[Dixielandjazz] Catherine Russell reviewed - World Village

[Robert Ringwald]

Catherine Russell: Strictly Romancin' (World Village)
by Jeff Simon
Buffalo News, February 12, 2012
Talk about roots and bloodlines. Nobody is ever going to forget that Catherine Russell
is the daughter of Luis Russell, Louis Armstrong's great and legendary arranger.
Nor should one ever forget it. Here is music from the more arcane -- but also cooler
-- chapters in the Great American Songbook -- Lil Green's "Romance in the Dark,"
for instance, or Edgar Sampson's "Under the Spell of the Blues," or Rosetta Tharpe's
"He's All I Need," or Ivory Joe Hunter's "Don't Leave Me," or Hoagy Carmichael's
"Eve'Nin." And it's all played by her band in arrangements that are as plainly and
jauntily neo-swing as they could get. Add on top of that the throaty sound of her
voice -- with plenty of beautiful resonance up in "the mask" as the voice teachers
like to say -- and you've got one of the most exciting of all new jazz singers. Finding
people who aren't at least a little in love with what Catherine Russell does at first
hearing would be an interesting scientific experiment. I'm sure it could be done,
of course. I think it would take a lot of work. Her fourth disc and perhaps her best.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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