Catherine Russell | |
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 Russell at the Detroit Jazz Fest in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Cat [1] |
| Born | September 20, 1956 New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Harmonia Mundi Dot Time Records |
| Website | www |
Catherine Russell (born 1956) [1] is an American jazz and blues singer. She is best known for her 2016 album Harlem on My Mind .
Her father was Luis Russell, a Panamanian-born "pianist and leader of one of the most impressive big bands on the early New York jazz scene after leading a group in New Orleans and moving to Chicago, where he worked with King Oliver, who gave Louis Armstrong his first big break." [1] He later became Louis Armstrong's long-time musical director. [2] Her mother, Carline Ray, [3] held degrees from both Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music and performed with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm following World War II. [4] She later performed "with Doc Cheatham and Wynton Marsalis, among others." [2]
Russell's interest in music began as a child. [1] As a young girl, she was "steeped in early jazz—from '20s and '30s recordings by her father's orchestras to '40s and '50s R&B." [5] She was also enamored with country music—including the early George Jones, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Merle Haggard—as she liked "anything that swings." [1]
In the mid-1980s, she often visited a Manhattan club where guitarist Jimmy Vivino was the bandleader. [6] One evening she was invited to sing on stage with musician Donald Fagen of the band Steely Dan. [6] Soon afterwards, Russell was invited to tour with Fagen's "New York Rock and Soul Revue" in 1992. When Steely Dan reunited in 1993, Fagen invited her to join them, and she toured with them until 1996. [6] She spent "many years on the road with rock, blues, jazz, soul and gospel bands." [1] She preferred to tour with acoustic string bands as she did not have to compete with electric guitars. [1] She performed background vocals on the 1990 Madonna recording "Rescue Me".
From 2002-2004, Russell worked with David Bowie as a band member, providing backing vocals and featured contributions on guitar, keyboard and percussion for Bowie's Heathen Tour, A Reality Tour, and his late-2003 album Reality . Recalling these experiences, Russell remarked: "Working with David was a dream come true. I’d been a fan since 1971. He was such a gracious man, and musically generous. He brought out the best in me. In addition to background singing, he let me play several instruments: keyboards, percussion, guitar and mandolin. He allowed me to stretch beyond what I thought I was capable of. He was caring, funny and loved his family. I am blessed to have known him." [6]
When Bowie's touring career was suspended in 2004, Russell's business partner and later husband Paul Kahn suggested that she record a solo album. [6] However, Russell initially rejected the idea as she believed she already had "a nice career as a backup singer." [6] Nevertheless, she eventually consented to record song tracks at a friend's studio in Skokie, Illinois. Kahn then invited executives from a record company to hear Russell sing in New York, which led to a recording contract with Harmonia Mundi. The earlier tracks recorded in Illinois became her first album, Cat (2006). [6]
Russell soon experienced a "mid-career surge" in which she transitioned from an "in-demand, first-call backup singer to rock and pop stars" to become "the foremost vocal interpreter of vintage jazz and R&B songs." [6] Seven albums followed, about one every two years, supported by an extensive touring schedule in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. With her roots in jazz and the blues, Russell quickly became known in jazz circles and, by January 2014, was the second best-selling female artist on several jazz charts.
Her voice has been described as "reminiscent of many of the great jazz and blues singers. Her phrasing is impeccable and her delivery relaxed and effortless; it never seems as if she's 'trying.'" [2] The New York Times stated that her performances project "a strength, good humor and intelligence that engulf the room in a mood of bonhomie." [5] Her rendition of Irving Berlin's tune "Harlem on My Mind" was highly praised by the Jazz Times which declared that, "if there's a post-millennial answer to Dinah Washington, surely it's Catherine Russell: same remarkable vocal dexterity-blues shouter meets jazz stylist; same espresso-strength power; same immaculate clarity; same ability to shift seamlessly from sassy to torchy." [7]
Russell's cover of the 1920s song "Crazy Blues" was used in "The Emerald City" episode of the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire . [8] This song was included on a soundtrack recording [9] that won in 2012 for Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 54th Grammy Awards. [10]
In 2019, Russell appeared as a character in the biographical feature film Bolden! , about early jazz performer Buddy Bolden. She performed the blues folk song "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor." [11] The same year, she released her seventh album, Alone Together , via Dot Time Records. [12]
In 2022, Catherine Russell released Send For Me , her eighth album as a leader, receiving rave reviews in national media outlets; The Wall Street Journal , Relix , No Depression , Pop Matters , JazzTimes , and others, while also performing a concert for NPR Tiny Desk (Home) .
Some of Russell's credits are as follows: [13]
Steely Dan is an American pop rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Originally having a full band lineup, by the end of 1974 Becker and Fagen chose to stop playing live and continue Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, utilising a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".
Pretzel Logic is the third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on February 20, 1974. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz. The album was Steely Dan's last to be made and released while the group was still an active touring band, as well as the final album to feature the band's full quintet-lineup of Becker, Fagen, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, though it also features significant contributions from many prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians.
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician who was the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his work with Steely Dan, Fagen has released four solo albums, beginning with The Nightfly in 1982, which was nominated for seven Grammys.
Walter Carl Becker was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.
Aja is the sixth studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on September 23, 1977. On the album, band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker pushed Steely Dan further into experimenting with different combinations of session players, enlisting the services of nearly 40 musicians, while pursuing longer, more sophisticated compositions and arrangements.
Katy Lied is the fourth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in March 1975; reissues have been released by MCA Records since ABC Records was acquired by MCA in 1979. It was the first album the group made after they stopped touring, as well as their first to feature backing vocals by Michael McDonald.
Everything Must Go is the ninth studio album by American rock group Steely Dan. It was released on June 10, 2003, by Reprise Records, and was the band's second album following their 20-year studio hiatus spanning 1980 through 2000, when they released Two Against Nature. Everything Must Go is the band's most recent studio album and their last with founding member Walter Becker before his death in 2017.
Two Against Nature is the eighth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan. Their first studio album in 20 years, it was recorded from 1997 to 1999 and released on February 29, 2000, by Giant Records.
Alive in America is a live album by the American rock group Steely Dan, released in 1995. It is Steely Dan's first live album. The album comprises recordings from their 1993 and 1994 tours, which were the first live Steely Dan performances since 1974.
Kamakiriad is the second solo album by Steely Dan artist Donald Fagen, released in 1993. It was his first collaboration with Steely Dan partner Walter Becker since 1986, on Rosie Vela's album Zazu. Becker played guitar and bass and produced the album. The album is a futuristic, optimistic eight-song cycle about the journey of the narrator in his high-tech car, the Kamakiri. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year 1994.
Michael H. McDonald is an American singer, keyboardist and songwriter known for his distinctive, soulful voice and as a member of Steely Dan (1973–1974), and the Doobie Brothers. McDonald wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including "What a Fool Believes", "Minute by Minute", and "Takin' It to the Streets." McDonald has also performed as a prominent backing vocalist on numerous recordings by artists including Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins.
"FM (No Static at All)" is a song by American jazz-rock band Steely Dan, the title theme for the 1978 film FM. It made the US Top 40 that year when released as a single, a success relative to the film. Musically, it is a complex jazz-rock composition driven by its bass, guitar and piano parts, typical of the band's sound from this period; its lyrics look askance at the album-oriented rock format of many FM radio stations at that time, in contrast to the film's celebration of that medium.
Carolyn Leonhart is a jazz singer, daughter of jazz bassist Jay Leonhart, and sister of the trumpeter Michael Leonhart. She has performed as a back-up vocalist for Steely Dan on several tours and recordings.
Amy Helm is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the daughter of drummer Levon Helm and singer Libby Titus. She is a past member of the Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble Band and Ollabelle, as well as her own touring band.
Boardwalk Empire Volume 1: Music from the HBO Original Series is a soundtrack for the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire, released in September 2011 through Elektra Records. The album reached a peak position of number eight on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart and earned the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.
"Slinky Thing" is a song by Donald Fagen, appearing as the first track from his album, Sunken Condos. Telling the story of an older man seeking the affection and companionship of a significantly younger woman, the song details the events surrounding the two as they spend time together and endure comments made by others, who advise the narrator to "hold on to that slinky thing." The narrator himself thinks about if "she needs somebody who's closer to her own age."
"Aja" is a jazz rock song, with elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock, by the American rock band Steely Dan from the album of the same name, their sixth studio album, released in 1977. Composers Becker and Fagen play guitar and synthesizer, respectively, with studio musicians playing the other parts. Fagen sings lead vocals. Production duties were handled by Gary Katz; the album was released through ABC Records. Musically, it is tonally sophisticated and a structurally complex work that was praised upon release as the most ambitious track the duo had ever attempted. The song's lyrics voice the interior monologue of a man who runs to the title character to escape the stresses of his life "up on the hill." Fagen claimed that it was inspired by the relative of an acquaintance, who had married a Korean woman named Aja. He has described the song as being about the "tranquility that can come of a quiet relationship with a beautiful woman."
Harlem on My Mind is a studio album by American jazz singer Catherine Russell, released on September 9, 2016. It earned Russell a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
She Remembers Everything is Rosanne Cash's fourteenth album. The album was released on November 2, 2018, as well as Cash's second album for Blue Note Records. The album was produced by Tucker Martine and Cash's husband John Leventhal. Cash co-wrote every song on the album. The track "Crossing to Jerusalem" received a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song nomination at the 62nd Grammy Awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5ehMVsggI
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