DownBeat Visits Catherine Russell in Studio for ‘Harlem’ Sessions

Posted 12/11/2015 by Allen Morrison

Outside MSR Studios in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 1, a chilly rain was falling. Inside, cozily ensconced in a wood- and glass-paneled vocal booth in Studio A, vocalist Catherine Russell was sipping coffee. She checked her smartphone while a 10-piece band prepared for another take on “Let Me Be The First To Know, ” a tune Dinah Washington recorded on her 1963 LP Back To The Blues.

Russell was well into the second of three days of recording for a new album, tentatively titled Harlem On My Mind, to be released by next summer. The record follows the critical and commercial success of 2014’s Bring It Back (Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi), the most played vocal release of 2014 on jazz radio, according to JazzWeek.