Catherine Russell: Send for Me

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Catherine Russell

Send for Me

Bay Area Cabaret

The Venetian Room, San Francisco, CA, February 26, 2023

Reviewed by Steve Murray

Catherine Russell

Bay Area Cabaret, one of the last San Francisco organizations promoting Broadway, jazz, and pop vocalists, presented what had to be one of their finest shows; it featured Grammy Award winner and musical chameleon extraordinaire, Catherine Russell. Performing an eclectic set and buoyed by a sizzling trio and superb arrangements, Russell cemented her position as one of the great interpreters of contemporary standards and early 20th-century R&B.

A master of swing, Russell can jive through “There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” Joe Hinton’s “If It Ain’t One Thing, It’s Another,” and “At the Swing Cats Ball” with ease and then turn with ease to early blues material (with its suggestive double entendres) such as 1923’s “He May Be Your Dog but He’s Wearing My Collar,” originally recorded by Rosa Henderson, or the much recorded Ollie Jones hit, “Send for Me,” the title track of her latest CD with its R&B and gospel roots.

A great artist surrounds herself with great talent, and Russell creates magic with rising-star pianist Sean Mason (whose masterful solos defy his youth as he bridges genres), Tal Ronen keeping time on the bass fiddle, and arranger/music director Matt Munisteri on his vintage hollow-back Gibson guitar. Four great improvisers coming together on a tune like Billy Eckstine’s “I Want to Talk About You” or one of my favorite songs, “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)” written by Brooks Bowman, created a special magic that lifts the spirit.

Russell allows the band to fly and always brings the number home with her tight vocal control, impeccable phrasing, and genre-crossing flexibility. Closing the show with the alcohol-themed “One Scotch, One Bourbon,” Ruth Brown’s hit version of Rudy Toombs’ “Teardrops from My Eyes,” and an encore of the Gershwins’ “’S Wonderful,” she added a savory and touching note to a master-class performance.

Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.