| World Jazz |
A Cinematic Voice in a Latin-Jazz Frame: Shelly Bhushan and Anthony Lanni Sketch a Sonic Cityscape
There is something quietly ambitious in this album, something that situates itself between a cinematic vision of sound and the warm, evocative sway of Latin ambiance. It’s a record made for dim lights and long evenings, inviting not through bold experimentation but through a carefully curated atmosphere. In its best moments, the music echoes the lyrical introspection of the Stan Getz era, without, of course, aspiring to match that level of mastery, which would be not only presumptuous but impossible. What we’re offered here is not virtuosity, but vision: urban, thoughtful, and self-contained. It is to be taken on its own terms.
At the heart of the project is a New York-based musical duo: vocalist and songwriter Shelly Bhushan, and guitarist-composer Anthony Lanni. Their work is a tapestry of Latin, Brazilian, soul, jazz, and global influences, drawing from a wide range of cultural textures to form a sonically rich and rhythmically nuanced palette. Bhushan’s vocal sensibility is deeply rooted in the traditions of R&B, soul, and blues, while Lanni brings to the table a reverence for Brazilian musical traditions and classical Latin American guitar arrangements. The result is a series of original compositions that are narratively sensitive, emotionally intelligent, and steeped in the eternal themes of love, loss, and the human experience.
And it is, indeed, in the lyrics that the duo’s core intelligence resides. Yet, therein also lies a tension. The level of literary intent in the songwriting occasionally outpaces the music meant to support it. This is a subtle, but persistent imbalance. One cannot shake the sense that Bhushan’s voice, rich, expressive, and powerfully resonant, deserves a more finely wrought musical context. At times, she appears to be carrying the entire emotional architecture of the album on her shoulders, a feat that demands more than accompaniment, it calls for artistic partnership. What she receives is merely musical backdrop.
Still, what a voice it is. Bhushan’s vocals command attention with a warmth and power that veer, intriguingly, toward a sort of nostalgic Parisian melancholy. Not the Paris of today, but a stylized dream-version of the city, one that, in the American imagination, remains frozen somewhere between the 1950s and the late ‘60s, back when the French capital was a beacon of global culture and artistic mystique.
It doesn’t take long, once the listener attunes to her vocal phrasing, to be drawn into the emotional terrain she traverses. Her influences become clear, not only musically, but narratively. Writing, for her, is the governing force, the true anchor of her artistry. And in that conviction, the album finds its strength. The music around it may occasionally falter or blur, but Bhushan’s commitment to lyrical meaning holds the project together with quiet authority.
There is, in Shelly Bhushan, something reminiscent of David Lynch’s sensibilities, her work inhabits an emotional dreamspace, halfway between music and cinema. At times, she feels less like a jazz vocalist and more like a seasoned actress, crafting character through tone, breath, and silence. She does not merely sing, she interprets. And that is what carries the listener through to the end.
This is not a flawless album. It asks more of its listener than it sometimes earns, and it is uneven in its musical weight. But it is, undeniably, worth discovering, if only for Shelly Bhushan’s voice and vision. There is the seed of something singular here, something that—given time, space, and the right musical collaboration, could blossom into a truly distinctive place in the contemporary jazz and soul landscape. A name to remember, and to follow.
by Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 13th 2025
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Musicians :
Shelly Bhushan, vocals boo-shawn
Anthony Lani, guitars
Arei Sekiguchi, drum & percussions
Haruna Fukazawa, Flute
Tosh Sheridan, Piano
Brad Whitely, organ
Gary Lanco, Strings
Alejendro Berti Delgado, Trumpet
Rick Becker, Trombone
Jeremy Powell, Saxophone
Will Holdshouser, accordion
Tracklist :
Amarillo
I Guess We’re Not Alone
I’ll Be There For You
Autumn Fell
At The End Of The Day
Paris Isn’t Paris Without You
Down The Stairs
Fade Into The Sky
Never Too Late
Paris Isn’t Paris Without You (Reprise)