography at Discogs.
- Madeleine Peyroux biography on All About Jazz.
- Articles and media
- Via Paris, with Snaps article at Time Magazine.
- Madeleine Peyroux singing "I'm All Right" on YouTube.
- Live From Abbey Road — film clip, slideshow and brief bio.
- Madeleine Peyroux - Interview and Biography on Female First.
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