Heaven, streaming in 0's and 1's

I am a lousy critic. In 2003 I went on a film binge, watching more than 150 movies. I reviewed approximately 80 of them, and trust me, no film critics fretted over their jobs. I know nothing about film, and even less about music. So I'm leary of writing music reviews.

Of course, that won't stop me.

The other night, I was sitting in the Academy's computer lab, working on some very important.. computer things. In the background, as is always the case, I had the FIOS music channel tuned to the 24-hour jazz station. Suddenly... a voice floated through the room, and like the scent of honeysuckle on a summer day, grabbed my attention and awakened all my senses. At first I thought it was Billie Holiday, but then the arrangement struck me as too intimate. Who IS that?, I wondered. It was Madeleine Peyroux.

Its partly her voice, but mostly her delivery that gets your attention. The voice is imperfect. She doesn't hit every note. She seems to be feeling her way through the notes, trying, at times, to find them. But her delivery is naked poetry - you could strip the words away and it wouldn't matter. However, take the time to really listen to the words, and you will be rewarded. Its almost more than the senses can bear.

Ok, so I'm a sucker for understated blues, especially from a female perspective. I admit it. And she definitely has her roots in the blues - Atlanta, Georgia blues, with a French infusion, owing to nine years growing up in Paris. In fact, on most songs, she strums a Django Reinhardt-ish rhythm from first note to last. And as French influences go, so goes jazz - layered into the mix with the occasional muted trumpet or saxophone solo, and with phrasing that accents dissonant, unresolved chords.

She wraps herself around a song like a harem cloth, and you can actually feel the gauzy texture of her voice. With her phrasing, each song becomes a walk down a tree-lined country road, shoes in hand. Or maybe its a cobblestone street in Paris. Both work equally as well. You can close your eyes and feel it.

Make no mistake, she doesn't have the pipes. That's why the production is studio-intimate. Its like she's singing to you over coffee at the kitchen table. But she's got phrasing to rival Billie Holiday, and that's no exaggeration. She owns every song.

And in two days, Gods of Amazon willing, I will own her CD.