The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Blair N. Cummings wrote:One correction, Geoff: Laura Nyro never worked in the Brill Building and wrote songs only for herself. So many of those that appeared on her first two albums were commercially successfully covered by others causes some now to think that she was a professional "hit - maker" in the mode of Carole King and Ellie Greenwich. She wasn`t. After disappearing for the first half of the `70s, she re-emerged as a newly ex-urban "earth mother." She wrote beautiful melodies but the lyrics were like eco-feminist greeting cards. The old spark was gone.

Hmmmm she is listed on wikipedia as a brill building composer. Whether or not she was actually commissioned as a hitmaker is a different conversation but she is associated with a certain sound, time and location. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Building

Don`t believe everything you read on that dodgy site.

You're right, Blair. In Michele Kort's excellent biography of Laura Nyro there's no mention of her even having visited the Brill Building let alone working there. From the off she was always someone who wrote songs for herself to sing.

As much as I love listening to Laura Nyro's recordings I think she was just too idiosyncratic a performer to ever have had hits with her most famous songs. However, I'll always prefer her exuberant version of 'Sweet Blindness' to the rather tame hit recording by the 5th Dimension:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nZFD7gH1mJg

I think another one of Laura Nyro's classics which her original recording knocks spots off the hit version (Three Dog Night) is Eli's Comin'. Just like on Sweet Blindness, all the voices you hear on the record are Nyro's and apparently was the result of several days and nights in the studio, and sounds it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EfW41eKUkKE

As a cruel irony, the only time LN charted in the US, was with a cover of "Up On the Roof." It appeared on her last album of otherwise originals (and final New York album). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMwq4teVMtg
She followed it with an album of early r&b covers before disappearing for several years and then re-emerging as...something else. In my view, something lesser.

I think "something lesser" is a fair summing up of Laura Nyro's albums post-hiatus. There are a few tracks on 'Nested' which hint at past glories but they're not particularly memorable and they certainly lack the passion and intensity of old. 'The Sweet Sky' is a good example, pleasant though it undoubtedly is.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mAR8in77FQc

Nested had, to my ears, the highest average of lovely melodies of her later albums; but all traces of New York as well as her musical and lyrical idiosyncracies...in short, what had identified her...were irretrievably gone. What a shame and disappointment.
That said, she was still mesmerizing live.

One of my biggest regrets was missing the opportunity to see Laura Nyro live in London in the 90s, around about the time of the release of her last official studio album, 'Walk the Dog and Light the Light'. Produced by Laura with Gary Katz, Steely Dan's producer, it's a beautiful sounding record, often lushly arranged and with many sublime moments. Here's 'Woman Of the World' and 'Broken Rainbow':

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrh0fcvwjMs

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4NK4hPx2TWY

Another - very different - woman with a piano may be coming your way later this year.
Hiromi took last year off but is already booked at the New York Blue Note for a week in early October. Her touring schedule should be posted here on her website soon: http://www.hiromiuehara.com/s/y01en/?ima=2951
This is a solo concert from 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awbv7HzQsA4

Of course, if you`re going to be in NYC in October, you can buy tickets for her gig there, now. I`ve seen her there more than once. She`s amazing.
Just scroll ahead to October 2019:
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update: I just repaired the Hiromi concert link above. If it malfunctions again, try listening to her solo Place To Be solo album or her Duets with Chick Corea on Spotify.

I went to a jazz gig the night after Hiromi's BBC Proms performance was televised last year and judging by the response of the hardened jazzers I spoke to about it I think she probably divides people roughly 50/50 into two camps, those who are completely blown away by her talent and those who think she's nothing more than a show-off, a kind of performing flea who is all technique and no feeling. I count myself among the former camp. Here's part of that Proms performance, her extraordinary 'I Got Rhythm'.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PmKQptkI6g0

I`m gratified to note that Hiromi`s coming gigs (at least, that at the Blue Note) are solo performances. For too long she dragged around an electric bassist and a former drummer for Deep Purple. It wasn`t all bad - it was Hiromi, after all - but it was unnecessary...as was her last tour`s inclusion of Edmar Castaneda whose harp (!) essentially served as a bass.

I`ve written elsewhere that I thought it too bad that Miles` car didn`t break down en route to the Monterey Festival in `67. It was after seeing then-new bands like the Airplane and Hendrix`s Experience that he had the satanic idea of plugging in his own band, which was arguably the greatest quintet in history. The result was decades of mutant "fusion" that sucked in far too many musicians who should have known better (but who, understandably, welcomed the ensuing monetary rewards).

Today, all the originators of jazz (many of whom I was fortunate enough to see on the NY club circuit decades ago) are gone and, while there are undeniably proficient players, the music isn`t as rich as it used to be (pace, Nate Chinen). Hiromi is the only contemporary musician I`ll actually get up off my ancient ass to go see.

I think everyone who made valuable contributions in response to me posting Laura Nyros song should delete their message and start a new thread. I love threads that stay on topic. Sweet blindness is an awesome song that doesnt sound anytihing like a Bacharach song. Laura Nyro deserves her own thread anyway. I will help you guys out and start it. So I hope that you guys can continue the convo there.

Macarthur Park done by a Chinese singer with a full orchestra (live) and it is even longer than Richard Harris' version...
https://vimeo.com/323544840

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD7BzwmBskQ

Steve Lawrence produced by Teddy Randazzo another great Bacharach contemporary. This song sounds like a replica of Jack Jones wives and lovers.