By Marilyn Lester***Since winning the 2019 second annual Adela & Larry Elow American Songbook High School Competition, under the auspices of The Mable Mercer Foundation, Anaïs Reno has been very squarely on much of the jazz community’s radar. At the time she was a student at 
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. But that event wasn’t her first competition win (she’s been performing since age eight). Now 21 and a student at SUNY Purchase, precocious or prodigy, Reno is already forging an important career.
This debut at Dizzy’s Club celebrated the release of her second album, Lady of the Lavender Mist. (Her first was 2021’s Lovesome Thing: Anaïs Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn.) This second project also nods to Ellington; 1948’s “Lady of the Lavendar Mist” was written as a slow-tempo, evocative, bluesy instrumental. As with many of Ellington’s tunes (he seldom wrote his material outright as a song), the piece now has a lyric, courtesy of Reno, written with a deep, creative insight int
o the story told by the music. Ellington-Strayhorn are Reno’s favorite composers, and as this Ellingtonian has noted and written, there’s a special genius to their music, anchored in melody and harmonic complexity, which Reno perfectly understands and attunes to.
What Reno’s narrative revealed was that she’s keenly intelligent, witty and delightful. She nailed the other Ellington of the set, “Sophisticated Lady.” The Mitchell Parish lyric can be interpreted two ways: as judgemental or with empathy. Reno chose the second path and her pathos for the lady in question was tangible. There was one original Reno composition showcased, “Sad Little Swan,” inspired by the 2010 film, Black Swan, a tune with a carnival-esque feel, opening up to a swing interpretation.
A pair of tunes with foreign origins demonstrated the singer’s command of each language, creatively arranged. The Brazilian Portuguese “Bala Com Bala” (Aldir Blanc, Joao Bosco) featured an uptempo samba beat, phrased almost l
ike a vocalese. “Les Feuilles mortes” (“The Dead Leaves”) (Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert) began in balladic, excellent French, morphing into its English persona of “Autumn Leaves” with the Johnny Mercer lyric, and Reno upping the tempo and the swing quotient with some scat, before resolving in the original French version.
The robust, varied set also included standards “Night and Day” (Cole Porter), When in Rome” (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) and “The Man That Got Away” (Harold Arlen, Ira Gershhhwin)—Reno will age into this one—plus a swinging, vocalese “Gravy Waltz” (Steve Allen, Ray Brown) as well as other delights, all adding up to the maturation of a jazz artist that’s already impressive, with so much more to come.
Musically supporting Reno were a crew of musicians that really “got her.” At the keys, Dawn Clement was one of the most joyful, animated pianists this writer has ever seen. She played a mean piano and was fun to watch. Bassist Sameer Shankar and drummer Matt Wilson were perfectly in the pocket with Reno. This was a group withh plenty of simpatico chops.
