It's astonishing to think that Billy Strayhorn was just 16 when he began to write what was to become his signature tune, ‘Lush Life’ – a song whose chromaticism and large leaps make it one of the trickiest standards to sing.

Recorded in 2020, when she was similarly aged 16, this debut album from Swiss-born, NYC-resident vocalist Anaïs Reno celebrating the music of Strayhorn and Duke Ellington offers a remarkable introduction to a singular talent. Reno, who placed second at Michael Feinstein's Great American Song Book Academy competition in 2018 (with Feinstein noting “you're quite a musical prodigy”) and who was a recipient of the Julie Wilson Award in 2020, doesn't only impress in the vocal department, she also co-arranged all of the material with pianist Emmet Cohen, whose trio provide the superb accompaniment.

From imaginative takes on classic material such as the preludial wordless vocalese and cleverly disguised gear shift in ‘Caravan, the boppish ‘Take the “A” Train’ (which nods to the Betty Roché version), and a slowly swinging ‘Mood Indigo’ (on which Reno is joined by her mother, Juliet Kurtzman, on violin), to lesser-known gems such as ‘It's Kind of Lonesome Out Tonight, it's impossible not to be moved by Reno's musicality and approach to the music. And, yes, she does dust down ‘Lush Life’ and makes a great job of it, too. Tivon Pennicott on tenor provides a number of telling contributions, most notably on ‘I Ain't Got Nothin’ But the Blues’.