At 70, Catherine Russell Still Just Wants To Have Fun

Considering that Catherine Russell usually sings songs that are at least 70 or 80 years old, and many of them are considerably older than that, it is hard to explain to the uninitiated exactly how and why constantly surprises us.One point that isn’t surprising is that even though Ms. Russell turned 70 a few weeks ago and commemorated the occasion with a triumphant two-night concert run in the big room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, she shows no sign of slowing down or performing with any less energy or exuberance. The JALC connection is something of a double header in that her current album was recorded live in the Appel Room, down the hall from the Rose Theater, in March 2024.In fact, the new release is even more exciting than Ms. Russell’s customary work in that, like a lot of performers, she gets even more inspired and energized by the presence of an in-person audience. I was there when she recorded the Appel Room shows and can testify to the energy of the crowd; if anything, the sold-out house in the big Rose Theater was even more exuberant.Ms. Russell operates at a very high level and never disappoints; she specializes in new/old songs, and virtually every album or live set is stuffed with gems from the ‘30s or ‘40s that have scarcely been heard in intervening decades. She also leans toward what were referred to, back in the day, as rhythm songs: numbers with a strong beat and often quasi-nonsensical lyrics. The only thing expected of them was to get a beat going and dancers out on the floor. Even though there’s not a lot of dancing in either the Appel Room or the Rose Theater, audience members participate from a seated position: they rock in their seats, clap on the afterbeat, and roar with approval.Ms. Russell is the daughter of the pianist, composer, and bandleader Luis Russell, and much of her material comes from the great African American bands of her father’s generation; “I Like Pie, I Like Cake” was one of only four songs recorded by a St. Louis band called The Jeter-Pillars Club Plantation Orchestra, although the song itself goes back to 1925. “You Ain’t Livin’ Right” was written and recorded by the pioneering female bandleader Blanche Calloway, big sister to the more famous Cab, and it also ties a message of optimism to a swinging beat. “F’Taint One Thing, It’s Another,” by the saxophonist Eddie Barefield (a rare 78 that has never been reissued as far as I can tell), drives the message home by adding a second percussionist, of the pedal kind, in that the tap dancing of Michela Marino Lerman supplements the steady drumming of Domo Branch.She featured relatively few tunes from the album at the Rose Hall concert, but rather introduced yet more new/old numbers, like “Come Up and See Me Sometime,” inspired by Mae West but more famously recorded by Ukulele Ike and Ethel Waters; here the message is more erotic than rhythmic, but no less playful. And Ms. Russell is also happy to show how the Black swing tradition gradually transitioned into rhythm & blues, as in “Person to Person,” a lesser-known 1957 single by the ill-fated Little Willie John.It was also a thrill to see Ms. Russell feted by the evening’s special guest, the pop icon and Broadway composer Cyndi Lauper. I was there when Ms. Lauper was a surprise guest with the late Cassandra Wilson at Carnegie Hall in 2000; that was a legendary moment and her cameo here was no less memorable as the two ladies channeled Nina Simone on Simone’s iconic arrangement of “My Baby Just Cares for Me.”That was at the midpoint of the concert; Ms. Russell continued solo with more new unrecorded material, such as a swinging 4/4 arrangement of “Reaching for the Moon,” one of Irving Berlin’s most famous waltzes. For the grand finale, Ms. Lauper retook the stage and the two duetted on Ms. Lauper’s major contribution to the jazz repertoire, her 1984 hit “Time After Time,” which Miles Davis famously released on his 1985 album “You’re Under Arrest.” Making the duet into a trio, trumpeter Anthony Hervey played an obbligato and solo with a tight Harmon mute, giving him a Milesian tone.Ms. Russell is involved in another new recording that bears mentioning here: “Willingness,” a six-song EP of original material by the singer-songwriter Paul Kahn, also her husband, on which she functions as producer and second voice. Mr. Kahn’s writing and singing are both commendably understated, and some tunes, like “Memory Lane,” have the amiable simplicity of the best children’s songs. Other songs, like “Stain on My Sleeve” and “Pull Another Leaf from the Clover,” have something like a laid-back, vaguely reggae-like feeling. The title song, “Willingness,” shows that as a writer, Mr. Kahn is not afraid to tackle big ideas and more complex philosophies.At Rose Theater, however, there was still one major surprise in store for us. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the overall highlight of the evening was not one of Ms. Russell’s signature swinging novelty songs, nor was it a standard 12-bar blues. Instead, she moved us all to new heights and new depths simultaneously with “After Hours.” This is a 1951 ballad credited to a lesser-known female composer named Rozz Gordon and famously recorded by Sarah Vaughan but few others; it’s a dark, smoldering torch song of the kind we more familiarly associate with Billie Holiday. It was an entirely different vibe from the rest of the concert. She was pushing us in a whole new direction, but by then we would have been willing to follow her anywhere.

At 70, Catherine Russell Still Just Wants To Have Fun

At 70, Catherine Russell Still Just Wants To Have Fun

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