Billie Poole : Life and career, Discography Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billie Poole

American singer

Billie Poole
Birth name	Lucille Poole
Born	(1929-03-21)March 21, 1929 Edwardsville, Illinois, U.S.
Died	May 21, 2005(2005-05-21) (aged 76) Oakland, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, blues
Occupation(s)	Singer

Musical artist

Lucille "Billie" Poole (March 21, 1929 – May 21, 2005) was an American jazz and blues singer.

Life and career

Born in Edwardsville, Illinois, Billie Poole moved to California with her family in 1943, where she founded choirs. She had performances with them in numerous concerts around San Francisco. In 1954 she went to France and acted in the German/French movie "The heroes are tired/Les héros sont fatigués". Besides she sang spirituals and Jazz. In 1959 she made recordings with Art Simmons, supported by Clark Terry, Elek Bacsik, Michel Gaudry and Kenny Clarke. Through 1960 she appeared regularly on a French TV series 'Jazz Memories'.^[1] On 30 August 1961 she had a live TV-appearance in the German programme Jazz gehört und gesehen (Jazz for listeners and viewers) hosted by Joachim-Ernst Behrendt).^[2] alongside Humphrey Littleton and Eric Dolphy

After an appearance in Cologne in that year, a recording with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band was planned, and resulted in a single, but had to be cancelled as Poole needed to return to the US.^[3]
In 1962 her first album Sermonette for Riverside was published. She sang with pianist Jimmy Jones and orchestra. Her second album Confessin' the Blues (1963) featured Junior Mance, Kenny Burrell, Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker).

In 1968/69 Billie Poole was back in France and performed with Memphis Slim. In her last years she sang with her half-sister Betty Gadling,^[4] who led a choir called Allen Temple Baptist Church Mass Choir (Hand in Hand).

Discography

Sermonette (with Jimmy Jones & Orchestra, 1961–62)
Confessin' the Blues (with Junior Mance, Kenny Burrell, Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker, 1963)

References

^ "Résultats de recherche". Ina.fr. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
^ "Programm vom Mittwoch, den 30. August 1961". Tvprogramme.net. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
^ Robert von Zahn Jazz in Köln. Köln 1997; p. 115
^ honoring Archived 2013-10-30 at the Wayback Machine the late Betty Gadling in the US Congress in February 2011