Catherine Russell (singer)

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Catherine Russell (2006)

Catherine Russell (* 1956 in New York ) is an American jazz and blues singer.

Life

Her father Luis Russell comes from Panama. He immigrated to New Orleans and lived there for a few years before settling in New York. He became a pianist and band leader and was Louis Armstrong's musical director for many years . Her mother, Carline Ray, is a bassist and singer who holds degrees from the Juillard and Manhattan School of Music. (She has appeared with Mary Lou Williams and Wynton Marsalis, among others.)

Catherine Russell also embarked on a musical career as a singer. She received her formal vocal training from Berklee College of Music in Boston, but says her best teacher was her mother. Nevertheless, she made her debut as a dancer on a Broadway show, but then switched to singing and earned her living as a sought-after background singer. For more than twenty years she stood in the second row and sang all over the world a. a. with Paul Simon , David Bowie , Steely Dan , Cyndi Lauper , Jackson Browne , Donald Fagen and Rosanne Cash . Only in 2004 did she have the courage to record an album under her own name.

Works

Russell was signed to the World Village Label by Harmonia Mundi . There she released several albums under her own name, in 2006 her debut album Cat with the guitarist Frank Portolese and the banjo or mandolin player Stuart J. Rosenberg; In 2008, their second album Sentimental Streak followed on the same label with the line-up Catherine Russell (vocals), Mark Shane (piano), Larry Ham (piano), Lee Hudson (bass), Jimmy Wormworth (drums), Matt Munisteri (guitar and banjo) , Larry Campbell (guitar and violin), Steven Bernstein (trumpet and cornet), Howard Johnson (tuba), Eric Lawrence (saxophone) and Rachelle Garniez (accordion).

Her CDs show her roots in blues, R&B, soul, swing and jazz. Elements of early New Orleans jazz are just as hard to ignore as borrowings from their role models Etta James , Abbey Lincoln , Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith , Pearl Bailey and Ella Fitzgerald . For her second album, Sentimental Streak , which was mainly arranged acoustically , she received the 2008 German Record Critics' Prize in the jazz category. Her album Strictly Romancin ' (World Village / Harmonia Mundi) was awarded the Prix ​​Billie Hollyday (Prix du Jazz Vocal) by the French Académie du Jazz in 2013 . Her album Harlem on My Mind (World Village / Harmonia Mundi 2016) was nominated for a Grammy for "best jazz singing album ". In 2019 she released her seventh studio album Alone Together (Dot Time Records); on it sings standards from the American Songbook: traditional New Orleans jazz, swing and blues.

It is also documented on a live recording of the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival 2010 (on the CD Walkin '& Swingin' Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival Vol. 2 , it can be heard on two tracks with the Diva Jazz Orchestra ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Catherine Russell, "Harlem On My Mind" SWR2 CD tip on January 6, 2017
  2. ↑ Palmarès 2012 de l'Académie du Jazz , francetv.fr of January 16, 2013, accessed February 3, 2013 (French)
  3. ↑ Album of the week at WDR
personal data
SURNAME Russell, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz and blues singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States