Harlem Across Generations

by David Diaz

Catherine Russell released her latest album, Harlem on My Mind, this past September, although you would not have guessed it from the style of music she sings. Russell interprets classics of the Great American Songbook, mastering a range of genres including jazz, swing, and blues. I don’t mean to suggest, however, that her style is out of date. In fact, Russell’s versatile and timeless vocals bring a fresh, modern sound to traditional genres, reminding her listeners of the roots of contemporary Black music. Her most recent project reflects on Harlem’s role in the history of American popular music. This history is personal for Russell; her father, Luis Russell, was an early jazz pianist who directed Louis Armstrong’s band in Harlem, while her mother, Carline Ray, was an instrumentalist who collaborated with the most prominent female instrumentalists of early jazz. Just as Russell looks back on her biographical connection to the music, she asks her audience to reflect on the roots of modern music and cautions against forgetting the tunes that once defined the American sound.

Harlem on My Mind’s diverse tracks place Harlem and Black musicianship at the root of several popular genres throughout American history. Unsurprisingly, Russell strongly features jazz standards from the Harlem Renaissance, particularly tracks that jazz legend Billie Holiday made famous. From the pleasant, gentle swing of “I Can’t Believe You’re in Love with Me” to the hot rhythms of “Swing! Brother, Swing!” to the captivating torch song “You’re My Thrill,” Russell captures the range of sounds that initially made Harlem the capital of American musical talent. Although Russell comfortably adjusts to the songs with fast tempos, her phrasing and melodic improvisation on the mellow tracks distinguish her as a vocalist worth hearing. The classic blues tunes provide a perfect outlet for Russell’s talents. Featuring both comical, banjo-centric sounds of early blues (“You’ve Got the Right Key But the Wrong Keyhole”) and the post-war urban blues (“Let Me Be the First to Know”), Russell powerfully and precisely executes feats of vocal acrobatics, echoing the long tradition of virtuosity among Black female vocalists in the United States.

Harlem on My Mind contributes to the tradition of preserving standards of the Great American Songbook, but also resurrects forgotten tracks that did not transcend their original era. The title track, Irving Berlin’s “Harlem on My Mind” originally recorded by influential jazz, blues, and pop vocalist Ethel Waters, perfectly encapsulates Russell’s goal of emphasizing the relevance of popular music history. Not only does she breathe life into an underappreciated treasure, but she also places Black talent at the heart of American music. As the lyrics reminisce the sounds of Harlem, Russell intermingles an exaggeratedly sophisticated voice with her soulful sound, disrupting the once-standard style of classical vocal performance. This track and the album more broadly reminds listeners that the sounds heard today come from a lineage of Black musicians since the Harlem Renaissance who made their various styles essential features of American popular music that no future genre could ignore.