Watch clips of Catherine Russell performing live at the "I Love Jazz" Festival in Brazil (Catherine appears around 3:35 in):



Photos of the festival are available here.

Catherine Russell will be the featured guest this week (July 25 - 31) on Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired.

The show can be heard on Sirius/XM's NPR Now - Channel 134 and on many Radio Stations in the US and Canada...Find your station here:


http://www.jazzinspired.com/schedule.shtml

Catherine Russell's delivery style honors the greats

Concert review
By Tad Dickens

"Taking songs that are 50, 60, 70 years old and making them sound fresh is a tough job. Performers often go too far, overplaying, oversinging, stretching for something to make those classics sound more contemporary.

There’s really no need for all of that, but that lesson can come only to those who have lived inside the songs. Catherine Russell is one of them.

Russell, a daughter of jazz music history makers, apparently has it in the blood. She showed it Saturday night to a crowd of about 385 at Jefferson Center’s 938-capacity Shaftman Hall.

Her method was clear from her first number, “Them There Eyes,” which Billie Holiday recorded in the 1930s. Over her three-piece backing band’s mid-tempo swing, her rich and resonant alto deeply inhabited the lyrics, with a fully round sense of time and phrasing that was never cliched.

From “Lady Day,” she moved on to Benny Goodman’s “All The Cats Join In,” singing with a sense of fun and shimmying, her long braids flowing over her face, while pianist Mark Shane rollicked over his solo..." (full review)

Review: Russell gives her all at Caffe Lena Show
Brian McElhiney, February 14

SARATOGA SPRINGS — When Catherine Russell sings, she does so with her entire body.

And this fact made her performance at Caffe Lena on Friday night all the more compelling. Throughout her roughly 90-minute set, Russell swayed, swung and slinked all over the small stage, savoring every consonant she sang and every note peeling off of Mark Shane’s piano.

But of course, all this would be nothing without Russell’s powerful pipes. Actually, “powerful” doesn’t even begin to describe her voice —throughout much of the evening, Russell didn’t even need a microphone. In fact, she completely eschewed it for “Kitchen Man,” which closed out the set proper.

Perhaps nowhere was her vocal prowess on display more than on the evening’s ballads, especially on a strong run-through of “New Orleans,” easily the evening’s highlight. Here, Shane’s cascading piano lines interlocked wonderfully with Russell’s dynamic voice, as the two musicians built the tension until Russell drew the final note out in climactic fashion...

The quirky drinking song “Quiet Whiskey” was just flat-out fun, with Russell beginning with a spoken chorus before belting out the lyrics, told from the point of view of a whiskey bottle and its other alcoholic friends. This song perhaps best embodied the spirit of Russell’s carefree, loose and yet intense performance. (full review)

Sonny Rollins Rules the Third Annual Voice Jazz Critics Poll
Finally, the change we need
By Francis Davis
Tuesday, December 30th 2008 at 3:01pm

Vocal: Catherine Russell, Sentimental Streak (World Village).(link)





2008's Top Recordings
Francis Davis
(Village Voice, The Atlantic)

VOCAL:

Catherine Russell, Sentimental Streak, World Village (link)

Acadamie du Jazz in France: 2008 Finaliste for Prix du Jazz Vocal

Jazz Blues and Co's Top 2008

Dan Backman's Best of 2008

Click on the image to listen to Catherine Russell live on NPR's Mountain Stage:

Catherine Russell will perform Ann Baker's "Ice Man Blues" and Maceo Pinkard's "Them There Eyes" at The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this Thursday Nov 6, in Charleston WV. The show will be broadcast on PBS throughout West Virginia. Other performers are: Tim O'Brien and Peter Rowan, Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss and Russ Hicks, and John Ellison, among others.

From The Herald-Dispatch:
Tickets are $38 for general admission, available at Taylor Books and through the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame web site (www.wvmusichalloffame.com). Premium tickets are $250, and include admittance to the Governor's Reception before the event as well as preferred seating in the auditorium.

Premium Tickets are available by calling 304/342-4412.