Madeleine Peyroux

“There is magic in live music that cannot be diminished” says Madeleine Peyroux, “there is nothing more perfect than pure music, how it resonates in every corner of a room through every person - that’s what music is and that's what I'm here for.”

For over three decades, jazz virtuoso Peyroux has travelled the world and graced the grandest concert halls to do just that - “share the magic of music with audiences, connect with people and uplift their spirits.” From entertaining passersby as a busker on the streets of Paris, to captivating thousands on sold out world tours - singular Peyroux has channeled the power of music to bring people together, dialogue with audiences and build a community.

“I am part of this great Jazz story, a long tradition of music greats” she explains, “from Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to Allen Toussaint and countless others, the incredible innovators who built a beautiful legacy and created a new musical language - Jazz is one of the greatest things that America has brought to the world; and I am here to continue the story.”

Georgia born Peyroux was raised in “a house filled with music.” Her mother sang and played the ukulele - an instrument she gifted little Madeleine that will remain with her for life. Peyroux recalls them playing together, loving music from a very early age and instinctively recognizing music’s power to comfort and sooth.

When she was 12 her parents divorced and Peyroux moved to Paris with her mother - it was a turbulent time but that is how she found music to be her calling. The rebellious teen skipped school to play guitar in the city’s Latin Quarters, breathing in the colorful life and discovering the magic of Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith and other jazz greats from listening to other buskers. At 15, The fearless teenager joined The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band with whom she toured Europe. Here, young Peyroux “witnessed the power of music to stop people in their tracks”, learned the art of connecting with the audience, understood that music is a shared experience, and that “a great song can wield powerful magic and inspire the best in any type of crowd.”

Peyroux was spotted by Atlantic’s A&R man Yves Beauvais, and in 1996 her debut album Dreamland was born. The striking vocalist gained instant recognition as a classic talent with an unmistakable staying power, and her smokey-crooning voice was likened to Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald. Dreamland delivered sweeping renditions of Fats Waller’s I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, Bessie Smith’s Lovesick Blues, Billie Holiday’s Gettin' Some Fun Out of Life, Patsy Cline’s Walking After Midnight, and Piaf’s romantic La Vie En Rose, all delivered by some of the finest musicians around including Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Cohen, Vernon Reid, James Carter and Leon Parker to name but a few.

But it was Careless Love (Rounder), released eight years later that propelled her to jazz superstardom. Produced by multiple Grammy winner Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Melody Gardot) it signaled the start of a long-lasting Klein-Peyroux collaboration that would craft several classic, universally acclaimed albums. Careless Love, which was certified gold in the US, included songs by Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Elliott Smith as well as Peyroux’s iconic, desert-Island-disc-worthy rendition of Dance Me To The End of Love by Leonard Cohen. The captivating mix of blues, refined vintage jazz, songs and charming French chanson proved irresistible - the singular songbird has struck a resounding chord with the public and industry alike - one reviewer wrote “I've never enjoyed a Leonard Cohen song as much as Peyroux's account of Dance Me to the End of Love, Bob Dylan's You're Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go is casually touching, and Hank Williams' Weary Blues understatedly haunting.”

Peyroux again teamed up with Klein for her 2006 album Half The Perfect World (Rounder) It featured k.d. lang with an arresting rendition of Joni Mitchell’s spellbinding River, and a rich mix of songs by Leonard Cohen, Jesse Harris, Tom Waits, Serge Gainsbourg and Charlie Chaplin among others. Bare Bones (2009), also with Rounder, was the first Peyroux album to solely comprise original material - reflective, heartfelt tunes co-written with Walter Becker, Larry Klein and David Batteau among others. With the 2011 Standing On the Rooftop (Decca) the Larry Klein collaboration streak was broken as Peyroux opted for Craig Street (Norah Jones) to produce. Here Peyroux sang covers of Paul McCartney's Martha My Dear, Dylan’s I Threw it All Away and WH Auden's Lay Your Sleeping Head and even a song co-written with Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman (The Kind You Can't Afford). Larry Klein was back at the producer helm two years later for The Blue Room. An arresting reexamination of Ray Charles’s landmark classic, Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, it branched out to include Randy Newman's Guilty, Warren Zevon's Desperadoes Under The Eaves and John Hartford’s Gentle On My Mind among others. This was followed by the self-produced Secular Hymns (2016), recorded at a rural English church (St Mary’s Church, Great Milton, Oxfordshire) in a single day. Elegant covers of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Townes Van Zandt and Willie Dixon among others, were delivered by an intimate trio made of guitarist Jon Herington, bassist Barak Mori and Peyroux. The trio’s sound blended with the old building’s generously warm acoustics to deliver an enchanting timeless quality.

Klein not only produced Peyroux’s 2018 album Anthem, along with Peyroux he set the music to the mesmerizing Liberté - Paul Éluard's ode to freedom penned during the German occupation of France. The album’s title track was a Leonard Cohen creation with lyrics resonating with reflective and increasingly outspoken Peyroux. Her ninth album Let’s Walk is arguably the vocalist’s most outspoken, comprising social and political themes - the gospel inspired title track Let's Walk speaks of civil rights, Please Come On Inside addresses homelessness and mental illness, Nothing Personal attacks sexual abuse, and Et Puis concerns privilege as Peyroux points to the well-to-do French parents bestowing their young with apartments. The album was co-produced by guitarist Jon Herington - part of the trio that released and toured Secular Hymns in 2016. “I decided early on in my songwriting collaboration with Madeleine for Let's Walk, that I would do my best to be in ‘response’ mode as much as possible” noted Herington, “I resisted any urges to control the process, and tried to be available to help in whatever ways the moment suggested and allowed. The great consequence of letting Madeleine ‘lead’ in this way is that the world now has the most heartfelt and personal collection of songs she has ever recorded.”

Two years later, the trio finds itself preparing for the 2026 We Are America tour, marking the tenth anniversary of Secular Hymns’ release. “When we first began working with the trio” said Herington “the expected limitations of a radically smaller, quieter group were quickly shattered – this ‘reduced’ format revealed a special, quiet chemistry among the three of us, magically allowed a kind of liberating genre-bending, immediately enriched us with a much wider repertoire, and forced a new depth of intimacy and vulnerability to surface in our live performances, I’m thrilled to be doing it again.”

The past three decades saw Peyroux fearlessly explore new ground - in 2006 she recorded a live session at the legendary Abbey Road studios, a decade later she chose a rural English church as the setting for her Secular Hymns album, she collaborated with a strikingly diverse mix of musicians from K D Lang and Bill Wyman to Vince Mendoza and Walter Becker. In 2024 she released a project orchestrated by composer, arranger and conductor, Sean O’Loughlin - a ‘best of' program of Peyroux classics and fan favourites, with symphony orchestra, including Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to the End of Love, Peyroux originals Don’t Wait Too Long, We Might As Well Dance, Warren Zevon’s Desperadoes Under the Eaves, Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars and more. Standing in front of the orchestra was a challenge she met with typical positivity - “challenge is what we need as human beings” she explains, “we need to be challenged in order to live a fulfilling life.”

Peyroux is “committed to live up to the legacy of the people that came before, some of whom I had the added honor to meet - I met Abbey Lincoln when she opened for her at a jazz festival in Oregon, and Allen Toussaint several years before his passing.” It was Toussaint who advised Peyroux to listen to different singers saying "you got to listen to Billie Holiday to learn phrasing, and you got to listen to Dionne Warwick to get intonation, and you’ve got to listen to Sarah Vaughan for her exploration, her improvisation, and Ella Fitzgerald - well, that’s just God.”

2026 finds Peyroux in top form - fine-tuned and confident, curious and bold. With sold out tours, high end collaborations and countless accolades to her name, the dedicated musician seeks an honest, personal and direct connection with the community she lovingly built over the years. “It is an ongoing conversation with music as our language” she explains, “music is a human language that stops people in their tracks, I’ve seen this all over the world, from a person passing a busker on the street to thousands listening intently in a massive concert hall - music always unites people - it’s an essential part of being human.”