Madeleine Peyroux
Somehow I’ve gone through my life, until this moment, not knowing who jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux is. I was listening to This American Life when her cover of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” came on and my brain scrambled trying to figure out how on earth Billie Holiday could have covered that song. The resemblance in voices is uncanny. I went to her site and found her cover of Elliot Smith’s “Between The Bars” (video above, I have no idea if its the real music video, leaning towards no) and it’s incredible. Totally amazing. She kind of has that Norah Jones-like adult contemporary thing going on, but I’m not ashamed to admit that Norah’s first album was rather influential on my jazz singing, as much as my old jazz teacher (who hated her) would shudder to hear that:) Anyway, Madeiline’s voice is a thing of rare beauty, a perfect backdrop to the unbelievable amount of snow outside my window today.
