One-of-a-kind vocalist Catherine Russell has two sets on New Year’s Eve at the Regattabar in Cambridge. Ahead of the shows, she spoke with Al Davis and Va Lynda Robinson about her recent work with Sean Mason, her early days with Steely Dan, and a childhood encounter with Louis Armstrong that still shapes her performing today.
Al Davis: Good morning, Ms. Russell! Good to have you here today. I know you have an extended career and we’d like for you to elaborate a little bit on it. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Catherine Russell: None of it was planned! I just did one gig that led to something else that led to something else. I just started out really freelancing and performing live at Catch a Rising Star comedy club back in the 1980s, in between comedians, you would know who they are, they all became very successful. At the time I was doing a lot of recording work; demos for songwriters and different types of things to pay my bills.
Out of Catch a Rising Star, some of the guys that worked there worked at another club where I met Jimmy Vivino, who became the musical director on the Conan O’Brien show. And he at that time was leading a band that would invite a lot of well-known artists in to perform. And one of those artists was Donald Fagan! That’s how I got to start working with Donald Fagan in, I want to say, 1989-1990, which turned into working with Steely Dan eventually and recording with them.
After that, got a job with Cyndi Lauper in 1993, same kind of thing. This is what happens. You know, you get called for this, you get a call for that. And if you do well, hopefully you get another call! Eventually, same type of thing, David Bowie was looking for somebody who could play parts on different instruments and sing back up. So, Gail Ann Dorsey, who was his longtime bass player and vocalist, called me. At the same time I was teaching at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and I had to leave that job and then go on the road in 2002. And then in 2004, my business partner, who is now my husband of 21 years, said, “There’s one thing you haven’t done, which is your own recordings.” So that turned into my first album, which was called “Cat.” I feel very fortunate.
Al Davis: I want to ask a question about your dad, Louis Russell. He was a pianist and also a big band leader. And he worked with folks like King Oliver and Louis Armstrong.
Catherine Russell: That’s correct, yes. He was from Panama originally, and through certain family connections he took a ship in 1921 with his mother and his sister, and they stopped in New Orleans, got off the boat and that was where he stayed pretty much. The scene in those days, as I can imagine, it would have been smaller, you know, for Black artists, so he got through New Orleans and started getting his name around, because he had played for silent films in Panama. He was putting himself out there as a pianist and arranger, and he ran into Louis Armstrong, Joe Oliver, and very quickly made his way to Chicago and then to New York. By the late '20s, he had one of the hottest swing orchestras on the scene at that point. He was another person that just loved to work, work, work. He recorded with Louis Armstrong 1929-1930. Then when Louis Armstrong came back to New York and needed an orchestra in 1935, it was my father’s orchestra that became Louis Armstrong’s orchestra for a number of years.
Al Davis: Did you get a chance to meet Louis Armstrong?
Catherine Russell: Yes, when I was very young, very young. I remember it vividly, but I was in the three, four, five years of age time period. I remember the house very well. I remember Mr. Armstrong very well, he was very nice to children. If you asked him something, he’d just answer you. He wouldn’t answer you like an adult talking to a child. You know what I mean?
Va Lynda Robinson: I am in awe of your collaborations. You’ve already mentioned Steely Dan and David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper, but you’ve also had an opportunity to work with Paul Simon, Jackson Brown, Rosanne Cash. Your range is incredible
Catherine Russell: I like whatever music sounds good to me. I love country music. I love bluegrass. I love classical music. I love, you know, good singer-songwriter. Jackson Browne’s songs are great, you know. The thing that’s in common with all of these major artists is good songwriting. It was incredible to work with Paul Simon. We did the whole kind of retrospective that he did in 1993. Then Jackson [Browne] took me to Australia and New Zealand, and I got to meet Aboriginal people who I would never get to meet otherwise, and become friends with them. So that was a really great thing. I loved singing with Jackson. I love to blend and harmonize my voice with other people. I think it’s all good and we can all make music together. It doesn’t have to all be separate.
Al Davis: Tell us about your most recent recording, “Cat and the Hounds.”
Catherine Russell: Yes, that is Colin Hancock, who conceived and presented this idea to me. Colin is 29 years old. He’s a scholar of early jazz music. And he’s also an archivist. He’s one of the only recording engineers that records on cylinder, which is is how they recorded artists before electronic recording on microphones. He reached out and he said, “We want to do this tribute to 1920s blues women, and we’d like you to be the vocalist.” That’s something I’ve always loved, including a lot of these folks in my own shows. We know who Bessie Smith is, but a lot of artists that you don’t know were very popular in the 1920s, and also early '30s. It’s a fun, upbeat project. The band was great. The liner notes are fabulous, excellent historical information in there! Liner notes are something that I certainly valued, growing up, that’s how I learned about everybody on jazz records.
Al Davis: And prior to that, I just want to mention that you got together with the pianist Sean Mason. That was nice too. I didn’t expect you with a pianist. I’m used to your band, not a big band, but musicians along with you. At least some horns, you know? Tell us about that.
Catherine Russell: We have so many fine young players now, some great players. People ask me, well, what’s going to happen to jazz? I say “Nothing, because these these guys and gals can play!” Sean and I were on a family concert during the pandemic at Jazz at Lincoln Center that was virtual. Each of us had a favorite artist that we talked about and and Sean talked about Thelonious Monk and then he played part of a monk piece and I thought, “Wait a second,” because I don’t hear people that actually get how to play like Monk. I saw Monk when I was a child. My mother took me to see him. That kind of did it for me. I just thought, ”Wow, I don’t even know how he understands Monk like that.“ So after that he worked in my band for a little less than a year and then I said I’d like to do a dual album. I chose the material and he’d embrace it. He didn’t use any charts; he arranged it and came into the studio with all of it committed to memory, so we basically recorded that album in one day. He’s been fabulous because his playing is so deep and he really continues to compose in the moment. It’s different every time.
Va Lynda Robinson I want to quickly ask you about your concert for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.
Catherine Russell: Yes, well, Tiny Desk, you have to do either original material or public domain type of thing. So we picked a song that my dad wrote! It’s a huge honor to be included in that also, because everybody sees that and then it’s up there forever. I had my regular band, and Sean Mason was actually playing piano on that. And then I had Matt Munisteri on guitar, Tal Ronen on the bass, whom you will hear next week, and Mark McLean [composer for GBH’s ”Acoustic Rooster“] on drums. This video had natural lighting, great natural lighting, perfect sun in the afternoon.
Al Davis: Now, tell us what the folks expect to hear on New Year’s Eve,
Catherine Russell: We’ve got my bass player, Tal Ronan, who has been with me now for, I don’t know, 12 or 13 years. My drummer, Domo Branch, who has been with me for a few years, he’s a great drummer. And my pianist, Ben Rosenblum, also plays swing accordion. That’s my band — we’re gonna swing and we’re going to do some blues. And you know we’re going to have a good time!
Al Davis: Yeah, hope people will try to get there! Well, I want to thank you, Ms. Russell, for your time today. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!
Catherine Russell performs two sets at Regattabar on the 31st. Her latest release is ”Cat & the Hounds“, with Colin Hancock’s Jazz Hounds. If you go to the show, don’t forget to listen to GBH on the way home, for the conclusion of Al’s ”New Year’s Eve Soul Revival“!
