Amel Larrieux

Hey you, with the Sansa in your pocket. Don't tell, but neo-jazz is going to be the new neo-soul. First Christina got Back to Basics and big band. Now neo-soul chanteuse Amel Larrieux tackles everything from show tunes like "If I Were a Bell" to a Nina Simone-indebted cover of "Wild Is the Wind." Sure, an album of jazz standards is a classic "what now" move for artists having a mid-career crisis. But Larrieux's got the grace and the light-as-a-feather, sturdy-as-a-two-by-four pipes to shift it from cliche to next big thing. But ix-nay on the eo-jazz-nay around Joss Stone, OK?