Anaïs Reno: At PizzaExpress Live - In London

Editor's Choice

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Josh Morrison
Dave Green (b)
Pete Malinverni (p)
Anaïs Reno (v)

Label:

PX Records

February/2024

Media Format:

CD, LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

PXRCD1008

RecordDate:

Rec. 2023

As anyone who heard Swiss-born, NYC-based vocalist Anaïs Reno’s debut album, Lovesome Thing, will know, her musicality at the age of 16 (having co-arranged all of the material with pianist Emmet Cohen) was nothing short of remarkable.

Reno’s follow-up release on PX Records, which opens with one of Cole Porter’s most memorable standards, ‘It's De-Lovely’, from his 1936 musical, Red Hot and Blue, merely serves to confirm all of her great qualities: flawless pitch, impeccable time feel and a pleasingly rich timbral quality. The 11-track live album includes powerful versions of Irving Berlin’s ‘Supper Time’ and Charlie Parker’s ‘Yardbird Suite’, with the latter giving a nod to the classic Carmen McRae version recorded on her 1955 album, By Special Request.

Expertly backed by pianist Pete Malinverni, bassist Dave Green and drummer Josh Morrison, Reno’s interpretation of the Jerome Moross/John Latouche standard, ‘Lazy Afternoon’, with its vivid depiction of bucolic indolence, is especially striking and enthusiastically received by the Pizza Express audience. Another Porter tune, ‘At Long Last Love’, showcases Reno’s feel for a lyric (“Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park?”). In among all of the standards, Billy Joel’s hymnic ‘And So it Goes’ is an unexpected delight.

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