E-mail a friendCatherine Russell
airdate September 13, 2006
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Catherine Russell's musical prowess defies easy categorization. She's equally talented in many genres, including blues, jazz, R&B and pop. Clearly inheriting the genes of her musical parents, the New York native graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Russell has been a studio and tour backup vocalist, sung on numerous national ads and on Broadway. She was also an associate voice professor at the Berklee College of Music. Her debut CD, 'Cat,' was released this year.
Catherine Russell
Tavis: Catherine Russell's a talented singer who began her career singing backup to the likes of Jackson Browne, Roseanne Cash, Al Green, Paul Simon, and others. She's now out, though, with her own CD called 'Cat.' In a moment, she'll perform one of the tracks from the new disc, a song written by her legendary father, Louis Russell. But first, Catherine, Cat, nice to have you here.
Catherine Russell: Thank you, nice to be here.
Tavis: So everybody calls you Cat, or just the folk who know you well?
Russell: Well, my family and people who know me well, yeah.
Tavis: Yeah. Who started that?
Russell: My family, actually. Yeah, 'cause I was Cathy growing up.
Tavis: Oh, so you've gone through stages.
Russell: Yes. (Laugh)
Tavis: Catherine, Cat. You have a preference these days?
Russell: Cat.
Tavis: You prefer (unintelligible).
Russell: Yeah, yeah.
Tavis: I was reading that list, and I was thinking, Cat, (laugh) that for anybody else, that'd be really impressive. Jackson Browne, Roseanne Cash, Paul Simon, etcetera, etcetera. But not impressive, I guess, for somebody like you, whose parents are both legendary.
Russell: That's a very hard thing to live up to. So it took me a while to come out on my own. And I grew up looking at degrees on the walls from Julliard from my mom, and my grandfather also went to Julliard.
Tavis: Your grandfather went to Julliard, too?
Russell: Yeah, he did.
Tavis: Wow.
Russell: And he would have been the first Black man in the New York Philharmonic, but he needed a steady job, and they weren't working the whole year through? So he went to work for the post office, so.
Tavis: There's always work at the post office.
Russell: (Laugh) There's always work at the post office.
Tavis: (Laugh) Let me just stop right there for a second, 'cause that's pretty significant. It's one thing for your mom to have a degree from Julliard, but for your grandfather to have gone there and to have been that close to being the first African American in the New York Philharmonic...
Russell: In the brass section. (unintelligible)
Tavis: And couldn't have done it because he needed...
Russell: He needed a full year income. Full time income.
Tavis: How do you process that kind of legacy, in terms of your own career now?
Russell: I think that both my parents were trained on several instruments when they were young, and they were both into a lot of different kinds of music. And so, it seemed to feed into me, because my mother, my dad died when I was very young, but my mother used to, she was an opera fanatic, and a classical music fanatic, and jazz, and so she raised me with all kinds of music. And taking me to the theater and everything. So I think that I absorbed a lot growing up, which I'm very thankful for.
Tavis: You sing a variety of stuff. You can do whatever you wanna do. Are you at all surprised by where you ended up, given all the stuff that was put in you? Or did you expect at a certain point this is probably where you would end up?
Russell: I am surprised, because I could have gone the soul route, the blues route, because I like all that music. But this, I love string band music. I love acoustic music. And this just seemed, like when we were looking for a kind of music to make an album with, or a body of work to record, that this just sounded right to me. And I love mandolins and violins and everything, and my grandfather played the violin.
And so did my dad. And so it just was a way to blend everything, so I can do the blues in this instrumental context. I can sing jazz in this context. I can sing soul in this context. So it works well for everything, vocally.
Tavis: I wanna talk about your dad in just a second, but while we're talking about your mom and those Julliard degrees on that side of the family, your mom's still alive and well.
Russell: Yes, she is.
Tavis: What's Mommy saying about Cat's debut CD?
Russell: She's saying it's about time.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh) I figured she would be, yeah.
Russell: (Laugh) And she's so encouraging and so wonderful, and she comes to a lot of my shows. And it's just great. It's just really great to have her there.
Tavis: So speaking of great, your father is not just a legend in his own right, not just anybody's band director. Your daddy is Louis Armstrong's band director. Talk to me about that.
Russell: It was my father's orchestra that got hired in 1935 to 1943 to back Louis Armstrong, because Louis Armstrong heard them. And I think it was at the Savoy Ballroom in those days. And then they did a bunch of recordings under different names. But then I think my dad, throughout, like, before he met Louis Armstrong, and throughout and after, he wanted to have his own orchestra.
So, he did a lot of club work under his own name, and with people that he brought from New Orleans to Chicago to New York. And a lot of those guys just stayed together, and they were friends, actually, till the end of his life, because I met some of them when I was very little. So it was really great.
Tavis: It's almost - how do I put this? With that kind of background, you didn't have much choice but to get to this place, did you?
Russell: Well, I don't think so. (Laugh)
Tavis: What else would you have done? (Laugh)
Russell: I listened to my dad's records when I was really young.
Tavis: Right.
Russell: And the fun and the swing in his records, and the mix of New Orleans and swing, I didn't know what to call it then, but it really appealed to me. And so, it just feels right, and that I'm able to record some of his music is really an honor to do.
Tavis: The song you're gonna do in a moment with your band is a song that your dad wrote, one of your dad's compositions.
Russell: With Louis Armstrong. And it bought my parents a new car in those days.
Tavis: This song did?
Russell: Yeah.
Tavis: "Back O' Town Blues.'
Russell: It did. "Back O' Town Blues,' yeah.
Tavis: That'd be (unintelligible) on that front. (Laugh) Got you a new car. Tell me about the CD, with all that you, we talked on the radio show at one point. With all that you have inside of you, in terms of these various genres that you can tap into, did that make it more difficult or easier to figure out what 15 tracks to put on this CD?
Russell: It was difficult...
Tavis: Your debut CD, no less.
Russell: My debut CD. It was difficult at first, but then we kind of decided let's just record a bunch of songs that I like. So what I did was just find songs that I really liked. And we said well, the thread will be my voice and the instrumentation. And so from there, it was, kind of made sense at the end of it, when we listened back to everything. So.
Tavis: Well, two nice threads.
Russell: (Laugh) Thank you.
Tavis: The song "Back O' Town Blues" is the song you're gonna do with your band here in just a second. Tell me what you know or learned about this song, other than the fact that it bought your mama and daddy a new car. And why you like it so much.
Russell: I heard Louis Armstrong first, I listened to it. And he's got a guy in the band, like, talking to him through it. So it's very funny. They have, like, this dialogue going. So for a while, I used it on my answering machine as my kind of (laugh) ingoing message music. And I have such a love for Louis Armstrong and his music, because all the things that he went through and stood for as an African American, just coming up, he was such a strong human being. And I just think he's an example, because he still had a good time throughout all of the trials and tribulations of his career. So I just think he's a great example.
Tavis: Well, he is a great example of what it means to stand in your craft, as are your parents.
Russell: Just to keep going, and so.
Tavis: And they passed that on to you now.
Russell: Yes.
Tavis: The new CD, no, the first CD, not the last, certainly, from Catherine Russell is called 'Cat.' Up next, a special performance from 'Cat,' Catherine Russell, with her band. So stay with us.
From her acclaimed debut CD 'Cat,' here is Catherine Russell performing "Back O' Town Blues.' Enjoy. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.
Back to September 13, 2006