Customer Reviews

Seasons of Lights...Laura Nyro in Concert

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"Season of Lights" was not my favorite Nyro LP. However, until I read Michele Kort's book "Soul Picnic: The Music & Passion of Laura Nyro" I wasn't aware that there was another longer version of this concert album. Columbia Records comes off as a chop shop with what they did to the American release of this record. The Japanese CD is nothing short of revelatory. For Laura's tribe, it is REQUIRED! :)

The full concert has 16 tracks instead of 10. It includes the only recording of "Morning News." Laura made many trips to Japan, loved their country and music, and was particularly influenced by them on "Smile." However charmingly, the Japanese booklet often gets the words wrong. In "Morning News" Nyro sings "Freedom sang how you shine to the critical end of the corporate design." The booklet reads, "Freedom sang how you shall end to the critical life of the corporate design." Nyro's lyric is chilling, particularly given her struggle to maintain artistic control over her music.

Perhaps worst of what Columbia did on the American release was cutting the instrumentals on tracks it did release. "Timer" lets the band's percussion section loose and comes off with a hot jam that could rival the best of Santana. On "Captain Saint Lucifer" there is a whole section of horns and hot guitar from John Tropea that makes this version shine. Michael Mainieri does a great solo on the baliphone on "The Cat Song" that brings the magic of the live performance to us.

"Sweet Lovin' Baby" is included on the Japanese release. On "New York Tendaberry" Laura sang the song "I belong to the man," on "Season of Lights" she sings, "I belong to myself." The instrumental interlude on the "Smile" track has been split and given the name "Mars." Both of these were deleted in the American release as was "Midnite Blue," another great Nyro gem.

For those of us who wonder at the music of Laura Nyro, this release brings the magic of Laura's live shows back to life. Don't miss out! God bless the Japanese!

"Season of Lights," a live album, was released the year after the monumental "Smile" album. I did not see Laura Live until the 90's at the Mayfair Theater in Santa Monica, CA (Joni Mitchell was in the audience at one show I attended!). She was thrilling as she played for hours just her and a small group of musicians. Part of the show was also her alone with a piano. Laura's studio albums are, needless to say, excellent representations of her many talents: singer, musician, lyricist, arranger. But seeing Laura Nyro live is what really ignites her songs. Many times a musician live cannot duplicate the excitement of his or her studio albums...Nyro's live performances far surpass her studio performances. What we have on "Season of Lights" are 16 achingly heartfelt performances of her output circa 1977. These songs are performed like it was the last time she would be on stage... ever. She always gave her all and she does again herein. You can count on one hand performers that are in Laura Nyro's league and one was in attendance on that summer night at the Mayfair Theater in Santa Monica in 1994.

I consider 'Season of Lights', labeled here as the "complete version" (I doubt that 70 minutes of songs gleaned from at least four seperate performances constitute the complete setlist Laura Nyro typically performed on this 1976 tour, but at least it's expanded beyond the original ten tracks first offered on vinyl in 1977), to represent the artist just before her virtuosity peaked in 1978 with the release of 'Nested'. 'Season of Lights' embodies Laura's smashing, early career compositions, as well as tracks from her first comeback album, 'Smile', but is too early to capture her tour of duty through motherhood explored in 'Nested' and 'Mother's Spiritual', as well as the evolution of her philosophical and political views. Sadly, live performances from those mid-career masterpieces are sorely lacking from Laura's current catalog.

There are an abundance of albums featuring Laura Nyro live in a solo context, but only 'Season of Lights' provides full instrumental backing for her compositions. Nevertheless, three solo piano tracks are scattered among the sixteen offerings here, 'When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag' (proclaiming "I'm a woman, and this is my due time" long before Helen Reddy got around to being "woman"), the captivating 'Emmie' (a tribute to Laura's lyrical prowess, comparing her subject to "a natural snow... a cameo... and an unstudied sea"), and 'Midnite Blue', understated in its role as the encore. The more intriguing offerings, however, find Laura and her band cranked up in high gear, such as on the vibrant opener, 'Money', riding high on John Tropea's lead guitar runs, yet still bursting with lyrical jewels such as "my struggle hurt but it turned me on, when my revolution came, the chain was gone" ...oh, Yeah! The engaging melody of 'Captain St. Lucifer' combines with perplexing lyics, such as "a tiger from a conga-line chase" (hmmmm....), while a superb guitar and percussion coda graces 'Timer', and alludes to Laura's struggle with a higher diety ("The Master of Time"), at one point abruptly announcing, "God is a jigsaw". Other philosophical and political musings adorn the classic 'And When I Die', 'The Morning News' (subtly stating, "His wife helped him for free"), and even 'The Cat-Song', where Laura comes as close as she ever will to a novelty song, yet still taking swings and shots at war and "whitewashing your day away".

Other tracks find Nyro creating ethereal mood pieces ('Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp', featuring Jeanie Fineberg's fine flute, and 'Sweet Lovin' Baby', with its shades of 'Sweet Blindness', featuring Ellen Seeling's tuneful trumpet), sultry and suggestive numbers like 'The Confession' (asking her baby to take "a super ride on my love thing"), faithful renditions of classics such as 'Sweet Blindness', and an excursion into the curious and mysterious with the mid-set instrumental 'Mars'. More diversity is delivered with 'I Am the Blues', a bluesy ballad that gives way to a jazzy milieu, taking flight with high soaring vocals on lyrics such as "fly through the sky like superfly". Rounding out the set is the light and lilting 'Smile', also embedded with Laura's philosphizing ("I'm a non-believer, but I believe in your smile").

Laura Nyro is one of those few performers graced with mesmerizing vocal talent, and a gift for combining matchless melodies with thoughtful lyrics. While I don't share all of Laura's liberal notions, it's difficult not to appreciate her perspectives when they are cloaked in confines that are at times complex, at times simplistic, at all times wonderous and beautiful. Her lack of commercial success (aside from her abundant songwriting credits), ironically, seems to add to her aura as a true, unsullied artist. While Laura's solo piano endeavors on albums such as 'The Loom's Desire' and 'Live In Japan' certainly claim a valued place in her catalog of recordings, only 'Season of Lights' allows us to hear Laura live, in a full-throttle, fully bloomed state. I believe it is an essential component of any well-rounded musical collection.

What an amazing find, a newly released version of a classic Laura Nyro album, and the best treat of all, never before heard songs that will make you weep. I feel truly blessed to have been in attendance at one of the venues this recording was made. It brought back bitter sweet memories of a singer I so very much miss.

This is the landmark live performance of Laura Nyro, shockingly out-of-print in America. Nyro was the brilliant singer-songwriter whose compositions celebrated everything that was exciting and original about the 1960's. This album captures all of the excitement of the live performances which entranced her fans for three decades.

When "Season of Lights", Laura Nyro's first live album, came out, the "punk revolution" and the resulting tightening of commercial radio playlists made it a tough time for expressive, feminine sucians like her. Her 1976 album Smile had reached number 60 on the Billboard chart, but "Season of Lights" only reached number 137 despite showing clearly that Laura was back as a musical force when she wanted to be.

Indeed, the performances on "Season of Lights" are in general better than those on Smile. Most especially clear is that Laura shows much greater focus than on most parts of that album and consequently her songs - though in a much different style from albums like Eli and Tendaberry. Most noteworthy are the versions of "Sweet Blindness" and "Captain Saint Lucifer" that amount to complete reworks from the original songs but the way in which Laura allows her backing band to jam out for several minutes on the latter song is really surprising as well as quite truly beautiful. On "The Confession", she sings as nearly like an angel as one has ever known her too and her wonderful vocal yet again transforms the song completely from its original album version to something, indeed, that we never expected from her. Not only that, but the beauty of the music more than matches the superb vocal.

Both "I Am The Blues" and "Money" are treated to superb performances that are distinctly more passionate than their studio versions. In the case of "Money", that is really fitting given the song's message, and it was only justice that Nyro included the song on her self-chosen "Stoned Soul Picnic" compilation just before she died - despite never in her post-1980 concert repetoire having played anything from "Smile". The only unique track, "The Morning News", is a very short but beautifully written story of social decay and business corruption that manages almost to show Laura was not completely out of touch with the message of the "punk revolution" even if her music was exactly its opposite in many ways. On the realtively well-known renditions of "Sweet Loving Baby" and "The Cat Song", Nyro shows a funny side quite at odds with her image as a private, serious figure, and "And When I Die" is also very impressive.

All in all, "Season of Lights" stands as the best album of Laura's comeback era with numerous exquisite performances that should not be missed.

When an artist is as magnificent onstage as they are in the studio, you know they are a true master. Such is the case with Laura Nyro. I absolutely adore this album. I wish her other live album (the virtually impossible to find Bottom Line one) could somehow be paired with this one, because it's interesting to see her develop with time. This album captures the very tail end of Laura's greatest period of creativity (the "Eli & the 13th Confession"-"New York Tendaberry" phase) which was right before her period of songwriting that tended to focus more on issues (motherhood, feminism, Native American and animal rights, etc.) and at times felt a little more heavy-handed than her earlier work. Definitely a good buy.

Laura Nyro had the fortune (or misfortune) of continually being referred to as the musical cousin, or bookend figure, to Joni Mitchell. This was not fair to either musician.

But as this album demonstrates, and as any fan of Laura's is aware, Laura took a backseat to no one.

Laura had some rough times as a solo performer, in places like the Monterey Festival... but as a mature artist with a sympathetic band, she really sparkled. Few live albums can deliver the warmth and intimacy that this one provides.

The charms of "Season of Lights" are considerable...matchless in some respects. As a nice overview of a decade of Laura's work (1966-76) it reaffirms the classic greatness of her early songs, like "And When I Die", "Sweet Blindness", and "Emmie", while offering more accessible versions of songs from the more difficult and personal albums that followed.

The presence here of Richard Davis--one of the giants of acoustic jazz bass-- along with Mike Mainieri (vibes) and John Tropea (guitar), both from the group Steps Ahead, attests to the jazz cred that Laura carried, and the fact that her songs were great vehicles for a jazzy accompaniment.

Laura was just a very soulful person, writer, and performer. The songs all have a spiritual, cleansing quality. There is a plenitude of color and mood here, fleshed-out with with seamless, funky jazz arrangements. Plus, with the restored edits and bonus tracks, one can finally hear how the band was allowed to stretch out in extended improvisations.

The band was a mixture of races, sexes, veterans and newcomers that only Laura could have put together.

In summation, this is a desert island disc for me... no questions asked.

Never before have I heard a songstress like Laura. I have followed her since the late 60's, and I still listen with emotion.. This woman has spanded the times with her own following.... and I just found out she passed 2 years ago, I am still crying that I didn't even know until two years later!!! I will miss you girlfriend!!!

One of the best live albums released of Laura Nyro's work!! Well worth the dough! The musicians backing her up are stellar.