2-Time GRAMMY Nominated Vocalist Catherine Russell to Perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center This Weekend

Twice GRAMMY®-nominated vocalist Catherine Russell, when asked to characterize her new album, replied, "I love romance that swings." The masterful songstress released Send For Me on April 1 via Dot Time Records, which features a baker's dozen of newly recorded tunes on her eighth album as a leader, meeting a simple exacting standard. "Songs that inspire or touch me in some way. When I find a song I like, it haunts me until I learn it." Her mission is finding songs that you might not have heard but deserve attention.

The album has garnered worldwide acclaim. In early February, the release of a first video/single, At The Swing Cats Ball, was followed by an appearance on NPR's Tiny Desk (Home). The Wall Street Journal, Downbeat Magazine, The Absolute Sound, No Depression, WBGO, London Jazz News, and other top tier outlets have praised Send For Me, and jazz radio is loving it too: for over 6 months, Send For Me sat at #2 on JazzWeek's running radio chart.

Catherine has a full schedule of performances slated throughout the East Coast and in Europe to finish off the year. Among them include her annual four-night residency at Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center from September 29 through October 2, with two shows nightly. She will also stop in Washington, DC for performances at Blues Alley over the October 22-23 weekend. On Sunday, November 20 she will head to London for two sets at PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho). The remaining album tour schedule and date-specific information can be found below.

Catherine has been celebrating her album on a coast-to coast tour, which will continue through 2022. Most recently, she flew to Athens, Greece to perform with Jazz at Lincoln Center's SONGS WE LOVE in an ancient open air theater in the shadow of the Parthenon. This past Spring during the week of her album release, Catherine held six performances, revealing the breadth of her artistic reach, from a sold out show with her band at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, to a festival performance in Fort Worth, Texas, sharing the headlining slot with Rock 'N Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller, backed by an all-star band including Nathan East on bass. In between, Catherine served as educator/performer on a tribute to International Sweethearts of Rhythm for families and kids at Montclair Art Museum, a WBGO sponsored show, at the invitation of NEA Jazz Master Dorthaan Kirk. In Richmond, Virginia, Catherine led a seven piece band along with vocalists Brianna Thomas and Charenee Wade on their Tribute to early blues women, Ladies Sing The Blues. Catherine appeared for a second time within two weeks at Carnegie Hall, as a guest on Michael Feinstein's Standard Time, where Theater Pizzazz critic Marilyn Lester noted, "the extraordinary jazz singer Catherine Russell, added tremendous energy to an already vibrant program." On an evening covering James Brown songs to celebrate City Winery founder Michael Dorf's 60th Birthday, Catherine sang "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," and "Cold Sweat," backed by Steven Bernstein's MTO.

Trumpet player and arranger, Bernstein, who had tapped Russell's vocals to front his band on their early 2022 release, Good Time Music, says of Catherine in The Absolute Sound, "she's singing from a higher power and a higher place," continuing "she's the rarest combination of spirit and science, the kind of human being who makes the world a better place by just being in the room." Night after night, from jazz clubs to concert halls, from festivals to Performing Arts Centers, from cabaret to rockin' soul and blues, Catherine Russell delights in sharing the healing power of music with ever growing audiences.

Russell's deep connection to her chosen material is part of a calling. As the daughter of pioneering and legendary musicians, pianist/orchestra leader/composer/arranger Luis Russell, and bassist/guitarist/vocalist Carline Ray, Catherine Russell was born into jazz royalty. In culling material for her new album from the likes of Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Luis Russell, Betty Carter, Kay Starr, Joe Liggins, Earl King, Jack Teagarden, Helen Humes, Frank Sinatra, Dakota Staton, Henry Red Allen, and Louis Armstrong, the vocalist swims in familiar waters. She sings a language that comes naturally, furthering a profound legacy.

Send For Me is a follow up to Russell's 2019 release Alone Together, which received a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and landed on the JazzWeek year-end radio chart as the #1 most played album. "I like to invite the people in," she says of her new album, which is also her philosophy of performing live. The album is an invitation, welcoming the audience to come along on a journey.

MORE ABOUT Catherine Russell AND SEND FOR ME:

Russell's professional life began at age 7, when she first took the stage as a dancer with Katherine Dunham's company for four seasons at The Metropolitan Opera's production of Aida. After graduating with honors from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she was fortunate to work with David Bowie, Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Michael Feinstein, Levon Helm, Wynton Marsalis, Dr. John, Rosanne Cash, Toshi Reagon, and Carrie Smith, among others. Russell performed extensively as a backup singer, multi-instrumentalist, and lead singer, before launching her solo recording career in 2006. She amassed decades of experience touring and recording with cutting edge songwriters and iconic artists, appearing on over 200 albums.

Co-producers Katherine Miller, Paul Kahn and Catherine Russell, the team behind Russell's albums, Alone Together (2019) and Harlem On My Mind (2016), both GRAMMY® nominees for Best Jazz Vocal Album, are reunited on Send For Me, their 6th album together. The winning streak began with Inside This Heart of Mine (2010), which reached #1 on iTunes and Amazon jazz charts. Strictly Romancin' (2012) was awarded the Prix du Jazz Vocal (Vocal Album of The Year) by the French Jazz Academy and Grand Prix du Hot Club de France. Her fifth solo album, Bring It Back (2014), received a 5 Star Review in Downbeat Magazine.

Significant film and TV credits include Russell contributing the song, "Crazy Blues," as a featured artist on the 2012 GRAMMY® winning soundtrack album of the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire. In 2017, she performed the song on PBS-TV's Great Performances special, 'Grammy Salute To Music Legends'. In 2019, she had a cameo in the feature film Bolden, a biopic about jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, while also contributing lead vocals on two songs to Wynton Marsalis's soundtrack album.

Russell's versatility shines through on an array of new recordings released over the past 18 months. She added harmony vocals on albums by Sarah Jarosz (a GRAMMY® Award winner for Best Americana Album in 2021), Brett Eldredge, and Little Feat, while also contributing a song on renowned banjo player Tony Trischka's new album Shall We Hope. In addition, she appeared as a guest lead vocalist on albums by Andy Farber and His Orchestra (Early Blue Evening), reedman Evan Arntzen (Countermelody), and on Steven Bernstein's MTO featuring Catherine Russell, Good Time Music, the second album in the four-part Community Music series by trumpet player and arranger, Steven Bernstein. Russell continues to tour with Steely Dan, as recently as in the fall of 2021, and she sings on two new releases including Northeast Corridor Live! and a live version of the acclaimed album by Donald Fagen, The Nightfly Live.

Sixteen years into her solo career, Catherine Russell is on the move. Her band, including guitarist/musical director Matt Munisteri, pianist Mark Shane, bassist Tal Ronen, and drummer Mark McLean, has performed at major festivals on four continents, while also selling out concert halls from SFJazz Miner Auditorium in San Francisco, to Zankel Carnegie Hall in New York City, to Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. In addition, Catherine has appeared as a featured vocalist with today's leading big bands and symphony orchestras including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, Count Basie Orchestra, Andy Farber and His After Midnight Orchestra, Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Russia; Miami's New World Symphony, The Philly Pops, and The Pasadena Pops Orchestra. Most recently, Russell joined forces with John Pizzarelli to perform a salute to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra.

Track Listing:

1. Did I Remember (Harold Adamson, Walter Donaldson)
2. Send For Me (Ollie Jones)
3. At The Swing Cats Ball (Luis Russell, William Campbell)
4. Make It Last (Dick Haymes, Bill Saxton)
5. Going Back To New Orleans (Joe Liggins)
6. If I Could Be With You (James P. Johnson, Henry Creamer)
7. You Can Fly High (Earl King, John Vincent)
8. East of The Sun (and West of the Moon) (Brooks Bowman)
9. In The Night (Norman Mapp)
10. You Stepped Out of A Dream (Nacio Herb Brown, Gus Kahn)
11. Blue And Sentimental (Count Basie, Mack David, Jerry Livingston)
12. Sticks and Stones (Cavanaugh/Razaf/Palmer)
13. Million Dollar Smile (Porter Roberts, Lionel Hampton)

Upcoming Catherine Russell Tour Dates 2022

September 23 / Sacred Heart University Community Theater / Fairfield, CT

September 24 / South Orange Performing Arts Center / South Orange, NJ

September 29 - October 2 / Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center / New York, NY

October 8 / John Lennon Tribute, Symphony Space / New York, NY

October 15 / Vermont Jazz Center / Brattleboro, VT

October 22-23 / Blues Alley / Washington, DC

October 28 / Adrienne Arsht Center for The Performing Arts / Miami, FL

November 12 / Groton Hill Music Center / Groton, MA

November 18-19 / Le Duc Des Lombards / Paris, France

November 20 / PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho) / London, United Kingdom

November 23 / Bimhuis / Amsterdam, Netherlands

November 24 / Lantaren Venster / Rotterdam, Netherlands

December 2 / Symphony Center Presents / Chicago, IL

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