Dreamland

When Yves Beauvais joined Atlantic’s A&R team in the late 1990s, he sent a series of striking records into an American market dominated by alternative rock: Marc Ribot’s The Prosthetic Cubans, Olu Dara’s In the World, and this album. Jazz singer-songwriter Peyroux was one of his discoveries.

Her debut appeared years before the new wave of crossover jazz singers, and before the renewed popular interest in this kind of material. She listens deeply to pre-war jazz and blues, with Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith and—through her experience in France—Édith Piaf among the important presences in her music.

Greg Cohen’s bass, Marc Ribot’s guitar, James Carter’s saxophone and Cyrus Chestnut’s piano contribute vivid colours without crowding the singer. Her voice remains the essential centre. The wider recognition that followed her second album, Careless Love, was still some years away.