It’s a kick talking to Catherine Russell, the Grammy award winning vocalist from New York City. She’s so deep in the history of classic blues, vintage swing, the great American Songbook and rhythm and blues that the conversation may cover a lot of musical ground.
In the interview Catherine Russell gave to Blue Lake Public Radio on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 we touched on two of her recordings, “Cat and The Hounds” and “My Ideal”, as well as author Larry Tye’s books “The Jazz Men: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie Transformed America” and “Rising From the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class”.
Vocalist Catherine Russell performs in the The St Cecilia Music Center, 24 Ransom Ave NE, Grand Rapids, on Thursday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m., opening the new season of the Spectacular Jazz Series at the venerable concert house.
The Grammy winning New York vocalist sings a repertoire of music that includes classic blues by Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter or Ma Rainey, songs from vaudeville reviews of the 1920’s by Ethel Waters or Butterbeans and Susie, swing classics of the 1930’s by Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong or her Father, Luis Russell, as well as great New Orleans rhythm and blues from any era, not to mention gems from the Great American Songbook.
Catherine Russell was born into musical royalty. Her father was the late Luis Russell who came to New Orleans from Panama in 1919 before moving to Chicago in 1925. The pianist/composer and bandleader Luis Russell served as Louis Armstrong’s musical director during Armstrong’s heyday. Catherine Russell’s mother, Carline Ray, was a pioneering vocalist/guitarist/bassist who performed with the International Sweet Hearts of Rhythm, with Mary Lou Williams, and Sy Oliver.
Her Grand Rapids concert comes on the heels of her new record with Colin Hancock’s Jazz Hounds, Cat And The Hounds, “a 1920’s Jazz and Blues Centennial,” as well as a lovely album of duets with twenty-something year old pianist Sean Mason, “My Ideal.”
In the following interview, recorded on September 24, 2025, we talk about the dawn of musical recording in the 1800’s, James P. Johnson and Andy Razaf’s “Kitchen Mechanics Revue” celebrating the growing black urban middle class of 1900’s, the band she’ll bring with her to St Cecilia Music Center and the Hot Jazz Club of New York which Catherine Russell participates in every week when she’s in town…Amongst other topics.
Details about Catherine Russell’s concert in Grand Rapids on Thursday, October 9th, are on the St. Cecilia Music Society web site at www.scmcgr.org.
