Now this is a little bit different from what is usually recommended on this site. And I must admit that I wouldn’t have looked for this album in a record or online store since it’s not the more traditional vocal or free jazz I usually prefer.
But it’s never wrong or too late to broaden your musical horizon, not even for yours truly :-)
Got You On My Mind by William Galison and Madeleine Peyroux can best described as a melange of jazz, blues, folk, and Parisian cabaret songs.
Like indicated I haven’t had a connection to the type of music created by William and Madeleine and thus have never heard of both of them before. A glimpse at wakingmusic.com shows that Madeleine isn’t really a no-name, in fact, she had some success with her album Dreamland in 1996 on Atlantic Records. And William is quite famous as harmonica player, having been featured in the themes of Sesame Street, The Untouchables, Bagdad Cafe, and performed with Chaka Khan or Ruth Brown too.
The eleven songs on Got You On My Mind are a nice mixture of original compositions by William Galison and obvious and not so obvious cover versions.
At her best Madeleine sounds as a young, white version of Billie Holiday like on J’ai Deux Amours, a cover version of a Josephine Baker tune, The Way You Look Tonight or Heaven To Me. And she does a very good job with a swinging version of Billie’s Back In Your Own Backyard and on Playin’, an ode to her (and William’s) former life as street musicians.
Flambee Montalbanese with its French influences reminds me of Henri Mancini’s soundtrack Pink Panther. Well, not the title song but some of the songs that where played during the scenes in the chalet with Claudia Cardinale as princess Dala.
Shoulda Known finds William Galison on lead vocals of this story-telling blues song with a cameo appearance by Carly Simon.
Cover versions of Heaven Help Us All, The Way You Look Tonight an Jealous Guy round off an interesting and worthwhile album.

Tracklisting of Got You On My Mind: 1. Back in your Own Back Yard/ 2. J’ais Deux Amours/ 3. Flambee Montalbenese/ 4. Got You on My Mind/ 5. Jealous Guy/ 6. The Way You Look Tonight/ 7. Rag for Madi/ 8. Playin’/ 9. Shoulda Known/ 10. This is Heaven To Me/ 11. Heaven Help Us All | released 2004 by Waking Up Music distributed by Morphius Records

For more infos visit wakingupmusic.com, williamgalison.com, madeleinepeyroux.com and morphius.com.

[If you want to discuss Madeleine’s and William’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]