Until 2006, when Catherine Russell released her first solo album, Cat, she was known for more than two decades as a versatile backup singer and multi-instrumentalist for a genre-spanning list of musicians that includes David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Dr. John and Madonna. Yet with that album and the six that followed, the last two nominated for Grammy awards, Ms. Russell became a star in her own right—a commanding bandleader, and in the top rank of singers working in the fertile territory where traditions of jazz, blues and popular song meet.
She continues to perform in many contexts. In late March, she sang Duke Ellington classics at Carnegie Hall, with pianist Marcus Roberts’s trio and the American Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year, as showcased on trumpeter Steven Bernstein’s album Good Time Music (Community Music, Vol. 2), she re-envisioned a half-dozen blues classics through inventive new arrangements. She has continued to tour with Steely Dan.
Ms. Russell has a particular fascination with early- and mid-20th-century songs—primarily forgotten hits and overlooked gems—that she invests with a freshness that comes from her sensitivity to the lyrics, and her sheer power. Her new release, Send for Me (Dot Time Records), contains 13 such tracks that should further elevate her profile as they deepen listeners’ appreciation for this repertoire. Few singers alive can express the nuances of blues feeling and swing phrasing that course through American songs as correctly and gracefully as can Ms. Russell, or with as much expressive range.
She sounds declarative, punctuating her vocal with handclaps, on the title track, which was a crossover hit for Nat King Cole in 1957. Her singing burns with longing on “Make It Last,” which Betty Carter memorably recorded in 1958; it is coyly teasing on “If I Could Be With You,” written in 1926 by Harlem stride-piano hero James P. Johnson and lyricist Henry Creamer. Her version of “Did I Remember” is slower than Billie Holiday’s 1936 version, but it carries the same relaxed phrasing. Her bluesy, gospel-tinged singing on “In the Night” invites comparison to vintage Aretha Franklin for its glistening resonance.