Laura Nyro

1.1. Birth and Childhood

Laura Nyro was born Laura Nigro in The Bronx, New York City, on October 18, 1947. Her father, Louis Nigro, was a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter, while her mother, Gilda (née Mirsky), worked as a bookkeeper. Laura had a younger brother, Jan Nigro, who later became a notable children's musician. Her family background was diverse, with Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish ancestry, and Italian American heritage from her paternal grandfather. Her father named her "Laura" after hearing the title theme of the 1944 film Laura. The Nigro family often insisted on pronouncing their surname as Nigro_NIGH-ro^English to avoid racial connotations. However, after leaving high school, Laura chose her own surname, "Nyro", which she pronounced Nyro_NEER-oh^English.

Nyro described her childhood as difficult, stating in a 1970 Billboard interview, "I was never a bright and happy child." She found solace and a means of coping through music, remarking, "I've created my own little world, a world of music, since I was five years old." As a child, she was largely self-taught on the piano. She also read poetry and listened extensively to her mother's record collection, which included artists like Leontyne Price, Nina Simone, Judy Garland, and Billie Holiday, as well as classical composers such as Debussy and Ravel. She composed her first songs at the age of eight. During summers, her family would spend time in the Catskill Mountains, where her father performed trumpet at resorts.

1.2. Education

Nyro credited the Sunday school at the New York Society for Ethical Culture with providing the foundation for her education. She also attended Manhattan's prestigious High School of Music & Art. Throughout her schooling, she maintained a close relationship with her aunt, the artist Theresa Bernstein, and her uncle, William Meyerowitz, who provided support for her education and early career. While attending Joseph Wade Junior High School in The Bronx, Nyro famously performed an early version of her song "Eli's Comin'" in music class, aiming to demonstrate to her teacher that rock and roll was not "junk." During her high school years, she often sang with friends in subway stations and on street corners, recalling, "I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth." She also expressed an early interest in the social consciousness embedded in certain songs, noting that her mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, which made her feel at home within the peace movement and the women's movement, ultimately influencing her music.

1.3. Early Career Development

Laura Nyro's professional music career began when her father's work connected her with record company executive Artie Mogull and his partner Paul Barry. Mogull and Barry auditioned Nyro in 1966 and became her first managers. Mogull successfully negotiated a recording and management contract for her, leading Nyro to record her debut album, More Than a New Discovery, for the Verve Folkways label, which was later renamed Verve Forecast. Several songs from this album would later become hits for other prominent artists.

On July 13, 1966, Nyro recorded "Stoney End", "Wedding Bell Blues", and an early version of "Time and Love" at Bell Sound Studios in Manhattan, as part of the sessions for More Than a New Discovery. Approximately a month later, she sold "And When I Die" to Peter, Paul, and Mary for 5.00 K USD. On September 17, 1966, Verve Folkways released "Wedding Bell Blues" backed with "Stoney End" as a single. "Wedding Bell Blues" became a minor hit, particularly on the West Coast. Nyro completed her debut album in New York on November 29, 1966. She then made her first extended professional appearance at age 19, performing nightly for about a month at the "hungry i" coffeehouse in San Francisco, starting on January 16, 1967. In February 1967, Verve Folkways officially released More Than a New Discovery. She made a few early television appearances, including on Clay Cole's Diskoteck (March 4, 1967), though the recording of this episode is lost, and Where the Action Is (March 21, 1967), where videos for "Wedding Bell Blues" (partially extant), "Blowin' Away" (lost), and "Goodbye Joe" (lost) were shown.

On June 17, 1967, Nyro performed at the Monterey Pop Festival. While some initial accounts, such as one by Newsweek reporter Michael Lydon, described her performance very negatively as a "fiasco" that culminated in her being booed off the stage, later publicly available recordings contradict this version of events.

Soon after, David Geffen approached Mogull to take over as Nyro's agent. Nyro successfully sued to void her existing management and recording contracts, arguing that she had entered into them while still a minor. Geffen then became her manager, and together they established a publishing company called Tuna Fish Music, which stipulated that the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged a new recording contract for Nyro with Clive Davis at Columbia Records and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. In his memoir Clive: Inside the Record Business, Davis recounted Nyro's audition for him: she invited him to her New York apartment, turned off all lights except for a television set next to her piano, and performed the material that would eventually form her acclaimed album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. Around this time, Nyro considered becoming the lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears following the departure of founder Al Kooper, but Geffen dissuaded her. Blood, Sweat & Tears later achieved a hit with their cover of Nyro's "And When I Die."

The new contract with Columbia granted Nyro greater artistic freedom and control over her work. In 1968, Columbia released Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, her second album. It garnered widespread critical praise for its depth and sophistication, blending pop structures with vivid imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz elements. The album is widely regarded as one of her finest works. This was followed in 1969 by New York Tendaberry, another highly acclaimed album that solidified Nyro's artistic credibility. Songs like "Time and Love" and "Save the Country" became some of her most well-regarded and popular compositions when covered by other artists. In November 1969, during the weekend after Thanksgiving, she performed two concerts at Carnegie Hall. Despite the critical acclaim, her own recordings primarily sold to a dedicated core of followers. This led Clive Davis to observe in his memoir that her recordings, while strong, often served more as demonstrations for other performers.

In 1969, Verve reissued Nyro's debut album under the new title The First Songs. In the same year, Geffen and Nyro sold Tuna Fish Music to CBS for 4.50 M USD. Under the terms of their partnership, Geffen received half of the proceeds from the sale, making both of them millionaires.

Nyro's fourth album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, was released at the end of 1970. This album featured tracks such as "Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp" and "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag," and included performances by Duane Allman and other musicians from Muscle Shoals. The following year, 1971, saw the release of Gonna Take a Miracle, which was a collection of Nyro's favorite "teenage heartbeat songs." For this album, she collaborated with the vocal group Labelle (comprising Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash) and the renowned production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. With the exception of her attribution of "Désiree" (originally "Deserie" by the Charts), Gonna Take a Miracle was Nyro's only album consisting entirely of non-original material, featuring songs like "Jimmy Mack", "Nowhere to Run", and "Spanish Harlem".

During 1971, David Geffen was working to establish his own recording label, Asylum Records, partly due to difficulties he faced in securing a recording contract for another of his clients, Jackson Browne, with whom Nyro was in a relationship at the time. Geffen invited Nyro to join his new label and announced that she would be Asylum's first singer. However, shortly before the signing was scheduled to take place, Geffen discovered that Nyro had secretly re-signed with Columbia instead, without informing him. In a 2012 PBS documentary about his life, Geffen, who had considered Nyro his best friend, described her decision as the greatest betrayal he had experienced up to that point, stating that he "cried for days" afterward.

By the end of 1971, Nyro married carpenter David Bianchini. She reportedly felt uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity and, at the age of 24, announced her retirement from the music business. In 1973, her debut album, originally released on Verve, was reissued by Columbia Records under the title The First Songs.

1.4. Later Career

By 1976, her marriage had ended, and she released an album of new material titled Smile. Following its release, she embarked on a four-month tour with a full band, which was documented on her 1977 live album, Season of Lights.

After the 1978 album Nested, which she recorded while pregnant with her only child, Nyro took another hiatus from recording, this time until the release of Mother's Spiritual in 1984. She resumed touring with a band in 1988, marking her first concert appearances in a decade. This tour was specifically dedicated to the animal rights movement. The performances from this tour led to her 1989 release, Laura: Live at the Bottom Line, which included six new compositions.

Her final album consisting predominantly of original material, Walk the Dog and Light the Light (1993), was also her last album for Columbia. It was co-produced by Gary Katz, known for his work with Steely Dan. The release of this album prompted a reappraisal of her standing in popular music, and new commercial offers began to emerge. Despite this, Nyro declined lucrative offers to compose for films, although she did contribute a rare protest song to the Academy Award-winning documentary Broken Rainbow, which addressed the unjust relocation of the Navajo people.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Nyro increasingly performed with female musicians, including her friend Nydia "Liberty" Mata, a drummer, and several others from the lesbian-feminist women's music subculture, such as members of the band Isis. She appeared at notable venues and festivals, including the 1989 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the 1989 Newport Folk Festival, with portions of her performance from the latter being released on a CD. On July 4, 1991, she opened for Bob Dylan at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Among her final performances were those at Union Chapel in Islington, London, England, in November 1994; The New York Bottom Line Christmas Eve Show in 1994; and at McCabe's in Los Angeles on February 11 and 12, 1995.

Nyro consistently turned down invitations for television appearances from shows like The Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman, citing her discomfort with appearing on television. She made only a handful of early TV appearances and one brief moment on VH1 performing the title song from Broken Rainbow on Earth Day in 1990. According to producer Gary Katz, she also declined an invitation to be the musical guest for the 1993 season opener of Saturday Night Live. Despite discussions about filming some of her 1990s performances at The Bottom Line, she never released an official video.

2.1. Recording Career

Nyro's studio albums are widely celebrated for their artistic depth and innovation. Her second album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968), received high critical praise for its profound and sophisticated arrangements, which seamlessly merged pop structures with evocative imagery, rich vocals, and elements of avant-garde jazz. This album is frequently cited as one of her best works. It was followed in 1969 by New York Tendaberry, another critically acclaimed album that further solidified Nyro's artistic credibility. Both albums are known for their intricate musicality and emotional intensity.

Her fourth album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (1970), featured notable collaborations with musicians such as Duane Allman and other artists from the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. In 1971, she released Gonna Take a Miracle, a collection of her favorite "teenage heartbeat songs," recorded with the vocal group Labelle and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. This album stands out as her only one composed entirely of non-original material, showcasing her interpretations of classic songs.

Following a period of semi-retirement, Nyro released Smile in 1976, followed by Nested in 1978, which was recorded during her pregnancy. She continued to release new material with Mother's Spiritual in 1984 and her final album of predominantly original material, Walk the Dog and Light the Light, in 1993. Posthumously, Angel In The Dark (2001) was released, featuring her final studio recordings made in 1994 and 1995.

2.2. Live Performances and Tours

Nyro's live performances were often intense and deeply emotional, reflecting the raw passion of her studio work. Her first extended professional appearance was in 1967 at the "hungry i" coffeehouse in San Francisco. A notable early performance was at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, though accounts of its reception varied, with some initial reports being negative while later recordings suggested a more positive audience response.

She performed two concerts at Carnegie Hall in November 1969. After a period away from touring, she embarked on a four-month tour in 1976 to support her album Smile, which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights. In 1988, she returned to touring after a decade-long break, with her performances dedicated to the animal rights movement. This tour led to the 1989 release of Laura: Live at the Bottom Line, which included six new compositions.

Nyro also appeared at significant events like the 1989 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the 1989 Newport Folk Festival, with a CD featuring parts of her Newport performance being released. On July 4, 1991, she opened for Bob Dylan at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her final performances included dates at Union Chapel in London in November 1994, The New York Bottom Line Christmas Eve Show in 1994, and at McCabe's in Los Angeles in February 1995. Several live albums were released posthumously, capturing her unique stage presence, including Live from Mountain Stage (2000), Live: The Loom's Desire (2002), Live in Japan (2003), Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East (2004), and Live at Carnegie Hall: The Classic 1976 Radio Broadcast (2013).

2.3. Songwriting and Musical Style

Laura Nyro's songwriting was highly distinctive, characterized by complex melodic and harmonic structures that defied easy categorization. Her style was a unique fusion of the Brill Building sound, New York pop, jazz, R&B, show tunes, rock, and soul. This eclectic blend allowed her to create songs that were both commercially appealing to other artists and deeply personal in her own interpretations.

She was widely praised for her emotive and powerful three-octave mezzo-soprano voice, which added a profound emotional depth to her compositions. While her own recordings garnered a loyal following, her songs often found broader commercial success when covered by other artists, becoming major hits for groups like The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Peter, Paul and Mary, Three Dog Night, and artists such as Barbra Streisand. Albums like Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry are particularly noted for their sophisticated arrangements, rich vocals, and innovative fusion of genres, solidifying her reputation as an artist of immense credibility and originality.

2.4. Social Activism and Personal Beliefs

Laura Nyro's music and life were deeply intertwined with her social and political beliefs. Influenced by her progressive-thinking mother and grandfather, she developed an early interest in social consciousness and felt a natural affinity for the peace movement and the women's movement.

Nyro was an outspoken feminist, openly discussing her views on multiple occasions. She once stated, "I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that's how I see life," indicating how her worldview directly informed her artistic expression. By the late 1980s, her activism expanded to include animal rights. She became a dedicated vegetarian and actively promoted animal welfare, often distributing literature on the subject at her concerts. Her 1988 tour was explicitly dedicated to the animal rights movement. Further demonstrating her commitment to social justice, she contributed a rare protest song to the Academy Award-winning documentary Broken Rainbow, which highlighted the unjust relocation of the Navajo people. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she increasingly performed with female musicians, including friends and artists associated with the lesbian-feminist women's music subculture, such as drummer Nydia "Liberty" Mata and members of the band Isis.

5.1. Critical Assessment

While Laura Nyro achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings during her lifetime, particularly for albums like Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, wider public recognition for her artistry largely came posthumously. Her contemporaries, such as Elton John, openly idolized her work. Critics consistently praised her emotive three-octave mezzo-soprano voice and the depth and sophistication of her musical arrangements, which uniquely merged pop structures with inspired imagery and avant-garde jazz.

Despite her artistic triumphs, her own recordings primarily sold to a faithful but relatively smaller cadre of followers. This led Clive Davis to note in his memoir that her recordings, as solid as they were, often resembled "demonstrations for other performers" who would then achieve commercial success with her songs. Her significant contributions were formally recognized with posthumous inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Additionally, Q Magazine ranked her 94th in its "100 Greatest Singers in History," further cementing her status as a revered vocalist.

5.2. Influence on Musicians

Laura Nyro's distinctive songwriting and musical style had a significant and lasting impact on a wide array of popular musicians across various genres. Artists who have acknowledged her influence include Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Diamanda Galas, Bette Midler, Rickie Lee Jones, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Sarah Cracknell, Melissa Manchester, Lisa Germano, and Rosanne Cash.

Todd Rundgren famously stated that once he heard Nyro, he "stopped writing songs like The Who and started writing songs like Laura." Cyndi Lauper credited Nyro as the inspiration for her rendition of "Walk On By" on her 2003 Grammy Award-nominated cover album, At Last.

Elton John and Elvis Costello discussed Nyro's profound influence on both of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show Spectacle. John cited Nyro as one of the great performers and songwriters who had been largely overlooked, and specifically mentioned her influence on his 1970 song "Burn Down the Mission" from Tumbleweed Connection. He concluded, "I idolized her. The soul, the passion, just the out and out audacity of the way her rhythmic and melody changes came was like nothing I've heard before."

Bruce Arnold, the leader of the pioneering soft rock group Orpheus, was a devoted fan of Nyro's music. He discovered that Nyro herself was a fan of Orpheus, keeping well-worn copies of their LPs, as well as sealed copies for posterity. Musical theater composer Stephen Schwartz credits Nyro as a major influence on his work. Alice Cooper has stated on his syndicated radio show that Laura Nyro is one of his favorite songwriters. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley repeatedly cited Nyro's 1971 album Gonna Take a Miracle as a significant influence on her music and performed "I Met Him on a Sunday" on her Rabbit Fur Coat tour. Paul Shaffer, bandleader for the CBS Orchestra, named Eli and the Thirteenth Confession as his "desert island album." Paul Stanley of Kiss has frequently mentioned his admiration for Nyro's music, and Exene Cervenka of the punk rock band X listed Nyro among her favorite songwriters.

5.3. Contributions to Music and Culture

Beyond her direct impact on musicians, Laura Nyro's work extended its influence into broader music theory and other art forms. Music theorist Ari Shagal's 2003 analysis at the University of Chicago linked Nyro's work to the Great American Songbook, demonstrating similarities between her chordal language and that of composers like Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, and George Shearing.

Her music has also been incorporated into dance. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the National Ballet of Canada have featured her compositions in their performances. Notably, "Been On A Train" from her album Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, which describes a woman witnessing her lover's death from a drug overdose, forms the second movement of Ailey's 1971 solo piece for Judith Jamison, titled Cry. In 1968, Alvin Ailey choreographed Quintet, with five female members of his troupe dancing to several of Nyro's songs from her first two albums. Her recordings of "Désiree" and "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" from the album Gonna Take a Miracle were featured in the 2004 drama film A Home at the End of the World. In 2007, Kanye West sampled Nyro on his widely acclaimed album Graduation.

5.4. Tributes and Commemorations

Laura Nyro's legacy has been honored through numerous posthumous releases, tribute concerts, biographies, and other commemorations.

Posthumous album releases include Angel In The Dark (2001), which features her final studio recordings made in 1994 and 1995, and The Loom's Desire (2002), a collection of live recordings with solo piano and harmony singers from her 1993 and 1994 Christmas shows at The Bottom Line.

On October 27, 1997, a large-scale tribute concert produced by women was held at the Beacon Theatre in New York, featuring performances by artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, Sandra Bernhard, Toshi Reagon, and Phoebe Snow. Original tribute shows celebrating her music and life have also been staged, including And a World To Carry On, written by Barry Silber and Carole Coppinger, which premiered in 2008, and To Carry On, starring Mimi Cohen, which had a second return engagement in 2011.

Several biographies and analyses of Nyro's work have been published. Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro, written by Michele Kort, was released in 2002. On Track: Laura Nyro, a detailed song-by-song survey by Philip Ward, was published in 2022. Her life and music were also celebrated in a 2005 BBC Radio 2 documentary, Shooting Star - Laura Nyro Remembered, narrated by her friend Bette Midler and featuring contributions from her former manager David Geffen, co-producers Arif Mardin and Gary Katz, and performers Suzanne Vega and Janis Ian. Janis Ian, who attended the High School of Music & Art at the same time as Nyro, discussed their friendship in her autobiography Society's Child, describing Nyro as a "brilliant songwriter" though "oddly inarticulate" in musical terminology. Sandra Bernhard, comedian, writer, and singer, has frequently cited Laura Nyro as an ongoing inspiration, dedicating the song "The Woman I Could've Been" on her album Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One) to Nyro and singing "I Never Meant to Hurt You" in her film Without You I'm Nothing. Rickie Lee Jones's album Pirates and songs like "We Belong Together" and "Living It Up" recall early Laura Nyro songs, and Jones acknowledged Nyro's influence, writing in her memoir Last Chance Texaco that discovering Nyro's music made her "love myself just a little more." Todd Rundgren also acknowledged Nyro's strong influence on his songwriting, and his debut solo album Runt (1970) included the Nyro-influenced "Baby Let's Swing," which mentioned her by name.

On April 14, 2012, Laura Nyro was formally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction speech was delivered by singer Bette Midler, and the award was accepted by Nyro's son, Gil Bianchini. At the ceremony, the song "Stoney End" was performed by singer Sara Bareilles.

Further tributes include a hybrid daylily named for Laura Nyro, introduced in 2000. The Scottish band Cosmic Rough Riders released a tribute song, "Laura Nyro," on their 2001 album Pure Escapism, and the song "Mean Streets" by the band Tennis is also a tribute to her. In 2014, composer and arranger Billy Childs released Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, an album featuring ten of Nyro's songs performed by numerous stars, which earned three Grammy nominations, with the "New York Tendaberry" track featuring Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma winning for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals. In 2015, the Christine Spero Group released "Spero Plays Nyro", an album and live tour featuring eleven of Nyro's songs and an original tribute song, "Laura and John," by Christine Spero, honoring Nyro and John Coltrane. In 2022, a documentary about Nyro was announced, with her son Gil serving as an associate producer, partly based on Michele Kort's biography.

6.1. Studio albums

• 1967 - More Than a New Discovery (later reissued as The First Songs)
• 1968 - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia) US No. 181
• 1969 - New York Tendaberry (reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia) US No. 32
• 1970 - Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (March 2008 - BMG Sony (US division))
• 1971 - Gonna Take a Miracle (with Labelle) (reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia)
• 1976 - Smile
• 1978 - Nested (reissued and remastered, 2008)
• 1984 - Mother's Spiritual
• 1993 - Walk the Dog and Light the Light
• 2001 - Angel in the Dark (posthumous album recorded 1994-1995)

6.2. Live albums

• 1977 - Season of Lights (reissued and remastered, 2008)
• 1989 - Laura: Live at the Bottom Line (recorded NYC, summer, 1988)
• 2000 - Live from Mountain Stage (recorded for radio program on November 11, 1990)
• 2002 - Live: The Loom's Desire (featuring the 1993 and 1994 Christmas Eve shows recorded at New York's Bottom Line)
• 2003 - Live in Japan (recorded live at Kintetsu Hall, Osaka, Japan on February 22, 1994)
• 2004 - Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East (May 30, 1971)
• 2013 - Live at Carnegie Hall: The Classic 1976 Radio Broadcast

6.3. Compilation albums

• 1969 - The First Songs (Verve reissue of the 1967 album)
• 1972 - Laura Nyro sings her Greatest Hits (Japan only)
• 1973 - The First Songs (Columbia Records reissue of the 1967 Verve album)
• 1980 - Impressions
• 1997 - Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro (reissued 2011 as The Essential Laura Nyro, Sony Music)
• 1999 - Premium Best Collection-Laura Nyro (Japan only)
• 2000 - Time and Love: The Essential Masters
• 2006 - Laura Nyro-Collections (Sony Europe)
• 2017 - A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection (Real Gone Music)
• 2021 - American Dreamer (Madfish)