(Sam Yahel & Larry Goldings, keyboards, Dean Parks, guitar, other sidemen, string quartet with arrangements by Mark Orton)
I think Peyroux is the most exciting vocalist on recordings at the moment. This is her third album, and even better than her sophomore effort, Careless Love. It’s easy to describe her as a Billy Holiday-sounding chanteuse, but that diminishes the highly individual and original aspect of her art. One reviewer put Peyroux’s style in the “postmodernist coolness” bag, but that makes me think of Patricia Barber, who is light years different.
Her sublime vocals on these dozen tracks are mostly from songwriters active during her lifetime, rather than older sources as used on her previous album. They include Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Fred Neil, Randy Newman, even one song written by Peyroux with her producer Larry Klein and Walter Becker of Steely Dan. The songs mostly explore romantic relationships and mix a strong folk element in with the modern jazz. Peyroux frequently accompanies her vocals on guitar. Having spent some years performing in Paris, the Southern-born vocalist usually does at least one song on each album in French. This time it’s Serge Gainsbourg’s La Javanaise.
The arrangements are thoughtful and varied and never override the focus on Peyroux’s very distinctive voice. Some nice instrumental touches are provided by Larry Goldings on celeste, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and saxist Gary Foster- sounding like Stan Getz. Sonics are fine, and there are complete lists of all performers and details on each track, but no lyrics.
TrackList: I’m All Right, The Summer Wind, Blue Alert, Everybody’s Talkin,’ River (with k.d. lang), A Little Bit, Once in a While, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night, Half the Perfect World, La Javanaise, California Rain, Smile.
– John Henry
