Customer Reviews

Live at Tavern on the Green

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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.

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.

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

My first exposure to Nancy LaMott was via xm radio and Jonathon Schwartzs' Sunday afternoon simulcast on WNYC. The clarity of her voice and her wide melodic range raised the hair on my neck and goosebumps on my skin. I rarely can listen to any of her recordings without this reaction repeating over and over.

Live at Tavern on the Green is true gift for those who are Nancy's fans and the newly initiated. With less than a couple of months to live, she exudes such enthusiasm and a zest for her craft...which is why her talent will continue to be appreciated along with the great ones....Sinatra, Clooney, Bennett and all the rest of the performers that made the American Songbook the gold standard in music.

I cannot close without saying many thanks to Jonathon Schwartz for playing her music during the "embargo". It is hard to contain such a bright lamp under a bushel basket. And to David Friedman for writing lyrics/music that enabled us all to "hear the angel(s) sing".

It is so wonderful to hear a "new" Nancy LaMott CD after such a long wait. This recording lovingly shows Nancy at her best - passionate, amusing, whimsical, and always SO musical! Producer David Friedman and arranger/musical director Chris Marlowe should be very proud of their work, and of representing Nancy so brilliantly. Many of the songs here will be familiar to those who have all her earlier recordings. However, it is great to hear "Listen to My Heart" backed with piano rather than full orcestra - the piano-backed version was a staple at LaMott concerts. Two other "lost" gems, that those of us lucky enough to hear Nancy sing them live thought they'd be gone forever, are "Sailin' On" and especially the gorgeous "I Didn't Know What Time it Was." Nancy was THE ultimate cabaret singer, and it's thrilling to have a new recording that reminds us all just how special she was. She is sorely missed.

I just got this CD today and could not wait to play it. Every earlier comment here is right on target -- this is raw, essential, touching, human, and touchingly sad in retrospect.

I first was acquainted with Nancy when she performed at a (no longer existing) cabaret called 88's in New York back around 1990. She performed in solo in the evening but occasionally played and sang at their Sunday brunch. She was a remarkable and amazing talent way back then. To hear this magnificent album so many years after having loved 'the real thing' is an indescribable treat.

I highly recommend this album to anyone who can appreciate not only the best cabaret performer, but also perhaps the best interpreter of standards and ballads who ever graced our presence.

For any devotee of the American Standard song book, this is a MUST HAVE recording....there has never been, nor will there ever be anyone better in interpretation of song.

Her final concert, just seven weeks before her tragic death, and the only live recording of Nancy is so pure, heartfelt and perhaps one of the best cabaret recording of all time. Sure, you can hear the fork on plates and some of the songs are on her studio releases -- but this is a must have CD. I was fortunate to be at this last run of performances.

I could go on about each song, but I won't...they are all simply devine. They need to be heard. Althouhh the highlights (if that is even fair to say) are "I Did't Know What Time it Was", "How Deep is the Ocean" and "The Promise".

Her signature songs "Listen to my Heart" and Help is on the Way take on a new dimension knowing at the time of Nancy's health...the inner strength she has to do what she was born to do -- simply sing -- delivers some of her most poignent moments ever.....

This is a CD destined to be in your CD changer always....

Bob Harrington of the New York Post put it best when he wrote of Nancy: There is no more beautiful musical instrument than the voice of Nancy LaMott.

He is 100000% correct. this is a great set of songs.

As a cabaret goer in NYC, I had the pleasure of seeing Ms. LaMott over the course of 15 years at many smaller clubs, the rare concert and the high end rooms as her artistic/commercial appeal grew more popular. The venues were unique, the overall performances evelotionary but the musical genius was there from the begining. This Live CD not only captures Nancy at the pinacle of her recording career but is truly representative of a life given over to an artist's dedication to honest expression and the devotion to their craft. Nancy LaMott's artistic expression was/is singular, in my opinion, in its presentation of emotional truth and appeal to honesty. This CD is a very worthy introduction to an artist whose life, not her tragic death, engendered such devotion from a core group of dedicated "fans" - - really just people who yearn for emotional truths from an inspirational messenger. We need all the grace and redemption we can find nowadys and this CD, and Nancy, are a beacon that lights the entrance to the path that leads to a better place. Hopefully more lights will be lit and more songs will be heard from musical messenger.

Actually, I wasn't there, my wife was, so when she gets a chance, I'll have her write a review. She's told me so much about this concert, she'll be thrilled to know I'm ordering it for her. She said it was simply the best concert she's been to in her life. So if the reviewers are right that the recording quality and live environment on this album are superior, then this will be a hell of an album. And my wife was well aware at the time that Nancy was dying.