[Dixielandjazz] Catherine Russell on "Fresh Air"

[Robert Ringwald]

Catherine Russell: The Fresh Air In-Studio Concert
NPR's "Fresh Air," February 21, 2012
Blues and jazz singer Catherine Russell says she frequently listens to the radio
while washing dishes. One night, she was by the sink listening to a Chick Webb compilation
when Ella Fitzgerald's "Under the Spell of the Blues" came on. The song struck her.
"The lyric came on, and it was just a beautiful story, and then I [was] compelled
to learn the tune, and then I learned about everything surrounding it," she says.
The result is now one of 14 songs on Russell's fourth solo album, "Strictly Romancin',"
and one of the tunes she sings during Tuesday's Fresh Air in-studio interview and
concert. Other songs in the concert include "Everything's Been Done Before," "Wake
Up and Live" and "Romance in the Dark." Russell grew up on these tunes, in addition
to a mix of rock, blues and classical arrangements.
"My mother had a radio in the kitchen when I was growing up, and we used to listen
to William B. Williams' Make Believe Ballroom on WNEW-AM," she tells Fresh Air's
Terry Gross. "So every morning, I was listening to Ella, the Mills Brothers, Steve
Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee. Everything that was popular of
the day and before that.... That really formed my appreciation of phrasing, of how
the people sang these tunes in those days."....
Full episode:
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/21/146478234


--Bob Ringwald
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