Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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48 of 48 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
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.
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41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An historic event made for you and me, February 12, 2005
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.
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28 of 28 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
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
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by Nancy LaMott 
