Madeleine Peyroux

A celebrated modern jazz singer, Madeleine Peyroux, was born in Athens, Georgia. When the girl was six, her father brought the whole family to New York to continue his acting career. Later, they moved to California. After the divorce of her parents, Madeleine and her mother relocated to Paris. Peyroux discovered the music world that fascinated her and took up singing when she met the street musicians in one of Paris parts. Shortly after, she joined the band called Riverboat Shufflers. There, she started as the one who was asking the passers-by for the money to reward the musicians, but in a while she became a singer. Aged sixteen, the young actress was recruited by the ensemble Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band. As a member of this formation, the girl toured Europe giving performances. The largest part of their repertoire was the famed compositions by such great performers as Ella Fitzgerald or Billy Holiday. This experience helped Madeleine greatly when she was preparing her debut studio album, Dreamland, issued in 1996.

In the course of the following six years, Peyroux was singing in the Paris clubs circuit with rare visits to the native land in America. At that time, the singer was struggling financially and literally living from hand to mouth. Mostly, she would come out as a member of one of various bands, and much more seldom, she gave concerts under her own name. In May 2002, the artist united her efforts with multi-instrumentalist William Galison. As they had given a streak of nice performances, the duet released the mini-album consisting of seven songs and entitled Got You on My Mind. It was offered during their live shows and via Internet. In 2004, Galison released the edited version of this record adding four of his new songs to the original variant. In September 2004, Peyroux issued her fresh studio album, Careless Love. This CD gained a great deal of positive reviews and even sold a million copies. In the autumn of 2006, the singer came into the market with the subsequent effort called Half the Perfect World. The recording session for this release involved a number of performers, including Jessie Harris, Walter Becker and Larry Klein, who also took up the duties of a producer.

On the third of September 2006, Madeleine Peyroux performed live for the sessions for Live From Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios. She was accompanied by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Snow Patrol. This show received a broad airplay across the Great Britain and the USA. Despite the constantly rising popularity of the singer, the press possessed tiny pieces of information about her. Madeleine has always tried to shun reporters and stayed away from telling publicly the details of her life. She preferred to do so at the very beginning of her career as the artist did not want many people to know about the financial struggle she was having. Many are still considering her to be of French descent, largely due to her French-like sounding first and last names and the advanced level of her French. Nevertheless, the singer has already made herself very well-know. Those who are not into jazz recognize her by the songs Don't Wait Too Long, and Blue Alert, cast to sound in the commercials of the popular American brands. At the same time, true music lovers and supporters of Madeleine’s music would always know her very particular voice from anybody else’s. In the first half of 2009, Peyroux released one more studio album that received the Bare Bones title.