Here are a couple of female vocalists that show that expression mixed with swing never goes out of style.
Daughter of famed artist circa Louis Armstrong, Catherine Russell take you back to the sounds of Luis Russell with two beat joy mixed with fun loving horns and an insatiable sense of swing. The core team of Mark Shane/p, Matt Munisteri/g, Lee Hudson/b and Mark McLean/dr mixes and matches with a hot horn section that juke’s the joint on a raucous “Bring It Back” and a sauntering “I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart.” Growling trumpets, sauntering reeds and brass and roaring tenors float in and out of tunes like the jumping “Public Enemy Number One,” while Dan Block’s clarinet gets piping on the hot and bothered “You got to Swing and Sway.” Russell’s voice is joyful, rich and filled with sass throughout. This is a fun one!
Barbara Levy Daniels brings along cornetist Warren Vache’ and gentle guitarist Paul Meyes to the team of John DiMartino/p, Boris Kozlov/b and Shinnosuke Takahashi/dr on this Baker’s Dozen of standards. She has a mature and world-wise sound to her voice and delivery, and does some creative things as on the bossa nova’d “Say It Isn’t So” and a bouncy “Comes Love” with Kozlov in the foreground. Vache’s horn is peppy on “It Could Happen to You” and purrs like a kitten on “Mean to Me” while Meyer’s has Daniels yearning on “Where or When.” Jazz for grownups.
Harmonia Mundi