Listening time has been sparse recently, but I have one good one to report on. Vocalist Catherine Russell and her excellent band have released their first live album, Live @ Jazz at Lincoln Center, and it delivers a delightful dose of Russell’s spirited interpretations of hot jazz and swing deeply rooted in the blues.

Catherine Russell
Live @ Jazz at Lincoln Center (Dot Time Records)
A review
About 15 years ago, my late friend the vocalist Patti Littlefield alerted me to a free concert by vocalist Catherine Russell. I had never heard of Russell, though I later learned I had heard her singing backup on Steely Dan albums (Fagen and Becker always had the best sidemen and -women). Patti’s recommendation was reason enough to get myself down to Albuquerque’s Old Town Plaza for what turned out to be a joyful summer concert. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of catching Russell live two or three times more and keep hoping to catch her live again, and now I can, thanks to her release of Live @ Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Russell’s energetic joy, uncanny rhythmic sense, incomparable phrasing, and impeccable control are all on hand, mining every layer of meaning from lyrics and music. It’s no wonder where she got that. Her dad is bandleader Luis Russell, whose career included leading Louis Armstrong’s band. (You can find photos of a very young Catherine Russell in Louis’s arms at a party at his house, looking a little overwhelmed by the great man’s outsize personality.) Her mother is Carline Ray, vocalist and instrumentalist who made her mark as a member of the accomplished International Sweethearts of Rhythm, possibly the first integrated all-female band. Russell grew up surrounded by the royalty of early jazz—so nature and nurture—and she carries the history of Black America’s foundational music in every note.

The program includes tunes honoring The Hot Club of New York, a community of enthusiasts who gather weekly to listen to vintage jazz and blues on 78rpm shellac records and soundies. The tunes were originally recorded by the likes of Hot Lips Page, Tiny Grimes, Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway, Helen Humes, Eddie Barefield, and Russell’s father. One or two of them are likely familiar to listeners, including a very uptempo version of “Moon River” and Jack Palmer/Spencer Williams’ “Everybody Loves My Baby,” but most are off-the-beaten track gems that are expertly interpreted by Russell and the band.

Oh, the band. Tight as a drum, loose as a goose, and full of juice, with Matt Munisteri (guitar), Ben Paterson (piano), Russell Hall (bass), Domo Branch (drums), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), John Allred (trombone), Evan Arntzen (tenor sax, clarinet), and special guest on four tracks the astonishing tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman. The splendid horn arrangements and adaptations are the excellent work of Mark Lopeman.

So many highlights, but I’ll mention just a few. Check out her delivery of the line “I ought to cry” on the tune “I Refuse to Sing the Blues” to catch the immediacy and depth she brings to every feeling. Then there are her phrasing on the low-down blues of “Keep Your Mind on Me,” the ensemble close on “Old Man River,” and the tap solo on “Never Too Old to Swing.”

Catherine Russell’s Live @ Jazz at Lincoln Center revivifies the music on those heavy shellac discs and carries forward all the tenderness, anxiety, salt, playfulness, love, and humanity that they contain. It’s pure pleasure.

For more about Russell, check this out this review.

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© 2026 Mel Minter