Billie Poole - Sermonette / Confessin' the Blues (2020)

Billie Poole was a young girl from Californian who became known in Paris in the early 60s as a blues singer, in a style derivative of Bessie Smith and the heritage of the urban, vocalized blues form. Her own country wouldnt catch up until later, after her successful appearances in the clubs of the French capital helped her build a career. It was then that Riversde offered her a recording contract.

These two albumsSermonette and Confessin the Bluesare the result. They show her depth and range, her easy enunciation that allows for variety in interpretative phrasing, and the essential drive in her singing that fits so well within the blues medium. Miss Poole discloses herself as a musical dual personality. There was her natural blues personality and what one might term her other or standard personality. Her blues interpretations are just conventional blues vocals, strongly delivered with conviction and elan, and she exhibits another vocal personality when, far from a shouter, she sings standards, revealing herself as a sensitive interpreter of a ballad lyric and a warm vocalist of more romantic melody.