After months of global touring, the Grammy-winning vocalist lands in Cambridge for two New Year’s Eve shows
Catherine Russell is a jazz icon. Born into a musical family to big-band pianist Luis Russell and Julliard-trained vocalist Carline Ray, Russell has produced 10 albums, guest starred on dozens more and toured with musicians like David Bowie and the band Steely Dan.
In the past year she’s been touring heavily, promoting her latest album “My Ideal,” made with musician Sean Mason. She’s also the featured vocalist on the 2025 Colin Hancock album Cat & The Hounds with a big band, old-school feel. She’ll be ringing in New Year’s Eve here in Boston, performing at Regattabar in Harvard Square.
The Banner chatted with Russell by phone about her musical history and recent work.
Banner: What was it like growing up around so much music?
Russell: My mother raised me around all kinds of music.
Classical music, opera. She knew a lot about opera. She also loved blues. She loved what we call now the Great American Songbook. So, we used to listen to a lot of Frank, everything that was playing on the radio. It was all kinds of music; it wasn’t only jazz.
Have you found that those early impressions impacted your music later on?
It gave me an appreciation for things that I like the sound of. So, it doesn’t really matter what the genre is if I like the sound of the music. I like classic country music, I later on fell in love with traditional Irish string band music and traditional American music. I like different types of singing.
You’ve been very busy this year. What are some of the big projects you’ve been working on?
We’ve been going a lot of different places this year. We got to go to Africa for the first time, Angola, for International Jazz Day. That was a very special thing to do to Angola and learn some of the history there. I took my band to Tokyo and did the Blue Note there. We did Blue Note Milan, we did Blue Notes in Beijing and Shanghai. Then I did my first tour all over Spain. I’ve been all over the place, I have to look at my date book to remember where I’ve been.
What inspired your latest album “My Ideal?”
Working with Sean [Mason] greatly inspired it. You know, I was just thinking, ‘What can I pick that is going to highlight both of us?’ As we’ve been doing shows, we’ve been promoting this since the album came out, and we’ve been able to grow within the tunes. Every time we play something it’s different. He finds different ways of flavoring things. So, it’s been nice.
What can we expect from your New Year’s Eve concert at Regattabar?
I will have my wonderful band.
I will have Tal Ronen on bass. I will have Ben Rosenblum on piano and accordion. He’s a fantastic player. And I will have the great Domo Branch on drums. They’re all wonderful musicians. We’ll swing, we’ll play some blues and hopefully provide an atmosphere of joy.
ON THE WEB
Learn more at charleshotel.com/holidays and catherinerussell.net
