Lovesome Thing (sings Ellington & Strayhorn feat. Emmet Cohen) Anaïs Reno

• 1 Caravan 04:56
• 2 Mood Indigo 05:26
• 3 Still in Love 02:41
• 4 Chelsea Bridge / A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing 05:25
• 5 I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So 05:15
• 6 It's Kind of Lonesome Out Tonight 05:37
• 7 Day Dream 04:24
• 8 I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues 04:35
• 9 All Roads Lead Back to You 04:22
• 10 U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group) 01:06
• 11 Lush Life 05:47
• 12 Take the "A" Train 03:30
• Total Runtime 53:04

Info for Lovesome Thing (sings Ellington & Strayhorn feat. Emmet Cohen)

This is the extraordinary recording debut of jazz phenomenon Anaïs Reno, who made it in 2020 at the age of 16. Reno has already won accolades for her dedication to the Great American Songbook. She recently received the Julie Wilson Award, and in 2019 won the Mabel Mercer Foundation competition for high school students.

Living in New York City, Reno began singing when she was eight, and since the age of 10 has performed with a notable array of jazz and cabaret artists at venues including Birdland Jazz Club, the National Arts Club, the Players Club and Carnegie Hall. She has had three solo shows at Feinstein’s 54 Below with Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth (the first of them at age 13), and two at Birdland with Stritch and Brian Charette. Reno is currently a senior drama major at Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

For this album she has chosen 12 tunes by two master writers: Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and Billy Strayhorn 1915-67), creators of some of the most challenging and sophisticated material in the Great American Songbook. Reno combines beloved hits such as “Mood Indigo,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Lush Life” and “Caravan” with lesser-known but equally memorable tunes like “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing” and “It’s Kind of Lonesome Out Tonight,” all backed by a stellar group of jazz musicians led by pianist Emmet Cohen, who also did the arrangements with Reno.

“I have a very personal relationship with these songs,” says Reno. “Somehow I believe that the music of Ellington & Strayhorn understands me. This is why I want to honor it.”

Acclaimed jazz historian Will Friedwald, who has written the liner notes for the 12-page CD booklet, comments that “At 16, Anaïs achieved what precious few adults ever accomplish: namely, to actually enhance our appreciation and enjoyment of the Ellington-Strayhorn canon.”

“Whether working together or separately, the two of them were always on the same page, both metaphorically and literally. And now, so is Anaïs Reno.”

"There’s no doubt that jazz fans are always looking for fresh talent, and I have (absolutely) no doubt that you will find invigorating young jazz singer Anais Reno one of those talents that will carry her generation forward." - Dick Metcalf, Contemporary Fusion Reviews

“She could show the mass market teen queens a thing or two about what real talent means. A thoroughly delightful jazz vocal album with all involved cooking with the gas on high.” - Chris Spector, Midwest Record

Anaïs Reno, vocals
Emmet Cohen, piano, leader, arranger
Russell Hall, bass
Kyle Poole, drums
Tivon Pennicott, saxophone
Juliet Kurtzman, violin

Anaïs Reno
had already won acclaim for her dedication to jazz and the Great American Songbook. She recently received the Julie Wilson Award; won the Inspiration Award at the Songbook Academy Competition; and in 2019 received the Adela and Larry Elow American Songbook High School Competition given by the Mabel Mercer Foundation. Three years earlier, Ms. Reno received the Forte International Competition’s Platinum Award at Carnegie Hall. Living in New York City, she began singing when she was eight, and since the age of 10 has performed with an array of noted jazz and cabaret artists at venues including Birdland Jazz Club, the Friar’s Club, the National Arts Club, the Players Club, Carnegie Hall and the annual Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Ms. Reno has had three solo shows at Feinstein’s 54 Below with Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth (the first of them at age 13), and two at Birdland with Mr. Stritch and Brian Charette. She has studied with her father, a former opera singer, and since she was eight with Sarah Tolar as a recipient of the Recanati-Kaplan Scholarship Program at the 92nd St. Y. Additional teachers include Joan Lader and Lee Lobenhofer. Ms. Reno is currently a senior drama major at Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Booklet for Lovesome Thing (sings Ellington & Strayhorn feat. Emmet Cohen)