France welcomed American jazz musicians and created a gorgeous, Gallo-centric approach to the idiom, complete with a legendary list of artists who have enriched the art form, from Michel Legrand to Edith Piaf. Now, the twenty nine year-old French chanteuse Melanie Dahan who burst on the scene at the Jazz In Juan-Les-Pin Revelations and the Brussels International Jazz Singers Competition in 2005 and 2007 steps up to the international stage with her first CD, La Princesse et Les Croque - Notes: a darling twelve-track collection of French chansons rendered in regal style by Dahan along with pianist/arranger Giovanni Mirabassi, bassist Marc-Michel Le Bevillon, drummer Mathieu Chazarenc and alto saxophonist Pierrick Pedron. Blessed with a lithe, angelic alto voice that swings and soothes, Dahan delivers a bravura performance interpreting the music of Charles Asnavour, Bernard Dimey, Georges Brassens, Leo Ferre, Jean Cayrecastel, Claude Nougaro, Also Romano, Robert Nyel, Gaby Verlor, Francis Lai, Cris and Carol, Pierre Baroul, with precision and pathos on these 4/4 tunes, waltzes, ballads and Latin numbers. Originally inspired after Dahan and Miarabassi met in a Bernard Dimey tribute in 2006, this CD honors the French masters while heralding the ascension of a new one. Miraabassi s elegant and at times Tynerish pianistics, Le Bevillon s lovely basslines, and Chazarenc s sensitive drumming provide Dahan with a magic carpet of support for her soar. Save for the exquisite piano/vocal duets, the lullaby-like Rimes, and the Harlem stride-swung Je Me Suis Fait Tout Petit -- along with Pedron s Paul Desmon-esque alto lines on the Caribbean-cadenced J Amerais Tant Savoir, and the perky A Bicyclette, -- the rest of tracks are rendered with voice and rhythm section: from La Salle et Laterrase, L Enfantmaquille and the title track, to Je Hais Les Dimanches, Le Petit Bal Perdu, and Les Poètes. On all of the tracks, whether she s channeling Ella Fitzgerald with her scat singing, or purring poetically with her breathless phrasing, Dahan breathes new life into these timeless songs with a jazz-born breath of fresh air. Melanie Dahan took her first breath as a singer when she was eleven years old, as the youngest member of Les Gavroches, a troupe of comedians, dancers and vocalists. Her father was an amateur pianist, and she performed in musicals for five years and then turned to jazz, and bossa nova, inspired by Ella Fitzgerald s LP, Ella in Berlin. She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and in 2001, she took a leap of faith as a self-taught vocalist and found work immediately, playing her own songs, as well as standards, Playing here and there in Parisian jazz clubs, connecting with the audience, I quickly realized how exciting it was to be able to improvise and swing and find my own style. It gets you right there!, she says. She studied jazz technique at the Studio des Variétés, in Paris, and also studied with Sara Lazarus and Michelle Hendricks. She was a finalist at Jazz in Juan-les-Pins Revelations, was named as the young hopeful of French jazz vocal at Les Couleurs du Jazz festival, both in 2005, and won first place at the Brussels International Jazz Singers Competition in 2007. Which brings us to La Princesse et Les Croque - Notes; the first of many offerings from this jazz diva-in-the-making.