Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997)

Laura Nyro passed away on April 8, 1997. If you have not had the pleasure to hear her music, she was one of the great songwriters of the 1960’s. Many of her tunes were hits for other artists:

Stoney End (Barbara Steisand)

And When I Die (Blood, Sweat and Tears)

Eli’s Comin’ (Three Dog Night)

Stoned Soul Picnic (The Fifth Dimension)

There were other hits as well, but it is her playing and singing solo at the piano that brings me to a place where, as a man, I can know what it is to believe in truth, beauty and goodness, and capture the ideal of woman. To hear her caress, rhythmically stride, even pound the piano while cajoling the full range of that powerfully delicate voice out of her soul and into the world – cannot be much different, (in terms of scale), than the effort exhausted during the six days God needed to create the world.

No wonder He rested on the seventh day.

The second (and last) concert I attended at the old Fillmore East was to see her perform solo – this was in May of 1971. The ticket, like her LP labels, said: “Laura Nyro (Accompanying herself on the piano)”. Spencer Davis (yes, that Spencer Davis) and Peter Jameson were the opening act. I have a good long term memory, and it appears to be intact. Otherwise, that wanna be folk duo would have been long forgotten.

I saw her again in the spring of 1976 when my friend Rita Tabb and her boyfriend were kind enough to drive me to the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey for the show. I worked with Rita at The National Star, which is what Star Magazine was called in those days. Miss Nyro had a full band with her that night, including Richard Davis on bass if memory serves me correctly. Smile was the album recently released at the time. The concert was quite nice, but damn… I wished it was just her and the piano. And that voice.

Now, it is April 8th, 2012 as I write this, with a half empty bottle of Black Boss Porter sitting in my favorite goblet. Nearly 37 years since that concert in New Jersey. The clock says 9:46 pm, and New York Tendaberry is playing in the background… and I do my best to honor and remember an artist, who, like all of us, came and went in her time on Earth. Not forgotten though, as the songs and recordings remain. My thanks to Heaven and Miss Nyro for the gift. She will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 2012. Considering the level of talent of a few of the previous inductees, this honor is overdue, but welcomed none the less.

Ms. Nyro was a Bronx girl, born in 1947, who managed to capture the imagination and soul of a guy from Brooklyn. She appears to have been a precedent for my own Maria, who loved the Bronx with all her heart, but followed that heart to Brooklyn in 1996. She, like Laura, left us via cancer, albeit in 2002.

And so it goes.

If you want to listen to a young woman empty her soul into the world through music, and make it a bearable, even wonderful place for just a little while, I recommend her recordings. If Heaven is what reputation says it is, I look forward to being in the audience to hear Miss Nyro at the piano one more time.

jazzmanblue