Podcast 443: A Conversation with Polly Gibbons

British singer Polly Gibbons descends from a grand tradition of jazz and blues women whose singing exudes strength, defiance, and sassy wit. At the age of thirty, she has moved form an R&B/Pop flavoring in her recordings to a solid set of jazz tunes. Polly has a raspy, lived-in tone, a walloping sense of swing, and a dramatic flair that brings the listener inside her songs. Recorded for Resonance Records, Many of Faces of Love is something of a song cycle, with Polly singing about different facets of love. She has a band most singers would kill for assisting her, most notably violinist Christian Howes and guitarist Anthony Wilson, who knows a thing or two about singers, having been a mainstay of Diana Krall’s band for years. Polly wisely avoids singing the standards that so many singers repeat again and again. Instead, she reaches for tunes like the blue standard “Please Send Me Someone to Love”, or songs well-sung by other female singers from Betty Carter (“Make It Last”) to “Sarah Vaughan (“After Hours”) to Rickie Lee Jones (“Company”). She’s touring America now, and will be in New York and Cambridge, MA this week. She’s picking up musicians as she goes, and the Cambridge band will include Boston stalwarts like drummer Bob Gullotti, bassist Marco Panascia, and pianist John di Martino. We spoke while she was packing up for the transatlantic trip, and Podcast 44_ is our conversation. Musical selections form the CD Many of Faces of Love is included, such as “After Hours”, “Company” and “Love Comes and Goes”.