Camille Bertault is a rare kind of artist, a virtuoso with a sense of mischief.
She can set lyrics to a John Coltrane solo and deliver them with precision, yet never without a wink.
Her collaboration with John Finbury began during the pandemic, with two transatlantic recordings: “Look At What a Mess You Made of Me” and “Boulevard.”
On “Mess,” with lyrics by John Finbury, Patty Brayden, and Ned Claflin, she shares a dynamic duet with Christian McBride, his playing muscular, deeply grounded, and in constant motion.
Singing in English, with a distinctly French accent she leans into rather than smooths away, she brings a playful, almost theatrical charm to the lyric.
Her scatting becomes part of that energy, not floating above it but engaging directly, trading lines, matching articulation, locking into the time feel, and pushing against the pulse.
“Boulevard,” with lyrics by Camille Bertault, expands the palette, adding Larry Goldings and Billy Martin. Here, singing in her native French, she moves effortlessly between lyric and improvisation, answering phrases, stretching time, and slipping into scat as she trades with the band.
What binds both tracks is her ability to inhabit the words, to shape a phrase as if it were spoken in the moment.
Across languages and across distance, she finds the emotional thread, balancing vaudeville playfulness with a deeply rooted jazz sensibility.