Singing the test of time t

by Jim Gladstone

“Aboutthree quarters of the songs I did last night I hadn’t done for an audience before,” said singer Catherine Russell, who had just played the first night of her annual Valentine’s week engagement at New York’s Birdland jazz club when she spoke to the Bay Area Reporter by phone.

“Before I ever record something,” explained Russell, who plays the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room February 26 as part of the Bay Area Cabaret Series, “I always test them out with live audiences, just to see if they work. Luckily, they usually do.”

Part of why they work is that, while new to Russell’s everexpanding concert repertoire, which she estimates at two to three hundred numbers, hers are songs that have already stood the test of time.

“It’s always a mixture of jazz, blues and the Great American songbook,” said the Grammy-winning Russell, 66, whose father was Louis Armstrong’s longtime musical director and whose mother performed with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

While she’s built her solo career around 20th-century standards, few of which were originally recorded later than 1950, Russell made her living for many years singing in the studio and on the road with pop and rock artists.

She’s toured extensively with Da- vid Bowie, Jackson Browne and Steely Dan and been featured on over 200 albums by artists including Paul Simon and even Madonna (“Rescue Me”).

“I learned so much working with those artists,” said Russell. “You know it’s not like [the documentary film] ‘Twenty Feet from Stardom,’ where you’re this background singer just waiting for your chance to get up front in the spotlight. I think of my voice as an instrument, as part of the band. It doesn’t matter if I’m singing background or lead. My voice is part of the overall fabric of the tune.”

Keeping great songs alive

Still, when it came time to record her own first album, “Cat,” in 2006, Russell looked back to the music she grew up with and continues to savor today.

“I’m attracted to songs that are uplifting and that have universal themes,” said Russell, “And the great American songbook songs have them.”

“I also have to feel comfortable singing every lyric. So, for instance, I don’t sing ‘The Lady Is A Tramp.’ I just can’t relate to it.”

As anyone who’s seen Russell’s live performances knows, that’s a matter of feminism, not prudishness; virtually every Russell set features one or more swinging blues tunes, chockful of saucy double entendres.

While she’s a great admirer and interpreter of great American songbook composers like Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern, Russell is intent on keeping a torch burning for jazz and blues songs written by sometimes unknown Black composers and sung by Black performers like Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, Alberta Hunter and Carrie Smith.

“All of those women are dead now. And I’m afraid that their music won’t live on,” said Russell, pointing out that songs originated by Black composers and artists are generally not among the songbook tunes compiled on albums by the likes of Michael Bublé, Rod Stewart or Harry Connick, Jr.

“Have people ever heard of Irene Kitchings?” Russell asked, referring to the Black female songwriter who wrote songs including “Some Other Spring” and “The Ghost of Yesterday,” both recorded by Billie Holiday. “Those should absolutely be considered part of the great American songbook. In my teaching career, I do come across a lot of young people who want to sing standards and classic material.”

She was delighted to see Samara Joy, who sings from that repertoire, win the Grammy for Best New Artist a few weeks back.

“Hopefully that will bring some attention from younger people and younger singers. But the music business is a behemoth maze,” Russell acknowledged, offering no quick solution to keeping classic pop songs from becoming museum pieces, listened to only by niche audiences.

“There’s always the issue of marketing. Something has to be put in front of you over and over in order to stick, for people to know it. You don’t have to own music by Lizzo or Taylor Swift to know them.”

If you do know and appreciate 20th-century classics – or are ready to be schooled by an expert – Russell hopes you’ll catch her with her combo this Sunday.

“Its always fun,” she said. “I only do songs that are fun to perform for me and the other musicians I play with.”t Catherine Russell, Bay Area Cabaret at the Venetian Room, Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason St. February 26. $30-$70. (415) 927-4636 www.bayareacabaret.org www.catherinerussell.net

More solos and sides

by Gregg Shapiro

Lesser-known reissues from a folk rock great, plus new albums from bands you know, or don’t, make up our listening playlist.

The late David Crosby was both a music legend and legendary sperm donor. A founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby generously donated sperm to Melissa Etheridge and then-partner Julie Cypher for the conception of daughter Bailey and their late son Beckett. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Crosby’s 1971 debut album “If I Could Only Remember My Name…” (Atlantic/Rhino) was reissued in an expanded, double disc set.

The first disc includes the ninetrack original album, as well as the bonus track “Kids and Dogs.” If you’re expecting something even vaguely reminiscent of CSN’s beloved harmonies, you’ll have to wait until the third song, “Tamalpais High (At About 3),” on which Graham Nash makes an appearance. In addition to Nash, Crosby was joined by Joni Mitchell (on “Laughing” and “What Are Their Names”), as well as members of Jefferson Airplane, Santana, and The Grateful Dead. The second disc of the set includes demo and session recordings. www.davidcrosby.com

Primarily known as the former drummer for all-female modern rock sensation Sleater-Kinney, Janet Weiss has a long history of multiple musical projects, including drumming for Wild Flag and Stephen Malkmus’ The Jicks. Still going strong after 30 years, Weiss’ other band Quasi (alongside Sam Coomes) is back with the aptly titled left-leaning, politically-oriented “Breaking the Balls of History” (Sub Pop). Alternately accessible (“Queen of Ears,” “Gravity,” “Shitty is Pretty”), daringly experimental (“Inbetweenness,” “The Losers Win”), nostalgically grungy (“Last Long Laugh”), and featuring a psychedelic freak-out not to be missed (“Riots & Jokes”), it’s cool to have Quasi back among us again after 10 years. quasi

Quasi performs with Low Praise and Thank You Come Again, Feb. 25, 9pm at the Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. $22-$24. ivyroom.com / instagram.com/thee.

“Colder Streams” (Yep Roc) is the final studio album the Canadian altcountry band The Sadies recorded with founding member Dallas Good (who died unexpectedly in February 2022). Produced by fellow Canadian Richard Reed Parry (of The Arcade Fire), the album contains the band’s blend of cowpunk with vintage rock, best exemplified on “Ginger Moon,” “Stop and Start,” “All The Good,” “You Should Be Worried,” and the exceptional political statements “More Alone” and “Cut Up High and Dry.”

The Sadies perform March 1 at The Chapel, 777 Valencia St. $25. thechapelsf.com / thesadies.net

With “The Candle and The Flame” (Tapete), Robert Forster has now released almost as many solo albums as he did as a member of the brilliant Australian indie rock band The GoBetweens (of “Streets of Your Town” fame). Written and recorded during an especially difficult time (following Forster’s wife Karin’s ovarian cancer diagnosis), these nine songs, including “It’s Only Poison,” “The Roads,” “There’s A Reason To Live,” and “Tender Years,” ring with emotion and resilience. www.robertforster.bandcamp.com

The Bad Ends, a kind of supergroup from Athens, GA, consists of Bill Berry (ex-REM) and Five Eight’s Mike Mantione, along with Dave Domizi, Christian Lopez, Geoff Melkonian. The Southern powerpop quintet’s debut album “The Power and the Glory” (New West) has just the right blend of rocking twang to appeal to a broad audience, with standout tunes including “All Your Friends Are Dying,” “Left To Be Found,” “Little Black Cloud,” and “New York Murder Suicide.” www.thebadends.com

2022 Grammy Award-winner Wilco is anything but a side project for its members. But that hasn’t prevented Jeff Tweedy, Glen Kotche, Nels Cline, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone, and Mikael Jorgensen, from continuing their solo and side work. Wilco’s new album, the double-disc “Cruel Country” (dBpm) finds the group working together as a unit again. Additionally, in many ways, the album is a return to Wilco’s country roots, with some of the band’s electronic experimentation thrown in for good, and updated measure. The “cruel country” of the title is taken to task on the track of the same name (and throughout) with the lyrics “I love my country stupid and cruel/Red/White/And blue,” and on “Hints” where Tweedy sings “There is no middle when the other side/ Would rather kill than compromise.” wilcoworld.nett