[Dixielandjazz] Catherine Russell interviewed -- Jerusalem Post, March 3, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

Mining Jazz's Oldest Streams
by Barry Davis
Jerusalem Post, March 3, 2014
Catherine Russell certainly knows from whom to gather her spiritual and creative
energy. The 57-year-old American jazz singer, who will appear all over the country
between March 8 and 15 as part of this year's Hot Jazz series, cites some of the
most celebrated divas of the art form as her sources of inspiration. Vocalist Abbey
Lincoln, the possessor of one of the most emotive and evocative voices in jazz history,
is high on Russell's list of influences, and there is a Lincolnesque lilt to Russell's
delivery.
"I loved Abbey Lincoln, and I got to hear her a few times," says Russell. "She was
really unique. It is a big compliment to be compared with her."
The truth is, however, that Russell had plenty of inspiration much closer to home.
Her father, Luis Russell, was the musical director for iconic trumpeter-vocalist
and band leader Louis Armstrong; and her mother, Carline Ray, held degrees from both
Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music and performed with the International
Sweethearts of Rhythm, the first racially integrated all-female jazz outfit, during
World War II.
"My parents were pioneers in their fields," says Russell. "My dad was right at the
beginnings of New Orleans jazz and the blues. I was listening to his music when I
was three years old. My mother heard all those great early musicians in Harlem. She
met [legendary singer] Billie Holiday, and she took me to see [blues singer] Alberta
Hunter perform. I heard everyone from [modern jazz pioneer pianist] Thelonious Monk
to [maverick saxophonist] Rahsaan Roland Kirk and [singer] Betty Carter -- everybody."
Ivie Anderson and pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams are also important role models
for Russell.
Like any art form, jazz is an evolving discipline, but the leading proponents all
talk about the need to be connected to the roots of the music in order to take it
forward to the next stage. Russell appears to have a direct link to those roots.
But Russell's parents were happy to allow their daughter to get into contemporary
and other sounds, too.
"I was never limited to one thing or another," she says. "My dad passed away when
I was quite young, but my mother let me listen to everything -- rock 'n' roll and
blues, and we listened to opera. We used to go the opera, and there was all kinds
of classical music. I was exposed to everything, and I feed off everything I have
ever heard."
That provides Russell with a generous substratum for conveying her personal and artistic
message.
"It helps me tell the story of the songs without feeling limited," she says, "without
feeling that I have to sound like this or that. I get to just express the tune at
any particular moment. I work off the great musicians I have with me on the stage
and just let that carry me."
Having such an eclectic musical education has also helped Russell spread her talents
across a very wide spectrum of artistic ventures. In addition to her own jazz work,
which includes five CDs as leader, her CV also features stints with such pop and
rock icons as David Bowie, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne and Paul Simon.
"I got to go on two tours with David Bowie and be in his band for two years," explains
Russell. "I was a big Bowie fan from the early 1970s. He's a great writer and I always
loved his voice, so when I got the opportunity to join his band in 2002 -- I couldn't
believe it was happening -- I dropped everything and joined him. I said, 'Yeah, I
think I have to do this.'"
In fact, Russell brought more than just her vocal prowess to the Bowie act.
"The great thing about being with Bowie was that he also allowed me to play instruments
in the shows," she recounts. "I got to play keyboards and guitars, mandolin and percussion.
He let me express myself instrumentally as well. That was just great."
Having all those instrumental skills at her disposal not only enabled Russell to
play a more significant role in Bowie's shows, but it also gives a more intimate
understanding of what goes into making a jazz gig sound right.
"It allows me to listen to my sidemen and to learn from them because they teach me
all the time what, for example, the tenor saxophone plays as opposed to what the
alto sax plays and what the clarinet and trumpet play, and I get all these different
sensibilities." she says. "And it also allows me to feel like my voice is an instrument
as opposed to being something separate from the instrumentalists. I always feel,
and try to sing, like I'm a part of the ensemble."
Russell's learning curve just goes on, and she feels she has come a long way since
her debut album, Cat, which was released eight years ago.
"It has been a real journey, really focusing on how I want the music to sound. I
learned this from a musician friend of mine. He told me that when you make your first
album, you are actually learning how to make an album. I love Cat and how it came
out, and I also hear that I was really trying to find my voice and my way through
it," she explains.
For Russell, finding her own voice also means feeding off her influences that come
from the earliest forms of jazz and later musical forms.
"Since Cat, I have been looking to move toward what I love, which is the swing era
and primarily music from the 1930s and '40s and the blues of the 1920s but also rhythm
and blues of the 1940s and '50s."
All of that is present in Russell's latest release, Bring It Back. She will perform
numbers from it at her shows here, along with some standards.
"Since Cat, I have met more musicians, more like-minded musicians, who love playing
the traditional styles," she says. "I have expanded my musical friends and my musical
world."
-30


-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

“I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.” -Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952.