Live at Tavern on the Green

Nancy LaMott | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Midder Music
• ASIN: B00079ZAFY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,112 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Released close to a decade after her death at 43, this live CD testifies to what made Nancy LaMott special to many cabaret lovers. The singer had a gentle, homespun manner rather different from the urban sophistication one so often associates with the classic American songbook. She sounded as if she didn't have a vindictive bone in her body and enjoyed the true worth of life's most basic pleasures with sincere optimism--no wonder she offers here a cleancut of Berlin's "I Got the Sun in the Morning." Backed by a discreet trio, LaMott is at her understated best on the more melancholy numbers, such as Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was." The recording, which documents an entire show, banter included, also shows that LaMott was ahead of the game in the way she seamlessly mixed standards with modern pop (tracks by Rupert Holmes, Antonio Carlos Jobim and James Taylor). --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Product Description

Recorded live at Nancy's last engagement at Tavern on the Green, just seven weeks before her untimely death, this CD is filled with radiant, joyful, gorgeously sung performances, as well as charming, funny, often-touching patter.

Featuring some of your favorite Nancy LaMott standards plus many songs you've never heard her sing on CD before, this CD captures, for all time, the magic that was Nancy Live.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eight years late, but in time for Valentine's or any day!, February 1, 2005

By 

Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live at Tavern on the Green (Audio CD)

Nancy Lamott tragically lost her battle with cancer just a few short weeks after this last recording was made at Tavern on the Green in Manhattan, New York. Yet this recording shows her strength to battle cancer and overcome it--for at least a while--since this is a great CD. Her rapport with the audience is excellent; and that cabaret "feel" to her performance is unmistakable. Although this "new" recording is actually from late 1995 you'll swear she was right there in your living room!

Nancy's voice on this CD varies all the way from soft and velvety to such a belty quality you simply have to admire her talent. She emotes well even when you just listen to the CD!

The CD opens up with one of Lamott's signature songs, entitled "Listen To My Heart." She really gets into the song and emotes the feelings to her audience so well. It's hard to say which song is my favorite here; although perhaps I would have to go with "How Deep Is The Ocean" by Irving Berlin. A "fun" song would obviously have to be "Jeepers Creepers" by Warren and Mercer.

One note: this recording was "put together" from several different performances Nancy did during her final engagement at Tavern on the Green. This is not a complete concert but PLEASE don't let that stop you from getting this and enjoying! It's a wonderful CD to put on just after you pour that glass of wine (or whatever you drink) and relax on the couch or the bed.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An historic event made for you and me, February 12, 2005

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at Tavern on the Green (Audio CD)

Recorded weeks before her death, this live set testifies to the singularly sublime instrument that belonged to Nancy Lamott. Hers is a voice of understated innocence, youthful freshness, and heartbreaking vulnerability yet capable of soul-stirring power, especially in the rousing final choruses of songs like "I've Got the Sun in the Morning." Her understanding of lyrics is no less compelling. As many times as I've heard Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," I'd completely missed its poignant, even tragic, sentiments until Nancy's meditative reading of the tune on this date.

For a newcomer to Nancy's music, this may not be the first--and it certainly can't be the only--Nancy Lamott CD to own. Tastes differ, and Nancy can make any tune--even the novelty ones--a gripping, emotional experience. My own leaning is toward the "Great American Songbook." Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean" expresses the same sentiment as "Listen to My Heart" but does so through metaphor and unmodulated harmonic and melodic invention, one of the reasons "My Foolish Heart" lands at the top of my now-complete Nancy Lamott CD collection.

But it's not going too far out on a limb to call "Tavern in the Green" an indispensable acquisition. The audio quality is miraculous, considering the recording was done by a non-professional using cassette tape. Moreover, the art of "cabaret" has practically vanished. Outside of 2-3 clubs in NYC, try to find a room anywhere else in the country that would book this kind of music. The versatile Eva Cassidy may have had difficulty with record producers who didn't know how to categorize her music, but she could be a self-contained act, playing blues, folk, or jazz clubs. Nancy, on the other hand, represented a sophisticated, nuanced, even complex form of American chamber music--a sensitive collaboration and delicately balanced interaction among performer, accompanist, and material.

Finally, if the art of Nancy Lamott received attention proportionate to its significance and true worth, pianist Christopher Marlowe would be the most sought-after accompanist in the world.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six new songs added to Lamott's songbook--at last., February 24, 2005

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Live at Tavern on the Green (Audio CD)

For those who have been waiting more than eight years for a new Nancy Lamott album, this release is hugely welcome. New songs featuring this great American cabaret singer, and some new treatments for old songs, add new depth to her work and revive all the sadness that she was taken so soon, at age 43, long before she'd fulfilled her musical dreams. Here, in this live CD, one has the opportunity to hear a concert, complete with her amusing patter, and to appreciate her almost palpable sense of connection with her audience.

Six new songs and five previously recorded songs shows Lamott in all her moods. Among the new songs, "Sailin' On" is now one of my favorite Lamott songs, a song of a child's dreams and the uncharted oceans one explores in sleep. A classical piano solo, "Bach's Prelude No. 11, in F," played by Chris Marlowe, Lamott's long-time accompanist, gradually leads to variations, until it turns into a surprising version of the Warren and Mercer "Jeepers Creepers." Lamott sings Lorenz and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" slowly and passionately--as a person who has just found love, regrettably late in life (as was true in her own case).

Recorded just seven weeks before she died, the concert seems subtly directed toward helping the audience deal with her illness. The slow but emotionally upbeat "The Promise" features lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and music by David Shire, and Lamott's musical declaration that "I trust tomorrow as much as today...and I promise I'll never say good-bye" achieves enormous poignancy. "Help is on the Way," written at her direction by her long-time producer David Friedman, and James Taylor's "Secret of Life," with its lyrics that "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time...Isn't it a lovely ride?" all express her refusal to succumb to negative thoughts.

As always, Lamott is accompanied by Marlowe, whose piano accompaniments range from a quiet, elegantly melodic line in "Listen to My Heart" to a rich, fully developed, let-it-all-hang-out interpretation in "How Deep is the Ocean." The strength and purity of LaMott's voice, along with her control, allow her to give unique interpretations to songs, old and new. Her clear vibrato ranges from a soft whisper to full-out belting, though she never loses sight of her lyrics, offering unusual and gorgeous treatments. A vibrant woman and remarkable "saloon singer," Lamott leaves behind a great legacy, not only in her music but also in the strength she demonstrates in this concert. Mary Whipple