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Pete View Drop Down
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Joined: August 08 2005
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Posts: 22
  Quote Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Madeleine in London
    Posted: August 08 2005 at 9:07am
Here's another review for you. I was at the BUSH Empire
and it has to be said - she can sing like an angel and trascend you into the sublime for the duration. Brava Madeleine. A real treat.

Pete

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/articles/20026215?source =Evening%20Standard

"Britain was the last market in Europe to get around to Madeleine, and now it's one of her biggest," said the man from Universal Records, contentedly surveying Saturday's near-full theatre. Peyroux fans, however, were happier to observe that big-time marketing had not yet smothered her fragile artistry.
     
     
     
A few kaleidoscopic graphics drifted across the backdrop curtains, but there were no horns or electronics, just Ben Waltzer's sympathetic piano trio. With drummer Scott Amendola using brushes almost exclusively, they eased her gently through Broadway standards (Lonesome Road, Careless Love), quality modern songs (Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love, Bob Dylan's Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go) and touches of Americana (Hank Williams's Weary Blues) and chanson (Paris est Mon Pays, sung in fluent French).
Once again it was impossible to hear Madeleine's laid-back, plaintive tones without thinking of Billie Holiday. I only wished this gifted Franco-American diva didn't seem so tense. Awkward, self-absorbed and shy at the microphone, clutching her acoustic guitar like a lifebelt, she managed to take some nifty solos and sing like an angel while looking as comfortable as an England tail-ender facing Shane Warne.
Even her jokes - "Dylan mentions Rimbaud in that lyric, and younger Americans often ask me what Rambo is doing in a love-song" - had a halting nervousness about them. Yet her odd blend of intimacy and insecurity has a way of drawing audiences in. Certainly her audience was enrapt throughout. There's no doubt this intuitive artist has something special."
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Jules UK View Drop Down
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Joined: July 30 2005
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  Quote Jules UK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 9:14pm
Wow ! Yesterday I experienced Madeleine Live - a fablous performance at
the Shepherd's Bush Empire. I was spellbound. Her voice is something
else !!! Pure Magic. You gotta go see her live. Don't expect a glittzy show,
just expect really captivating music. It really is quite something.

Here is a link to a review of the show ... and an extract.

http://www.musicomh.com/gigs2/madeleine-peyroux_0805.htm

"...Madeleine Peyroux has had an almost inperctiable rise over the last few
months. It's easy to see how she appeals to the loved up middle-class
couples who attend tonight's show in abundance - her songs are
breathlessly romantic, and have that air of sophistication that's so difficult
to pull off without sounding smug. Yet it would be wrong to class her as
another Norah Jones - she's far more intense than that.

There's a slightly awkward stage presence to Peyroux that's strangely
endearing - stood behind the microphone, clutching a guitar, she never
seems fully at ease. Until, that is, she starts singing and that voice fills
the air. It's a marvellous voice, full of emotion and longing. It's true that
she sounds uncannily like Billie Holiday, but she's not a Stars In Their Eyes
impersonator,

Peyroux turns Leonard Cohen's Dance Me To The End Of Love into a
swinging jazz number, remakes Elliott Smith's Between The Bars into a
smokey ballad straight out of 1920s Paris, and gives a haunting rendition
of Hank Williams' Weary Blues. Her band are on fine form as well, with
pianist Sam Yahel effortlessly launching into some fantastic piano solos.

This being jazz, there were a fair number of improvised solos, and some
of these did swing towards the self-indulgent. Double bass player Matt
Penman is a fine musician, but there's only so many double bass solos
one can take - thankfully drummer Scott Amendola's solo moments were
a bit shorter, as an extended drum solo is enough to test the patience of
the most saintly quite frankly.

It was Peyroux's voice that was the main draw tonight anyway. A spine-
tingling rendition of I'll Look Around was just stunning, even managing to
silence the drinkers at the bar, while she also showed that she can handle
the more uptempo numbers, as demonstrated on the country standard
Walking After Midnight or her own song Don't Wait Too Long.

There were even a few funny asides to the audience, such as the tale of
how American journalists mix up Rambo and Rimbaud when asking about
her version of Dylan's You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.
"So, when I sing about Rimbaud, it's about a 18th century poet", Peyroux
told us. "19th, actually" came the retort from one well read minded
member of the audience, reducing Peyroux to a fit of the giggles.

Her grasp of French was also shown off to fine effect, as on the old
Josephine Baker standard J'ai Deux Amours, sung perfectly by Peyroux
before a more upbeat encore of No Names Blues finished the show off to
delightful effect.

It would be a bit unfair if Madeleine Peyroux was to be lumped into the
'tasteful, Radio 2 friendly songstresses' market that's so lucrative right
now, as there's a lot more to her than that. The audience at Shepherd's
Bush certainly went away happy - when they'd eventually stopped talking
at the bar anyway..."
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