The following is an interview with Russian-born, New York-based jazz vocalist, bandleader, songwriter, and educator Svetlana. Her new EP, Reel to Remix: Night at the Movies Reimagined – a reimagining of her 2019 album Night at the Movies – was released 18 April. Links to purchase the album, and to Svetlana’s website, can be found at the end of this article.
“I am a person with four graduate degrees standing in the kitchen at 1 a.m. laminating paper with postage tape.”
A refugee from the Soviet Union, Svetlana Shmulyian – professionally known as Svetlana – has an accordingly bone-dry sense of humour. For one, she’s been through the day-job wringer: 15 years ago, she sat in an office as a management consultant, for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. The mother of three teenagers, she calls herself “a Martian that landed on this planet”, Russia being Mars, the U.S. Earth.
She does not take her degree of success in jazz for granted. Nor does she sugarcoat the experience. Yet Reel to Remix: Night at the Movies Reimagined is transportive. Featuring remixers like Amber Navran (‘Pure Imagination’), Sirintip (‘Moon River’) and Bryn Bliska (‘Remember Me’), Reel to Remix expands on Night at the Movies‘ vision in lush, atmospheric relief.
Even if the life of a working jazz singer can be humbling, hence the late-night lamination sessions, Svetlana is rightly undeterred. “I’ll keep cutting out those cards at 1 a.m.,” she says, “because it’s very calming.” Read on for a full interview with the singer.
UK Jazz News: What inspired you to make a remix album of cinematic music?
Svetlana: I really love movies. I go to film festivals. I love Hollywood, I love [2001’s] Bridget Jones’ Diary, and I love the weirdest, strangest things that come out. I never remember names of actors or movies, but I love the stories, and the idea of being transported. So, I wanted to make a survey of different movies throughout the decades.
So, that record came out, and then the pandemic came, and we were sitting around and listening to different music. I was always curious about and interested in electronic music. I’ve taken a bunch of courses at MSM [Manhattan School of Music] and created strange sounds. I have a little side project in the vein of what you’re hearing on this record, where I write songs and work with a bass player and we make it weird.
I saw a couple of people that I love. My friend [drummer and composer] Curtis Nowosad, asked a bunch of friends to make remixes of his recording, of mainly original music. I liked all of it, but the ones I loved were more dreamy and imaginative.
Then, I also heard [fellow jazz vocalist] Sara Gazarek, who I met as a sub instructor at MSM. Of course, she’s a Grammy-winning singer, writer, and one of the co-leaders of the group säje. She put Amber Navran on my radar; to my ears, a genius musician.
Amber has this project, Moonchild, and I just went on a dive, because what else did we have during the pandemic? Amber was putting out little producer vignettes on her Instagram, and I was completely fan-girling her feed.
Then, I became aware of that whole world of her friends, and they were putting out things like that. I was sitting and thinking: I have this desire to make stuff.
UKJN: How did you pick which tracks to remix?
Svetlana: There’s a total of 13 tracks on the original recording, but I picked six — the saddest ones, and the dreamiest. I think a lot of people on the scene know me originally from more uplifting, swinging, straight-ahead stuff. But on Night at the Movies, I found [material] that was dreamy and introspective. Like Alice slipping through the looking glass and dissolving into the world of imagination.
My hope is that the listener is drawn into a shimmering world of possibility that I crafted with these six women producers. “Moonlight,” “Moon River,” “Young and Beautiful,” “It Might Be You” — they’re not heartbreaking songs [per se], but it finishes with “Remember Me,” which is all about loss. Using art and music as a vehicle of keeping yourself sane. I think that’s what drove my choices.
I think there are nuggets of humour, especially if you look at ‘Pure Imagination’. Amber Navran is such a genius; I’m in awe. She took the song and completely recoded its images. I see butterflies and rainbows and beautiful purple clouds, an MDMA-infused world. I think it’s funny, and such a skilful thing she did. It brings me joy, and hopefully brings joy to other people.
UKJN: When you look at the jazz vocalist ecosystem, what do you see? How do you perceive your role in it?
Svetlana: I think it’s a beautiful, ever-evolving social construct. It’s been fascinating for me to observe; every time a new thing shows up, it’s this shiny, interesting object. People are like, Wow, let’s listen to that. And then a new crop of singers comes up, and they’re like, Amazing.
We’re in a little bit of a bubble here in our New York scene. Whoever is performing at Mezzrow is the eighth person of the day. Traveling and touring in and outside the U.S., the world of jazz singing is vast. That said, there are undeniable stars right now.
I’m a fan. I love jazz, and vocal jazz in particular. I listen to Samara Joy, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Nicole Zuraitis. New folks are coming up on the horizon that are maybe less known, but I listen to them and I’m like, This was so true. This was so beautiful. I am so moved.
UKJN: Does vocal jazz not get enough respect?
Svetlana: I think respect is the wrong word in some ways. I think it’s just people fighting for survival.
UKJN: I mean critical respect.
Svetlana: I would say that when I get my DownBeat magazine delivered to my door, and I look at the reviews – because I want to learn about what’s up with new music out there – I don’t understand those ratings. Maybe it’s because I love music so much and I take time to listen. Like, Why does this vocal release get five stars? Why does this one get two and a half stars? I don’t see the difference.
Recording music is such a costly and often selfless pursuit. I honestly don’t even get why someone who go and judge someone else so harshly, let alone put it in print. Especially when music is obviously so highly subjective. It feels very wrong and very pointless.I know a bunch of vocalists who have never been reviewed in DownBeat, on that coveted page. With all respect to DownBeat, a historic publication, it’s like Plumber’s Monthly. Very niche, very small — I don’t know who reads it cover to cover. I don’t know that it has an impact.
We’re all struggling here. Despite our insular view — because we’re in this bubble — it’s still the lowest producing modern genre, among so many genres. Jazz is one of the lowest revenue-generating genres in today’s commercial music industry – with its smaller audience, limited radio and streaming exposure, and predominantly independent infrastructure. Yet despite modest sales, jazz maintains strong cultural influence, thrives in live and educational settings, and continues to inspire with its depth, legacy, and artistry.
We’re still on the bottom, and people are just trying to survive — go out of the bottom of the Titanic.
UKJN: It’s not like jazz is always a sinking ship, as far as the mainstream is concerned. Look at Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Or Pixar’s Soul. Or Samara Joy getting Best New Artist at the Grammys.
Svetlana: Look, I’m not an expert — I’m more like a Martian who landed in the US 25 years ago and was able to come closer to jazz. I grew up spinning records in my Moscow apartment, and I’m just grateful to be here, to participate in this tradition which grew out of Black American experience, to touch the holy stone.
Popular music changes — and what makes money follows what’s popular. Jazz was the pop music of the 1920s and ’30s. But it was born from the blues, the spirituals, the field hollers of enslaved African Americans. The music and tradition evolved, crossed over, and became the soundtrack of dance halls and speakeasies – which a lot of money to be made from booze, and then eventually from recordings. From struggle to swing, the music found commercial success and became a foundation of all American popular music – but it started as survival.
Today, jazz is one of the lowest-earning genres in streaming, sales, and media exposure. But its cultural weight is massive. Jazz and blues are the roots of nearly every genre we hear now. It’s not always profitable, but it’s foundational. So when it gets exposure in more ‘mainstream’ media I am generally in support of that. Jazz may not dominate charts today, but it lives on through its influence, its history, and its soul.
UKJN: How would you boil down your upbringing in the Soviet Union?
Svetlana: I think of a flower growing by the side of asphalt – a dirty, polluted road. There’s no other world, and you just know to grow and bloom. And that’s what I did.
A big part of it was being Jewish, and it was very prevalent in my life. Even though we were not religious, it was like being cast in this really bad group of people, looking different. Everybody could identify you in the street. My brother was like an Olympian of science, and he didn’t get into any university he wanted to get into, because there were quotas, and he did not fit the quota.
My father was a scientist, not allowed to go abroad. When he finally did, there was a KGB guy following him, because they were afraid of defection. I think that was a heavy weight. But otherwise, you thought, This is how things are supposed to be.
The foreigners, when you met them, were like aliens. They were treated with beauty, and you gave them the best, because they were just so magical.
The lies were obvious. When things opened up, and the reflection came that a lot of it was lies and oppression and power, [smothering] any dissent – you know, I detest it. I detest it with my whole heart.
So, when I see processes that are going on – people vying for a certain type of suppression of free speech, or socialism without knowing what it actually entails – it hurts. Because the ignorance of it is just so sad. It’s so prevalent these days.
UKJN: What’s it like navigating the jazz scene in 2025, as both a Russian and Jewish person?
Svetlana: The division saddens me. I think there’s a concerted effort to divide and conquer. I work with very diverse bands, because I want this music to be expressed the way it’s meant to be expressed. I continue to learn about Black American expression of this music – again, as a person who landed from Mars, a.k.a. Russia, on this earth where this music was created.
Divide and conquer: taking the minorities and tagging them against each other. Seeing the unfolding of the propaganda that only helped us elect the government that is taking the very floor from under our feet. Like, cancelling the funding for every cultural institution and transforming it.
The folks that brought me to perform at the Kennedy Center are gone. I’m in touch with them; I just emailed them, and three out of four emails bounced. I just performed on a public radio station in Sarasota, FL, that runs an arts series. They are running on slim budgets, because they are mainly volunteers; the funding has been taken away.
I do see a division in the jazz community. And it’s very sad, because it’s very obvious that it does not benefit any of us. I’m a refugee to this country. I have a proper refugee status, and I came here to be free. So even though I may not be comfortable with some of the things that are said, I am less comfortable with people who say those things should be shut down.
