Madeleine Peyroux’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Musical career

When Peyroux was six, her family moved from Georgia to Brooklyn and later southern California. At age 13 her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Paris. In interviews, Peyroux describes her parents as “hippies” and “eccentric educators” who helped her pursue a career in music. As a child, she listened to her father’s old records and Peyroux learned to play her mother’s ukulele.

Peyroux started singing at the age of fifteen and performed with street musicians in the Latin Quarter in Paris. She joined a group called the Riverboat Shufflers. At age sixteen she joined The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band and toured Europe with them.

Albums

On Dreamland (Atlantic, 1996), her debut album, she was accompanied by Cyrus Chestnut, Vernon Reid, Marc Ribot, James Carter, and Leon Parker. The album contained original songs by Peyroux and blues songs from the 1920s and 1930s (Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller).

In 1997, she covered the song “Life is Fine” as a Rainer Ptácek tribute.

In 2004 she released Got You on My Mind, an EP with William Galison. The same year, she released her second solo album, Careless Love, which sold over a million copies worldwide. On September 3, 2006, Peyroux performed a live session for Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios and in July 2007, she was selected as Best International Jazz Artist at the BBC Jazz Awards.

Her third solo album, Half the Perfect World, was released a few days later. The record was with Jesse Harris, Walter Becker, producer Larry Klein and k.d. lang. Her fourth solo album, Bare Bones, released in March 2009. The album was again produced by Larry Klein and Peyroux co-wrote many of the songs with Walter Becker, Joe Henry, David Batteau, and Julian Coryell. In November 2009, Somethin’ Grand, Peyroux’s first live concert album and DVD were released.

In June 2011, Peyroux released a new album on Decca Records, Standing on the Rooftop. The album was produced by Craig Street (Norah Jones, k.d. lang, Cassandra Wilson)The album features Marc Ribot on guitar/banjo, Me’shell Ndegeocello on bass, drummer Charley Drayton (Keith Richards, Neil Young, Johnny Cash) and guitarist Chris Bruce (Seal, John Legend).

Reception

In 2013 a New York Times music writer compared her vocal style to that of Billie Holiday. Peyroux’s rendition of J’Ai Deux Amours is featured in the 2014 film Diplomacy.

Discography

Solo

with The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band

• Spreading Rhythm Around
• Best of

with William Galison

• Got You on My Mind (Waking Up, 2004)