Laura Nyro - Live: The Loom's Desire
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Artist: Laura NyroBrand: NYRO,LAURA
Edition: Music CD
Format: Live
CD Release Date: 2002-05-07
Music Label: Rounder / Umgd
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby
- Dedicated to the One I Love
- Wind
- Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)
- Walk the Dog and Light the Light (Song of the Road)
- To a Child
- And When I Die
- Japanese Restaurant Song
- My Innocence/Sophia
- Wedding Bell Blues
- Art of Love
- Emmie
- Let It Be Me
- Angel in the Dark
- Gardenia Talk
- Save the Country
- Louise's Church
- Wild World
- A Woman of the World
- The Descent of Luna Rose
- Broken Rainbow
- Blowin' Away/Wedding Bell Blues
- Trees of the Ages/Emmie
- Ooh Baby, Baby
Music reviews of Live: The Loom's Desire
Music Review: a good yarn (the loom's desire?)
Rating: 4 Stars
Laura Nyro was not the Lord's gift to Ticketmaster, but she did have a penchant for sharing a Christmas Eve gift with her faithful each year at The Bottom Line (which incidentally closed in January of 2005 after nearly 30 years in operation) in New York's Greenwich Village. 'the loom's desire' features two CD's, each presenting one of Laura's last two concerts at the 400 seat venue in 1993 and 1994. Laura was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about six months later, and passed away in 1997, never to perform at the Bottom Line again. In that respect, these recordings are certainly historic.
The recordings are also exemplary, from a technical as well as a musical perspective. Laura is in fine voice, despite a cold which she alludes to in dialog with the audience during the 1993 performance. Right from the get go Laura and her six voice Harmony Group sound as though they had spent an hour warming up backstage, offering a rich rendition of Phil Spector's 'Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby'. Another cover follows, Richard Bass' 'Dedicated To the One I Love', and yet another cover from Nyro's 1971 collaboration with Patti LaBelle, 'The Wind'. Given that Nyro is singing solo with a slew of soul sisters, one would think other songs from this landmark LP would follow, but after 'The Wind' the Harmony Group is off-stage, and no more songs from 'Gonna Take a Miracle' appear on these discs.
Instead, Nyro's focus on this, and the 1994 disc, is primarily on compositions from her later years. 'Wedding Bell Blues' and 'Emmie' are the only selections that appear on both discs, and both are from her first two releases ('First Songs' and 'Eli and the 13th Confession'), but only 'Blowin' Away' and 'And When I Die' are also drawn from those discs. In fact, 'Save the Country' and 'My Innocence' are the only other pre-1984 tracks offered. Four previously unreleased tracks that first appeared on her 'Live At the Bottom Line' ('Wild World', 'Broken Rainbow', 'Japanese Restaurant Song' and 'Trees of the Ages') are featured, along with seven songs from 1993's 'Walk the Dog and Light the Light' CD and three tracks from her posthumous 2001 recording, 'Angel In the Dark'. Since the 'Live At the Bottom Line' CD is out of print and difficult to find at a reasonable price, the presence of these tracks makes 'the loom's desire' a desirable choice for Laura's fans.
The 1993 set is clearly superior to the 1994 recording, unless your interest is in Laura's later work, which is more strongly represented on the second disc. The 1993 recording is much more vibrant, the audience more enthused and vocal, and Laura's Harmony Group is beefed up by the presence of six, rather than the three vocalists she utilized in 1994. Nevertheless, this Harmony Group is not to be underestimated, breaking out some strong moments, such as their "In my mind I can't study war" chorus for 'Save the Country".
I was particularly enthused to finally own a recording of a track from my favorite Nyro disc, 'Nested', which is currently unavailable on CD. However Laura's rendition of 'My Innocence' on grand piano rather than acoustic guitar is a bit stilted compared to the liquid flow of the original. And speaking of flow... I probably could live without a song celebrating menstruation ('the descent of luna rose', literally the descent of the monthly red wine), though I realize its arrival can afford great relief to the recipient. Oh, well, Laura always was famous for stretching the borders of many things, all the way from her remarkable vocal range to our fragile sensibilities. There are also revelations on the discs, such as Nyro dedicating the song 'Louise's Church' to Louise Nevelson, who designed sculptures for New York City's Saint Peter's Lutheran Church.
One does have to wonder what looms next from the Nyro catalog. The live solo scene is getting overworked with the presence of similar discs in 'Live In Japan', 'Live On Mountain Stage', and now 'The Loom's Desire', all solo piano endeavors with her Harmony Group. Another recent release, 'Spread Your Wings And Fly', though featuring an early career performance, is nonetheless yet another solo piano work. The studio vault was apparently emptied with 'Angel In the Dark', so we can only hope that some live material presenting Laura with a back-up band is in the wings. Laura could kick it, and we need to be reminded of that.
Description of Live: The Loom's Desire
2 discs of live recordings taken from Christmas concerts during 1993 & 1994.Most listeners were introduced to the songs of the late Laura Nyro through 1960s hits by the likes of the Fifth Dimension ("Wedding Bell Blues") and Blood, Sweat & Tears ("And When I Die"). Such mainstream exposure didn't hint at how strikingly (sometimes stridently) original and passionately obsessive her own performances could be. These 1993-94 recordings from Nyro's annual Christmas Eve concerts at New York's Bottom Line show her music in its most suitably intimate setting, backed only by a female harmony chorus and her spare piano accompaniment. Her incantatory rendition of "Save the Country" and her rapturous signature tune, "Emmie," find her early material maturing with her, while she transforms classic ballads such as the Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me" and Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby, Baby" into personal testament. Though some of her later songs are more didactic and narrowly focused--she plainly wasn't concerned about commercial potential with "Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)" or "The Descent of Luna Rose" (her ode to the menstrual cycle)--her material retains its melodic warmth. In Nyro's musical progression, the soul sister and the earth mother became one. --Don McLeese
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