Vocalist Anais Reno recently released her second studio recording, Lady of the Lavender Mist (Club44 Records), and Jersey Jazz‘s Joe Lang wrote: “She is a pure pleasure to hear.” AllAboutJazz‘s Pierre Giroux added that Reno, “continues to strengthen her reputation among the top young interpreters of the Great American Songbook.”
When Reno (photo above) performs at the October 5th Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center, she will be singing some selections from her new album, which includes such standards as “Autumn Leaves” and “I’ll Remember April” as well as the title track, a Duke Ellington tune to which she added lyrics. But, she’ll also be singing songs from her first album, Lovesome Thing, which celebrates the music of Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. And there will be some original music as well.
Reno was featured as a Rising Star in the March 2022 issue of Jersey Jazz, and, in that article, she talked about the magic of the Ellington/Strayhorn songbook. “I became very aware of how human, complex, and beautiful it is,” she said. “You have the beautiful, romantic ethereal quality — some of those Strayhorn ballads like ‘A Flower is a Lovesome Thing’ and, of course, ‘Lush Life’. Then you have those wonderful Ellington tunes that we all know. And then there are some more obscure ones.”
When she was eight years old, Reno (now 21) began taking voice lessons from singer/songwriter Sarah Tolar. “I feel very grateful to her,” Reno said, “because after a couple of months of working together, she sensed that maybe some older American Songbook music would be good for me.” Reno’s love of the American Songbook has continued unabated since those early lessons. “Because everyone loves this music,” she said,” it has a natural way of bringing people together.”
At Jersey Jazz LIVE!, Reno will be accompanied on piano by Jeb Patton, a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band who has also performed with such jazz giants as tenor saxophonists Jimmy Heath and George Coleman and alto saxophonist Charles McPherson. While earning his Master of Arts Degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Patton studied piano with Sir Roland Hanna.
Reno and Patton will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening acting featuring a trio led by guitarist Desmond Diehl (photo below), a senior at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, NJ. Diehl performed at the Umbria and Ancona Jazz Festivals in Italy this summer with the Jazz House Kids Big Band. He was also a featured soloist with JHK at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington event and the Charles Mingus Festival and International High School Competition at The New School. He is a two-time winner of the Young Arts Award for Jazz Guitar and a past member of the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble.
Desmond will be joined by his brother, drummer Beckitt Diehl, a Jazz Studies major at William Paterson University, and bassist Lark Villinski, who lives in Long Island City, Queens, NY, and attends the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $15 for NJJS members and $20 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, log onto https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/new-jersey-jazz-society/jersey-jazz-live-the-anais-reno-duo
: Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts.
ANAIS RENO PHOTO BY SOPHIE ELGORT
DESMOND DIEHL PHOTO BY PAIGE PURCELL
