FEATURE: MADELEINE PEYROUX AND PAULA COLE

At first glance, Madeleine Peyroux and Paula Cole might seem surprising candidates for a co-headlining tour – Peyroux known for her retro jazz vibe, Cole recalled by many as the epitome of polished ’90s pop.

Tracing their careers to the present day, however, one sees two fiercely independent artists who have explored a broad range of genres through a consistent history of critically acclaimed albums. And now they are applying that experience to a re-examination of the breakthrough releases that established their reputations.

When they perform Oct. 20 at the Palladium, it will be Cole’s first appearance at the Center for the Performing Arts and Peyroux’s first since 2014.

For Peyroux, whose voice has long drawn comparisons to jazz legend Billie Holiday, the tour supports the reissue of her 2004 album Careless Love. It included the original hit “Don’t Wait Too Long” and interpretations of jazz standards and songs by artists as diverse as Leonard Cohen (“Dance Me to the End of Love”), Hank Williams, Bessie Smith and indie rocker Elliott Smith. The new, expanded reissue, available digitally and as a two-CD or three-LP set, includes not only the original recordings but also an entire, previously unreleased live set from 2005 at Spain’s Festival de Jazz de Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Though Peyroux was just 30 at the time, the album was a second chance of sorts.

Born in Georgia but raised in France after her parents’ divorce, she developed her voice and her distinctive guitar style – not common for a jazz singer – while busking on the streets of Paris, much like her hero Edith Piaf. She dropped out of high school to tour Europe full time, then returned to the States in her early 20s. She signed with Atlantic Records to release her debut album, Dreamland, in 1996.

The record won wide acclaim, but her next step was not so clear. A brief relationship with Sony Music did not bear fruit. She had to undergo vocal cord surgery. She spent time traveling and reflecting.

“I put a lot of thought into what my career means,” Peyroux recalls, “what making a record and the follow-up tour represents – the kind of music I wanted to do and the amount of work that is involved,” she said in an interview accompanying the new release.

Not until 2004 was she ready to restart her recording career, but things moved quickly when she signed with Rounder Records and began a long-term creative partnership with producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Shawn Colvin). Their first collaboration was Careless Love, which went gold in its first year, nearly topped the Billboard jazz chart and made the Top 10 in the U.K. All About Jazz hailed it as “a moody, haunting masterpiece” and “a whale of a record.”

Cole’s current stint on the road celebrates her self-produced second album, This Fire, released in 1996. The double-platinum smash included the Top 10 single “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” as well as “I Don’t Want to Wait,” which became the theme for the hit WB series Dawson’s Creek. She was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, named Best New Artist and was the first woman ever to receive a solo nomination for Producer of the Year.

“I needed to stay true to myself,” Cole recalled in one interview. “It was so integral to the music. Not to produce would be like cutting off my arms or something.” Cole has continued to prove herself as a songwriter and producer with a steady stream of album releases. Her recent projects, however, have showcased her ability to interpret traditional songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook.

On the 2017 double album Ballads, she rekindled her love of singing jazz, which was her initial ambition as a student at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston. The track list includes such timeless titles as “God Bless the Child,” “Skylark,” “Body and Soul,” “Blue Moon” and “Autumn Leaves.” The crowdfunded independent release debuted in the Top 10 of Billboard’s jazz chart.

Cole’s 11th and latest release is 2021’s American Quilt, a showcase of blues, jazz, folk, pop and gospel standards including “Shenandoah,” “Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down and Out),” “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “What a Wonderful World.”