FIVE THINGS You SHould KNOW ABOUT
Catherine Russell
January 18, 2021 | by Rusty Aceves
Catherine Russell (photo by Sandrine Lee)
We look forward to this week’s Fridays at Five streaming concert with vocalist Catherine Russell. Here are five things you should know to get you ready for the show.
- She has a legendary musical pedigree. Russell grew up as part of a serious musical family; her father was the Panamanian-born pianist, composer, and arranger Luis Russell — a longtime collaborator and musical director for Louis Armstrong, and her mother Carline Ray was a bassist and vocalist who worked with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Ruth Brown, Sy Oliver, and Mary Lou Williams.
- She’s had an incredibly rich career. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and has worked with an amazing roster of artists including David Bowie, Steely Dan, Michael Feinstein, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Levon Helm, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Rosanne Cash, appearing on over 200 albums. A multi-talented artist, she not only sang, but played keyboards, guitar, and percussion on David Bowie’s 2002 tour for his album Heathen and his final tour in 2003 and 2004 to support his album Reality.
She’s released seven highly regarded albums beginning with her 2006 World Village debut, Cat, and made appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tavis Smiley Show, NPR’s Fresh Air, Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, and Jazz Night in America. Over the last few years, Russell and guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli have performed together in a tribute program to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra called Billie & Blue Eyes. - She’s a multiple award winner. Russell won a GRAMMY for her version of the landmark 1920 Perry Bradford song “Crazy Blues” recorded for the soundtrack album of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, and appeared on The Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm’s GRAMMY-winning 2009 album Electric Dirt. Both her 2016 release Harlem On My Mind and 2019’s Alone Together received GRAMMY nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album. She’s received an NYC Nightlife Award, and both the Grand Prix from Hot Club de France and Prix du Vocal Jazz from France’s L’Academy du Jazz for her 2012 disc Strictly Romancin’.
- She has extensive experience in the worlds of film and television. Russell performed on the soundtrack and appeared on-screen as bordello madame Lalique Lil in Dan Pritzger’s 2019 Buddy Bolden biopic Bolden, singing the song “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” composed by Wynton Marsalis. The movie had a sneak preview at SFJAZZ in May 2019 before its theatrical release. Russell also appeared in the 1992 Irwin Winkler film Night and the City with Robert DeNiro and Jessica Lange, the 2017 documentary Rock n’ Roll Guns for Hire: The Story of the Sidemen, a documentary film and concert film made during David Bowie’s 2003–2004 Reality tour, and in several comedy specials by veteran comedian Robert Klein.
- For this concert, Russell performs music from her latest GRAMMY-nominated album, Alone Together. Considering her ties to the past jazz era through her parents, it’s not surprising that music from the 30s and 40s would be part of her DNA, but this collection of Swing Era tunes is “contemporized” in the most respectful way. She approaches the music associated with Louis Jordan, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw with a modernist’s ear, selecting a very personal set of compositions that includes gems like “Errand Girl for Rhythm,” “Shake Down the Stars,” “You Can’t Pull the Wool Over My Eyes,” and delightful obscurities like Henry Creamer’s blues novelty “He May Be Your Dog But He’s Wearing My Collar,” popularized by blues diva Rosa Henderson’s 1924 recording.
Catherine Russell and her band perform Louis Jordan's "Early in the Morning"