Customer Reviews

Christmas & Beads of Sweat

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT was a critical disaster when it was released in 1970, and even as late as the 1990s ROLLING STONE critics described it as Laura Nyro's single worst recording. But the reassesment of her work that followed in the wake of Nyro's death has now placed the album as the equal of Nyro's earlier ELI & THE 13TH CONFESSION and NEW YORK TENDABERRY--something that Nyro fans could have told the critics all along.

In some ways the difficulties in evaluating this recording are understandable. Nyro's ELI and TENDABERRY recordings have a uniquely timeless quality, and it would be difficult for a first-time listener to fix them at any particular year or even decade; SWEAT, however, is very distinctly rooted in the emerging music of the 1970s. But more to the point, the album sounds commercial while it is actually one of the least commercial recordings Nyro ever created: throughout SWEAT, Nyro repeatedly uses pop-music idioms, but she never actually allows them to evolve into anything that could be remotely described as pop music per se, and in the process she repeatedly leaves the listener hanging, waiting for musical phrases that she never creates. The result is a very strange tension between what one expects to hear and what one actually gets.

Of the nine selections on this recording, the two that inevitably take the most heat from critics are "Map to the Treasure" and the title cut "Christmas In My Soul;" oddly, however, they both bear a striking similarity to the most celebrated cuts from the recording: "Brown Earth," "Upstairs By A Chinese Lamp," and "Beads of Sweat." In all of these selections, Nyro constantly plays with dymanics, shifting--sometimes gradually, sometimes with jarring rapidity--between loud and soft, fast and slow, at times pounding the piano and pushing her vocals to strident tones, at times dropping into semi-whispered vocals and the barest of bell-like chords. Her approach certainly takes some getting used to, and unless you are prepared to repeatedly listen to this album in order to fully grasp Nyro's odd aesthetic you might do best to leave it alone completely.

But if you are prepared to think critically about what you hear, CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT is a truly remarkably and rewarding recording, and it is particularly noteworthy in the way it builds and falls away then rebuilds and falls away again from selection to selection, playing passion against exhaustion and frenzy against thoughtfulness. Nyro is in full control of her voice, her instrument, and her material here; this is the artist very close to the peak of her talents, working talisman-like and ritualistic lyrics into a seamless blend with her kaliedscopic piano-based fusion of funk-folk-freeform. A favorite and strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is the last album of original material that Laura Nyro released during her most prolific and inventive years (1966-1971), and remains a landmark album, a seamless blend of jazz, pop, soul, gospel, rock and folk. "Christmas" is a must for any fan of Nyro's music, and a good place to start for the adventurous few who want to explore uncharted territory. The songs range from the up-tempo funk of "Brownearth" and "Blackpatch" to the experimental 8-minute odyssey "Map to the Treasure." With gorgeous harmonies and exceptional piano-playing, Nyro conjures a haunting, fragile mood, as in the wistful love story, "Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp." While the album contains many outstanding tracks, like the rocking, intense "Beads of Sweat" and the truly lovely cover of Motown classic "Up On the Roof," what is most impressive about "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat" is the way the songs build on one another, creating a satisfying and remarkably coherent musical statement. Vocals are layered on top of each other, spotlighting Nyro's three-octave range, chord progressions are stretched to the breaking point, bells jingle and harps swirl, while the bass pumps funkily, commingling in compositions which contain, but never seem satisfied with, catchy hooks and the prettiest of melodies. Produced by Nyro and Arif Mardin, with a host of guest musicians including the great Alice Coltrane on harp, this album stands as a testament to the legacy of a brilliant and deeply talented musician at her creative peak.

The crowning apex of her 3 previous albums. This is a contiuation of New York Tendaberry. Nyro continues writing and singing about "the city", and the intensity is almost more evident. On the original LP or the last four songs on the CD was her Four Seasons Suite: Upstairs By A Chinese Lamp is Spring, "they softly talk in the cool spring night". Map To The Treasure is Summer, "beneath indian summer". Beads Of Sweat is Autumn, "cold jade wind not an angel in the sky". Christmas In My Soul is Winter with its holiday theme and call for peace on earth in a bleak world. It is all there in the words, the music and the atmosphere of each song. Christmas In My Soul is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago, just the characters have changed a bit. Been On a Train was also choreographed as a part of the ballet "Cry" by Alvin Ailey! What better recognition of Laura's power with words and music.

There are not enough stars in the sky to fairly rate this album. I first heard Laura singing the awesome Gibsom Street (from New York Tendaberry) on a CBS sampler. I was instantly attracted to the magnificence of the performance. The first album I could get hold of was Christmas & Beads of Sweat. For me Laura is at her best when accompianing herself on piano. Two such tracks "Been On A Train" & Map To The Treasure" are the stand-outs here. After thirty years this album still sends shivers through me - it never deminishes. 5 stars to the tenth power!

In the two- or three-dozen reviews I've read, of Laura's work over the span of her career, a couple of themes keep reappearing -- her perpetual inability to enjoy the success with her music that other artists, covering her tunes, did; her inaccessibility to the mainstream listener and, worse, her apparent refusal to cater to those very listeners.

People, people, people... let's, for once, get it right. Laura Nyro, reluctant iconoclast to the end, could only respond effectively to the dictates of her muse. The rest of us were free to come to our own conclusions - in either direction.

If you look at the range of high-end musicians of her period who worked with her, you begin to understand just how unique and richly gifted she truly was. If you want to pick at her, you can say 'her voice was occasionally harsh and strident', or that 'her lyrics read like a diary authored on mescaline and absinthe'. Say what you like, you can't deny that:

1) Laura brought more honest and passion to her work than any but a very small group of her peers.

2) Her musical vocabulary was light years ahead of all but a very small group of her peers, and

3) Her integrity in consciously moving away from 'the biz' leaves no question as to her ultimate motivation - to produce the best, most meaningful music that she could.

4) Enough popular artists enjoyed success with her work to place her well up the list of "songwriters whose work enjoys mass acceptance".

For my part, I cringe every time I hear a L.N. cover by Three Dog Night or Fifth Dimension. It's the audio equivalent of pouring ketsup on Filet Mignon.

Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, more perhaps, than any of her other albums, was an intensely personal experience -- that is, it likely seeped into the fabric of those days when first it was heard, and thereafter allowed the listener to recall in full panorama, years later, every molecule, taste, smell, and emotional nuance of thoses days and times. Across all the album-length works I heard before and since I am totally at a loss to find any recorded work that achieves this effect more potently than "Christmas...".

A songwriter myself, I cried like a baby when she died, and I still miss her to pieces every time I think of her.

Borrowing from one of Laura's peers, as well as one of her few equals... Laura was truly "...the unknown child, so sweet and wild", She was "youth", and she was "too good to waste".

Miss you, baby.

Christmas & The Beads of Sweat, this beautiful album by Laura Nyro, still at the zenith of her creative powers, is not to be missed by the true fan irregardless of the trouble it make take to get a copy - then, and only then can you consider your collection of her work even partially complete. The whole album is, pardon me, like an out-of-the-body dream'scape into an transcendent rich, warm territory that shuts out the profane and envelopes you in its sublimity of sentiment and outlook. This is a rare pearl, and if you own only three Nyro albums, make this one of them along with Tendaberry, and Eli & The 13th Confession, an essential trilogy. This album will always have a very special place in my music collection (and heart!). Bother Sony/Columbia if need be like a never-ending swarm of angry hornets to make this available. A CD that could otherwise make the sensitive music fan stand up and take notice even 1,000 or 2,000 years from now, it is so unique. Overshadowed only by a couple of her albums before, in all of her work, many other works pale in comparison to "Christmas..", just as spiritual and and at the same time sensual as the title invokes.

Christmas and the Beads of Sweat is just amazing. It to me, was a departure album from the first three Laura composed. I is a reflection of the very new 70s and the climate of her muse then. It sets the stage for a more contempory Laura, invested in the present, and more accessable than the earlier works, which to this reviewer were simply amazing as well. Xmas title is two songs for those who love to analyze Laura's works. With Dwayne Allman doing a guitar so wild on Beads of Sweat. This is a no miss Laura. I find it one of the most compelling albums full of a different turn from her.

Laura Nyro had a voice which was as powerful and beautiful as any singer in musical history. In Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, she combined her vocal artistry, poetic lyrics, and unflagging sense of beautiful melody, to produce an excellent album. While perhaps not her magnum opus, (listen to Eli and the Thirteenth Confession), this CD is still top flight. Especially good is the song, Upstairs by a Chinese Light, which shows her poetic, vocal and musical talents to the fullest degree: The steam of china tea/You could hear the woman sing/In the soft flames of spring. Ms Nyro died at the age of forty-nine, but still left us a varied and great musical legacy to enjoy.

CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT was, if I'm not mistaken, the second in a "New York trilogy," the other prongs being ELI AND THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION and NEW YORK TENDABERRY. And while the others are impressive, with their mixtures of pop, soul, and gospel, this one is best. At least it is the most memorable, with some truly outstanding melodies, playing, and, most importantly, vocal performances. And Nyro's lyrics here are some of the best from that time, personal and poetic without being self-conscious (unlike more lauded and successful "sensitive" singer-songwriters from the same period). Her only competition at the time was probably Joni Mitchell, and in some instances Nyro surpasses the master.

"Been on a Train", a jeremiad against drug use, is perhaps the album's most powerful, harrowing track, recalling John Lennon's primal screams on "Mother" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah." Nyro's soprano soars, dives, crawls, whispers, cajoles, and resigns. In a stunning transition, the very next song is a sweet rendtion of the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," a gentle number which relieves the tension of the previous song.

These are only two of the album's highlights. This is a great collection, matched in Nyro's body of work only by the later SMILE.

A word that is overused and cheapened is "Genius." If you look in the dictionary for a definition of that word, you may find a picture of Laura Nyro with a link to her best music. This album was one of her very best. As late as 1991 Rolling Stone defined this album as the "worst" of her career. Doesn't take a genius to understand the quality of that review. Listen to this CD in the dark. Be alone with "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat." After it has seeped into your soul, invite a friend to join you in the darkness and listen again. Close your eyes and bathe in the luminescence of Ms. Nyro. Genius.