Courtesy Stefan Falke

• Who: Catherine Russell
• Where: Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave. S.W., Roanoke
• When: 8 p.m. Saturday
• How much: $18; $14; $8; students half-price
• Contact: 345-2550, jeffcenter.org, catherinerussell.net

For years, singer Catherine Russell has been a supporting player for such pop music greats as David Bowie, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Rosanne Cash, even Madonna.

Yet it's fair to say she is a better singer than any of them, a hidden chanteuse with a deep jazz pedigree and that rare combination of range, chops and taste.

Russell took years to finally start her own career in earnest. Turns out, she was deliberately smart about it.

Since 2006, she has recorded two records of deep, old-school jazz and blues that summon the spirits of such artists as Bessie Smith and Russell's own family.

"My first goal was to make a living as a vocalist," said Russell, who brings her band to the Jefferson Center on Saturday night. "My first goal was not to be a solo artist. It was to learn to make a living and to do this as my job. When you look at it that way, you think, OK, there's a variety of things I could do, and let me commence to finding out what that is."

She sang in clubs. She recorded vocals on songwriters' demos and recorded in a wide range of styles with producers who had major label connections. But the only offers she seemed to get were from labels who wanted too much control of her career, she said.

"The thing about me is, I'm not a pop artist," Russell said. "That music is all fine for the people who can do it and do it well. I don't feel that resonates with me as much. So all the time I was really searching to get the opportunity, which now I've gotten, to do material I feel resonates with me."

She also felt she needed some practical music business experience.

"I knew that it meant that you needed to know something about what was going on around you, that had nothing to do with the gig," Russell said. "So it took awhile for me to learn that part of it. And I'm glad I took so long."

What she wound up with was a musical approach that echoed her parents. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was Louis Armstrong's musical director -- Armstrong had joined Russell's band and soon became its frontman.

Her mother, Carline Ray, was a jazz pioneer, a guitarist and bassist with the 1940s-era International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Russell's two CDs, "Cat" and "Sentimental Streak," show that Russell not only preserves but brings new life to old tunes, with help from one of her best friends, producer and multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Willie Nelson). The music pulls in a fair parcel of country swing into the blues mix.