Laura Nyro - Spread Your Wings And Fly: Live At The Filmore East, May 30, 1971 (rel. 2004)

A gorgeous, spellbinding concert recording of just voice and piano, from the final weeks of the Fillmore East.  And what a voice, and a clutch of great songs and cover versions - the genius of Laura Nyro really shines through the sometimes ropey recording quality.

The setlist touches on all three of her classic CBS albums, including the epic The Treasure from her then-newest LP Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat, and a lovely Emmie from Eli And The Thirteenth Confession.  It also looks forward to the forthcoming covers album Gonna Take A Miracle (link below) with some classic cover tunes (and more contemporary covers like The Five Stairsteps' O-o-h Child, which I've been listening to a lot in the last few weeks), and even to 1976's Smile with a soaring I Am The Blues.

The set even includes, as its bookends, two songs that don't appear on any other Laura Nyro release, with the opening Vietnam War lament American Dove giving the album its title.  Full kudos to the archival team who cleaned up this disintegrating tape - far from being just an interesting document of the era, it's pure nourishment for the soul.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Gonna Take A Miracle, with Labelle

Laura Nyro and Labelle - Gonna Take A Miracle (1971)

Absolutely love, love, love this little gem.  For her fifth album, Laura Nyro took a break from songwriting to put together a heartfelt tribute to the music she grew up listening to in The Bronx in the 50s and 60s.  With new friend Patti Labelle and her group singing backup, and Gamble & Huff producing at Sigma Sound, the result was a perfect mix of classic girl-group and soul material with a now-legendary Philly sheen.

A huge part of this album's charm for me is its spare instrumentation and production, and just how alive and joyful each track sounds.  According to legend, everything was recorded first-take in a single day, after almost all the studio time had been frittered away just goofing around and enjoying the songs that everyone knew so well.  This freshness makes the uptempo selections absolutely burn through their grooves (Jimmy Mack, Nowhere To Run, the medley of Monkey Time and Dancing In The Street) and the ballads shine in their ethereal, stark beauty (Desiree, and my personal album highlight The Wind).  And if anyone's recorded a more perfect version of Spanish Harlem that just drips with languid, urban midsummer eroticism, I've yet to hear it.

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