Jazz singer Catherine Russell blew me away when I first saw her perform at the Mohonk Blues on the Mountain Festival. She sang a blues and jazz set with her group and then returned on Sunday morning for a gospel show. Since then, I have been collecting her recordings and try to catch her whenever she is in town.
A native New Yorker, Russell was born into jazz royalty. Her father, Luis Russell, was the longtime bandleader-pianist for Louis Armstrong. (On Catherine’s website, there are photos of her with Satchmo when she was 4 years old.)
Russell has the gift of communicating pure joy.
