Personnel:
Billie Poole (vcl), Jimmy Jones (dir), Budd Johnson (arr), Clark Terry (tp), Junior Mance (p), Kenny Burrell (g), Bob Cranshaw (b), Mickey Roker (d)
Reference: FSRCD 774
Bar code: 8427328607742
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 albums Sermonette and Confessin' the Blues are 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.
"En ocasiones de nada sirve bucear en viejas enciclopedias y las nuevas, las digitales, recogen los contenidos de aquéllas, no nos engañemos siguiendo el rastro de un suceso o un personaje determinados que un día alcanzaron notoriedad. Nos deja un sentimiento de extrañeza. La misma que provoca la figura de Billie Poole, una cantante de blues de la que sabemos que fichó para Riverside luego de que Bill Graues la descubriera en un club parisino, contrato que dio de sí estos dos discos. A partir de aquí nada más se sabe de ella. Estas dos grabaciones de 1962 muestran las dos caras de la californiana: si en 'Sermonette' la encontramos haciendo suyos standards clásicos como This cant be love o Time after time acompañada por la orquesta de Jimmy Jones, en 'Confessin the Blues', un disco igualmente marcado por el acompañamiento (el trío de Junior Mance con Kenny Burrell), predomina su vertiente blues, la más genuina. En él, el bailable Them Blues y versiones de Bessie Smith, Big Bill Broonzy y otros."
Rafa Martinez (4 Septiembre, 2013)
Cultura/s - La Vanguardia
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-Confessin the Blues!
"This CD brings both Riverside albums cut by singer Billie Poole. Other than a single from a few years earlier, the two sets were Poole's entire recording legacy. Poole was an expressive singer who felt most comfortable on blues-oriented material. For this date, she was assisted by an unbeatable rhythm section (guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Junior Mance, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Mickey Roker) and performed mostly vintage material, with a few more recent songs added for variety. Poole sounds fine on such tunes as "Confessin' the Blues," "Stormy Weather," "Alone Together," and even "God Bless the Child."
Scott Yanow -All Music Guide
