Bring It Back Catherine Russell

• 1 Bring It Back 03:54
• 2 I'm Shooting High 02:31
• 3 I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart 04:09
• 4 You Got To Swing And Sway 03:10
• 5 Aged And Mellow 04:41
• 6 The Darktown Strutters' Ball 02:40
• 7 Lucille 03:56
• 8 You've Got Me Under Your Thumb 02:39
• 9 After The Lights Go Down Low 05:24
• 10 I'm Sticking With You Baby 03:08
• 11 Strange As It Seems 03:31
• 12 Public Melody Number One 03:14
• 13 Cover The Waterfront 05:02
• Total Runtime 47:59

Info for Bring It Back

Her fifth solo album finds Russell fronting an expanded 10-piece band, covering her widest artistic ground yet - from the earliest days of jazz through the swing era and into the rhythm and blues explosion - but with her most personal stamps. That takes extra inspiration and depth from her mother, pioneering jazz musician Carline Ray, who passed away shortly after the album was finished. And there is also a very strong presence of her father, long-time Louis Armstrong band leader and arranger Luis Russell, who is represented in several songs coming from their collaborative repertoire, drawing on the “Louis and Luis” concert she led at Jazz at Lincoln Center in spring 2012, including “I’m Shooting High” and “Public Melody Number One.” Most profoundly, the album includes the first-ever recording of “Lucille,” a song of her father‘s, recently discovered in the Armstrong archives.

Bring It Back follows her 2012 album Strictly Romancin’, which topped the jazz charts and earned her the Prix du Jazz Vocal from L‘Acadamie du Jazz and the Grand Prix du Hot Club de France. Called “one of the outstanding singers of our time” by The Wall Street Journal, she brings to familiar favorites and forgotten treasures alike the spark and verve cheered by hundreds of thousands in her role with Steely Dan and featured alongside Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, and Boz Scaggs in the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue, as well as in her own festival, theater and club appearances and as a star of special Jazz at Lincoln Center programs. She was also heard prominently in the soundtracks to HBO‘s Boardwalk Empire and the movie Kill Your Darlings (starring Daniel Radcliffe as a young Allen Ginsberg).

“Love and fun” is how she sums up the thread through this album, as well as her artistic philosophy. “As I look at the list of tunes, it‘s love, romance and fun,” she says. “Not a lot of pain. I don‘t do sad, not too much. That‘s a little ‘woe is me,‘ feeling sorry for myself. I do things that make you move, take you back to the dance floor.“

Through it all, she makes the most of what NPR called, “a voice that wails like a horn and whispers like a snake in the Garden of Eden.“

On Ida Cox‘s “You Got to Swing and Sway” she does both. She adds her own enlivening spark to “Aged and Mellow,” a 1952 Johnny Otis number that was a hit for Esther Phillips, brought to Russell‘s attention by Donald Fagen. She kicks up her heels with “Darktown Strutters Ball” (one of the first major jazz hits, recorded in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band), gets flirty with Fats Waller‘s “Strange As It Seems,” sets a mood with “After the Lights Go Down Low” and lets down her guard on Duke Ellington‘s “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.”

Tying it all together and bringing a deeply personal touch, is “Lucille.” Written by her father Luis Russell, the noted composer and pianist, who was Louis Armstrong‘s orchestra leader and arranger from 1935 through the early 1940′s, the song was discovered in the Louis Armstrong Archives recently in demo form. Here it receives its first public performance in the voice of the composer‘s daughter.

To bring a new range of swing, she added an expanded horn section to her regular core trio of guitarist/music director Matt Munisteri, pianist Mark Shane and bassist Lee Hudson for her brightest swinging album yet. Regular collaborator Paul Kahn co-produced with recording engineer Katherine Miller. Tenor saxophonist Andy Farber did the vibrant arrangements of six of the songs, with Munisteri doing two and Russell and trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso contributing horn arrangements on one each.

Through the making of the album Russell found herself on a voyage of artistic self-discovery, reaching for things that she‘d felt beyond her in the past. “After the Lights Go Low,” a song played at the end of every day on the radio station that provided the soundtrack of her childhood, is a perfect example.

“That‘s a song I rediscovered,” she says. “A few years ago I don‘t think I could have done a song like that. It‘s very exposed. But I really wanted to create a mood, when people are dancing they‘re going to go home and … hopefully … whatever!“

“Her singing is drenched in emotion, drama, experience and pure swing.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“With a voice that wails like a horn and whispers like the snake in the Garden of Eden, she’s finally claiming her place in the pantheon of 21st-century jazz divas.” (NPR)

Catherine Russell, vocals, percussion (tracks 6, 10)
Matt Munisteri, guitar, arranger (tracks 6, 8)
Mark Shane, piano
Lee Hudson, bass (except track 6)
Mark McLean, drums, percussion (track 6)
Andy Farber, tenor saxophone, arranger (tracks 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 13)
Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet, horn arrangement (track 4)
Brian Pareschi, trumpet (except track 1)
Dan Block, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone (track 5), clarinet (track 4)
John Allred, trombone
Mark Lopeman, baritone saxophone
Nicki Parrott, bass (track 6)
Glenn Patscha, hammond B-3 organ (tracks 6, 9, 10)

Recorded June 3-5, 2013 at MSR Studios, New York, New York
Additional Recording July 2, 2013 at Trading 8s Recording Studio, Paramus, New Jersey Recorded by Katherine Miller
Mixed by Katherine Miller at Annandale Recording
Mastered by Alan Silverman for Arf! Mastering, New York, NY
Produced by Paul Kahn and Katherine Miller

Catherine Russell
is a New Yorker, born into musical royalty. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was a native of Panama who moved to New Orleans and then New York City, becoming a pioneering pianist/composer/bandleader, and Louis Armstrong's long-time musical director. Her mother, Carline Ray, an outstanding bassist and vocalist, has performed with Mary Lou Williams and International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Considering her roots and family pedigree, it’s no surprise that Catherine Russell is a one-of-a-kind singer and musician. Cat is in demand as a backing singer and multi-instrumentalist, having performed and recorded with artists including Steely Dan, Levon Helm, David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Michael Feinstein, Carrie Smith, and Rosanne Cash.

Of her debut album "Cat", (World Village/Harmonia Mundi), she made critic and Sinatra biographer, Will Friedwald's top 10 list who stated "She is a fresh and original voice. The most exciting debut album I've heard in a long time." "It's a delight to hear the real thing in Catherine Russell", wrote the dean of jazz writers, Nat Hentoff, in The Wall Street Journal.

Catherine Russell's second album on World Village, "Sentimental Streak", was released in 2008 to universal acclaim, hitting the Billboard and I-Tunes Jazz Charts, and JazzWeek and Living Blues Radio Charts. Cat was a guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and NPR's "Fresh Air". She won the prestigious German Record Critics' Award in the Jazz category and Living Blues magazine's 2008 critics' poll as "Artist Deserving More Attention." L'Acadamie du Jazz in France chose "Sentimental Streak" as finaliste for Prix du Jazz Vocal 2008, while Grammy Award winning writer and jazz critic Francis Davis picked "Sentimental Streak" as Vocal Album of the Year in the 2008 Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll.

Since the release of her albums, Catherine Russell has performed on three continents. She's been the surprise hit at major events including the Chicago Blues Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Bern Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Lotus World Music Festival, I Love Jazz Festival in Brazil, Panama Jazz Festival, and at premier venues like The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, The Dakota in Minneapolis, and Yoshi's in San Francisco. All Music Guide says, "Russell emerged as a retro old school vocalist for the ages."

Catherine Russell's "Inside This Heart of Mine" is a personal selection of gems from the 1920s through the Present; vital interpretations, bursting with soul and humor. Deepening the approach of her previous recordings -- an off-the-beaten-path song selection, sparkling small group acoustic swing, and a stunning vocal approach -- with "Inside This Heart Of Mine", vocalist Catherine Russell joins the ranks of the greatest interpreters and performers of American Popular Song.

Strictly Romancin', released in 2012, is a paean to natural attractions; to a lover, an art form, and to one’s family heritage. Our faithful heroine explores love’s foibles, failures, and bliss, from amorous to humorous, embodying the lost art of song savvy, inhabiting the lyric, and allowing each melody to shine. On this 14 song collection, this ever soulful jazz/blues vocalist takes us on a journey; from Harlem dance hall, to Parisian Café, to Store Front Church, to New Orleans Gin Joint, to Uptown Cabaret, blurring distinctions between the carnal and the eternal, in a musical tour de force. Strictly Romancin' was awarded Prix du Jazz Vocal (Vocal Album of The Year) by the Jazz Academy in France, Grand Prix du Hot Club de France, and a Bistro Award for Outstanding Recording, after reaching #1 on multiple Jazz Charts (JazzWeek, I-Tunes, Amazon), and #6 on Billboard. She also received a Nightlife Award as Outstanding Jazz Performer.

In 2012, Catherine Russell won a Grammy Award for her appearance as a featured artist on the soundtrack album for the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire.

Catherine's 5th album, "Bring It Back", will be released in February 2014 on the Jazz Village label, a new imprint from Harmonia Mundi.

Catherine Russell is that rarest of entities – a genuine jazz and blues singer – who can sing virtually anything. Her voice is full blown feminity incarnate; a dusky, stalwart and soulful instrument that radiates interpretive power yet remains touchingly vulnerable. She launches fearlessly into each tune, getting inside the melody and capturing every emotion.

Booklet for Bring It Back