Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry

Though Laura Nyro was one of the most successful American songwriters of the late '60s, penning hits like Streisand's "Stoney End," Blood, Sweat & Tears' "And When I Die," Three Dog Night's "Eli's Coming," and the Fifth Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues," her buoyant, genre-blending major-label debut clicked with only a small, if influential, cult audience. But even Nyro's faithful must have been taken by surprise by its 1969 follow-up. A mature, deeply impressionistic ode to her hometown, New York City, Nyro's creation captures the city's multicultural soul and emotionally jagged edges so well it's hard to believe this 22-year-old daughter of a jazz musician who couldn't read a note of music concocted it. Stripping her music down to the bare essentials of her expressive, occasionally explosive soprano and fervent piano work somehow expanded its dramatic potential exponentially. Indeed, there are few pop albums whose protominimalist use of studio flourishes and production sheen have been as brief or effective; Nyro called them "colors," and that's exactly the function they serve here, adding crucial glimmer to the stark, jazzy drama of the singer's evocative songs. The bonus, "Save the Country," cut as a full studio production prior to Nyro rethinking the approach, fairly blares by comparison. Rooted in the singer's beloved '50s R&B and pop, yet infused with her brave, singular vision and the chutzpah to stick to it, this album remains Nyro's masterpiece. --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

NY Tendaberry by Laura Nyro

The 1969 classic tome from La Nyro not only holds up well, but acts like a clarion beacon to wake up and small the Hailburton in a way that still cajoles, entices and alarms us.
Clear as a bell as far as I am concerned.
We miss you Miss Laura. April 18, 2008

good

have always loved her music and she
brings something special and unique
to her interpertation of her songs
December 12, 2007

An Artist Stripped Naked

When an artist is said to bare all, standing naked and vulnerable, we know it wasn't an easy task getting there. Take Joni Mitchel's Blue or Frank Sinatra's Only For The Lonely or Billie Hiliday's Songs for Disanque Lovers. There's no denying these artist have stripped away layers of emotion to get to their inner beings, even bare their souls in their quest to express their hurt. Such is clearly the case with Laura Nyro's New York Tenderberry. May 8, 2007

Juiced

Just flatout, jawdropping, cokedup, telescopic percipience. And the sound - jazzed, organic, desperate and dynamic. I believe this one is Nyro's best moment (song for song plus arranging and vocal performances).

The place for this underestimated masterpiece, in criticspeak: Pet Sounds with a dash of Rehearsals For Retirement (Ochs) and Whales & Nightingales moving towards For The Roses (before Joni got that far).

"Gibsom Street," "Captain Saint Lucifer," "Time and Love," "You Don't Love Me When I Cry" and (absolutely) the title track are among Nyro's most compelling compositions. No comp will provide 'em all.

I'm pretty biased towards this one as THE one.

13th Confession has more "hits" (obviously "Stone Soul Picnic") but it's less maniac artistic. Sweat has "Chinese Lamp" (the final peak) but there's a tiredness on the "rockin'" tunes.

THIS session, I believe, has the recondite vibe and the tunes are the loveliest crop.

Chillraising, shocking, dark, joyous - elemental and vast. April 17, 2007

Songs from the Heart

New York Tendaberry is a major personal statement by an artist who tends to invoke extreme personal reactions from listeners. This highly experimental work with its rapid changes in rhythm, mood and volume can be a challenge to listeners. What may not be immediately apparent, however, is that Laura Nyro had a capacity for composing melody that was second to none in her generation. Like Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, and Stevie Wonder she created a stream of alluring melodies that stick in the mind and move our emotions. Unlike these other artists, however, there was nothing in the least mainstream about Laura Nyro's sensibility, and that fact is nowhere more apparent than on this album.

Some of the best songs on New York Tendaberry, such as Sweet Lovin' Baby, seem on first listening to have little structure and no clearly defined chorus. It's only after several listening that it becomes apparent that there is a chorus, and that it contains the kind of strong melodic hook that one associates with the Beatles or the Beach Boys rather than with a quirky young dark haired girl from working class New York. On this song, however, Nyro all but throws this melody away. The hook, which appears at about 1:25 into the song, appears in its pure form only once, and then disappears as if Nyro were running from it, saying: "No, I don't want to write a pretty song, I have something more important to say."

Later in her career Laura would in fact have something more important to say. But at this early stage in her development, she wants to get back to her emotional life, which this album captures with frightening specificity. If you are like me, and you can relate to Laura's mercurial mood changes, to her aching sense of loss and longing, to her amorphous religious impulses, then this album becomes an extraordinary record of emotional territory that is usually left completely unexplored in popular music.

Laura was not happy during this phase of her life, and she never returned to this territory later in her very creative and interesting career. If you listen carefully to one of her great later albums, "Angel in the Dark," you can see that she never entirely abandoned the experimental impulse that drove the music on New York Tendaberry. But the production values, and the themes of her music, became more mature, and more palatable. Here we get Laura Nyro's rawest impulses, her voice loud and harsh, perhaps from drinking too much, and the treble turned up so high that her solo piano accompaniment crashes and bangs, startling us out of any sense of complacency, even if we have heard the album so many times that her bursts of emotion no longer surprise us.

As I said earlier, this album evokes very personal reactions from listeners. I tend to slight the two songs on this album with relatively traditional pop song structures: "Save the Country" and "Time and Love." I prefer the quirkier songs such as the afore-mentioned "Sweet Lovin' Baby," the title track, "You Don't Love Me When I Cry," "Captain for Dark Mornings," and "The Man Who Sends Me Home." Laura apparently labored for months over the production for this album, adding tiny bits of color to her mostly solo piano accompaniment. It is the album's shimmering flashes of melody, these small flourishes in the production, that give the album its heart.

In making this album, Laura broke every rule in the book, and in the end she gave us something entirely unique, but for me at least, quite unforgettable. Thank you Laura for giving us this amazing emotional testament that charts territory that usually stays locked up in our breasts because most people lack the skill or means to express it. February 18, 2007

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