For me, Catherine Russell is the Hank Jones of vocalists. Like the late pianist, she carries the entire history of jazz and blues in every phrase she delivers—from New Orleans to Muscle Shoals, from the Brill Building to Harlem. It’s the canvas for her vocal paints and brushes. Like Jones, her every line moves with an understated elegance and a heart-lifting swing to tell a story—the whole story. Her latest album, Alone Together, gives us a singer at the top of her game, backed by a terrific band perfectly matched to her intentions.

Catherine Russell
Alone Together (Dot Time Records)
A review
Vocalist Catherine Russell can swing a lyric like nobody’s business. Of course, she has a genetic advantage over the rest of us: she’s the daughter of Luis Russell, who led the orchestra behind Louis Armstrong for several years, and Carline Ray, a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

What is it about swing that puts a smile on the face? I don’t know, but I do know that Russell is a past master at this mysterious art. It’s subtle—the way she elongates or clips a syllable, her variety of vibrato, the added breath of air at the end of a line, the punctuation and syncopation, the way she hits a note dead on or slides into it. It all adds up to impeccable, fluid phrasing that is purely her own. Add great pitch, perfect diction, deep feeling, and a wise humanity, and oh, baby, you’ve got one of the planet’s most impressive musical artists.

She gets plenty of support from the folks backing her. The rhythm section of Matt Munisteri (guitars, musical director), Mark Shane (piano), Tal Ronen (bass), and Mark McLean (drums, percussion) lays down a solid but oh so supple foundation over which Russell can swing at will. Munisteri and Shane add terrific, understated solo work, as well, and Shane provides such tasty and tasteful piano fills. The virtuosic Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), John Allred (trombone), and Evan Arntzen (saxophone) get sweet or stinky as the occasion demands. The arrangements are spot on, with Mark Lopeman, Kellso, and Munisteri responsible for all but a handful of that work. (One quibble: no one is credited for the arrangements on three tracks, and only the string arranger, violinist Dana Lyn, is listed on another.)

The material follows the pattern of Russell’s previous releases, featuring “an alluring mix of the familiar and the forgotten,” as Ricky Riccardi, director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, describes it in his informative liner notes. The familiar include Kellso’s terrific arrangement of Louis Jordan’s “Early in the Morning” and Lopeman’s take on Jordan’s “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” (Russell puts the question very directly and finds unsuspected layers of emotional life in the tune.) Russell’s delivery of Richard A. Whiting’s “When Did You Leave Heaven” is a heart stopper, and her attention to every detail on “How Deep Is the Ocean” revivifies a song that can be hackneyed is less capable hands. We get a glimpse of Russell’s seductive skills on “I Only Have Eyes for You;” her bawdiness on the unfamiliar but welcome “He May Be Your Dog but He’s Wearing My Collar,” first recorded by Rosa Henderson in the mid-’20s; and her humor on Fats Waller’s “You’re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew.”

Alone Together gives us 13 tracks of musical thrills that deepen our self-awareness, forgive us our weaknesses, lift our hearts, and thoroughly entertain us. Swing, Sister, swing.

© 2019 Mel Minter