Madeleine Peyroux

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I saw Peyroux at the Majestic Theater in Detroit back then, and she was as winning, warm, and humble as on record, making the cavernous old silent-film theater feel like an intimate Parisian club. Then she disappeared — no new album for eight years. She hasn't really explained her long break, but she's just released her second album, Careless Love.

Her repertoire, now even more daring, includes contemporary songwriters like the late, tormented Elliott Smith. Peyroux has also scored a coup for a young female jazz singer: cowriting a song with Norah Jones collaborator Jesse Harris. Their "Don't Wait Too Long" swings more than Jones's music, but is just as pleasing and melodic.