madeleine peyroux, half this perfect world

One of the things I find challenging to do is describing my musical tastes. I am particularly fond of jazz and blues, but I'm not sure how to highlight the styles and subsets of the genres I enjoy. For example, Miles Davis and Kenny G are both jazz, but I tend to enjoy the former more than the latter. That is, I don't get excited about Weather Channel jazz, even though I know it's well-rooted in and derived from classic jazz. I do enjoy some modern jazz though.

I'm starting a new feature on my blog to share the music that I do enjoy in the hopes of (1) seeing if any of my readers notice common themes in the music, and (2) sharing the music, albums in particular, that I find and enjoy. I think of it as me building my mini jazz library and documenting it along the way. Just so you know, I generally don't buy an album unless I like every track on the album, so any album I introduce to my library is one I really enjoy and would recommend. I do not receive any commission of any form either—this is my personal uninfluenced opinion.

Random thought: I wonder if I'm becoming a version of Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show) where I'll be sitting around listening to jazz records on an old record player as my refuge from the world. Even though it doesn't seem very viable for me, if I could, I would be building my mini jazz library on vinyl—I really prefer the analog sound of vinyl records.

Anyway, my first highlight album is Madeline Peyroux, Half this Perfect World, 2006. The previous link to her website has samples from the album as does this story on NPR, Madeleine Peyroux's Nearly Perfect World. Reading the review in the Washington Post, I found I missed Peyroux in performance here in Washington last October. I'll be sure not to miss her next performance in town though.