The emergence of Catherine Russell on the music stage in the past few years has provided lenity of magical listening. Daughter of legendary band leader Luis Russell and bassist-guitarist-singer Carline Ray, Catherine Russell delights with her revival of classic and less-known swing and blues tunes. Her latest album, Bring It Back on Jazz Village, continues in this vein with her superb singing backed by a little big band rooted in swing with some gypsy jazz accents.
The new album brings her back with the creative team from her last album Simply Romancin’, that earned the Grand Prix du Hot Club de France. Among those supporting Ms. Russell are guitarist Matt Munisteri, pianist Mark Shane, bassist Lee Hudson, drummer Mark MacLean, tenor saxophonist and arranger Andy Farber, trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso, saxophonist Dan Block, trombonist John Allred and baritone saxophonist Mark Lopeman. And what a terrific team on a wonderful collection of songs ranging from the title track, a Peppermint Harris composition recorded by Wyonnie Harris, Duke Ellington’s I Let a Song Out Of My Heart, Johnny Otis and Preston Love’s Aged and Mellow, that Esther Phillips waxed, Public Melody One, which Louis Armstrong recorded for Decca with a big band led by Russell's late dad. There is also a previously unrecorded song by her father, Lucille, that was written for Louis Armstrong’s wife.
And the music is simply top-rate with Russell’s horn-like phrasing, her warmth, joy and intonation superb throughout whether strutting on The Darktown Strutters’ Ball, reflective on Aged and Mellow (which is how she wants her men, just like she wants her whisky). She can be sassy on the title track, moody on After The Lights Go Down Low, and getting the jitterbuggers out on the floor singing Ida Cox’s You Got to Swing and Sway. She sings with the exuberance of Helen Humes and the nuance of Lavern Baker. Then there are booting sax solos, growling trumpets, marvelous piano from boogie to deep swing, guitarist Munisteri jazzy electric blues playing on the title track as well as his deft acoustic chording elsewhere. One also notes the wonderful arrangements with touches of Ellington and other classic big bands.
The only reason I would be hesitant in describing this as her best recording because her other recordings have also been so marvelous, but Bring It Back is one of the finest vocal recordings I have heard in the past few months. Its an outstanding recording that retains its pleasures with repeated hearings. Catherine Russell not simply brings back, but reinvigorates, some familiar classics and lesser known gems from the blues and swing worlds. I received my copy from a publicist. Here is Public Melody One.
Catherine Russell, the daughter of the legendary Luis Russell and Carline Ray, has yet another collection of musical treats with her latest album, Strictly Romancin’ (World Village). It carries on in the vein of her well received Sentimental Streak and Inside This Heart Of Mine, with a similar collection of mostly long forgotten blues, ballads, love songs and swing from the twenties to today.
On this date, she is joined by guitarist Matt Munisteri, pianist Mark Shane, bassist Lee Hudson and drummer Mark McLean with Dan Block’s alto saxophone and clarinet. The tenor saxophone of Andy Farber is present on four tracks while Joe Barbato adds accordion to two selections. Vocally she remains as commanding as in her past efforts as her vocals are delivered soulfully yet with a clarity that many vocalists today would benefit from listening to her mix of clean diction and musicality.
She and her collaborators have such a way of uncovering lesser know gems from such well known composers and songwriters as Edgar Sampson, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams and Ivory Joe Hunter as well as bring a fresh touch to some very well known songs while Munisteri in particular adds some very neat guitar playing channeling at different times, Eddie Lang and Django Reinhardt as well Charlie Christian.
Certainly the yearning vocal of the swinging Edgar Sampson-Ken Harrison Under the Spell of the Blues, helps set the tone and then followed by the gypsy swing rendition of I’m In The Mood For Love, with Barbato’s accordion being stunning. If Ev’ntide is not a familiar Hoagy Carmichael song, Russell’s warm rendition should change that. The Ellington-Strayhorn I’m Checkin’ Out, Goodbye, has a lively backing anchored in part of Shane’s stride-base piano and John Allred’s gruff trombone and some nice alto sax fills from Block along with Jon-Erik Kellso’s bright horn arrangement. Then there is the hep lively jive of Mary Lou William’s tribute to Louis Armstrong, Satchel Mouth Baby, with Munisteri providing vocal harmony.
It is a joy to listen to Catherine Russell deliver Lil Green’s classic ballad blues In the Dark, with Shane taking a solo. No More is a choice uptown blues as she sings about not needing nor caring for her lover with the horns caressing her vocal. There is some more Left Bank Gypsy jazz flavor on Everything’s Been Done Before, with Barbato’s accordion and Munisteri’s deft single note acoustic guitar contribute to this romantic performance. It is followed by the yearning and pleading vocal on Ivory Joe Hunter’s Don’t Leave Me, with Shane evoking the late blues and country balladeer’s piano style while Munisteri perhaps takes his finest solo. Then there is a lively rendition of the early jazz classic Everybody Loves My Baby, that swings hard with some fine muted trumpet from Kellso and clarinet from Block that is more in the vein of Benny Goodman than Buster Bailey (who played on the original by Eva Taylor which had Louis Armstrong on cornet).
Russell’s mother, Carline Ray, adds her vocal to He’s All I Need, a gospel classic from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight with Shane providing solid, idiomatic piano. This disc closes with the jaunty “Whatcha Gonna Do When There Ain’t No Swing?” As long as Catherine Russell is around we don’t have to worry about that question, because we won’t be blue because she will keep us swinging. Strictly Romancin’ is another varied and marvelous recording by Catherine Russell. Those who have her prior albums likely have been waiting for more from her and will not be disappointed. Others will discover just how wonderful a performer she is.
I received my review copy from a publicist for this release. Here is Catherine doing the title track of Inside This Heart Of Mine.
Posts
