Nyro, Laura (1947–1997)

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Nyro, Laura (1947–1997)

American singer and songwriter . Pronunciation: Nero. Born Laura Nigro on October 18, 1947, in the Bronx, New York City; died of ovarian cancer on April 8, 1997, in Danbury, Connecticut; daughter of Louis Nigro (a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter) and Gilda (Mirsky) Nigro (a bookkeeper); attended High School of Music and Art, Manhattan; married David Bianchini (a carpenter), in 1971 (divorced); lived with partner Maria Desiderio (a painter); children: son Gil Bianchini.

Selected songs:

"Wedding Bell Blues," "Eli's Coming," "Stoney End," "And When I Die," "Art of Love," "Save the Country," "Stoned Soul Picnic," "Sweet Blindness," "Broken Rainbow."

Selected albums:

More Than a New Discovery (re-released as Laura Nyro and as The First Songs); Eli and the Thirteenth Confession; New York Tendaberry; Christmas And The Beads of Sweat; Mother's Spiritual; Laura—Live at The Bottom Line; Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro; Walk the Dog and Light the Light.

Born in the Bronx in 1947 and a songwriter even as a young child, Laura Nyro made her first professional sale at age 19, with "And When I Die," a hit first for Peter, Paul and Mary and later for Blood, Sweat and Tears. She would go on to write a number of other songs that became huge hits for other performers, including "Stoney End" (Barbra Streisand ), "Eli's Coming" (Three Dog Night), and "Wedding Bell Blues," "Stoned Soul Picnic," and "Sweet Blindness" (all recorded by the Fifth Dimension). Greatly respected by fellow performers and songwriters, and revered by a cult following, Nyro nonetheless never had a commercial hit as huge as did other performers who recorded her songs. In both her studio and her live performances, she was more interested in expressing herself as an artist than in pleasing the widest possible audience. (A widely reported story that may be apocryphal tells of her being booed off the stage at the Monterey Pop Festival for straying from the event's established psychedelic-rock theme.) A singer with a three-octave range and a voice that has been described as both "a rich, charcoal-smudged alto" and a "melting, pure-toned soprano," she relished her freedom as a songwriter to express her social and political leanings through her work. As well, an early contract negotiated for her by David Geffen left her financially comfortable for life.

Nyro's genre is not easily labeled, as she synthesized elements of soul, jazz, rock, and blues. She grew up listening to classical music and such artists as Billie Holiday and Leontyne Price at home, and was deeply influenced by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, doowop, John Coltrane, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas, and other Motown girl groups like the Shirelles. Stereo Review noted, "She wrote the most unexpected songs … a dazzling display of lyrical and musical innovation," while Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times that she "linked high flown poetry to the ecstatic emotions of soul music." Nyro released 12 albums in the course of her 30-year career (plus several renamed re-releases), including 1997's Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro.

She took a hiatus from performing and recording after the birth of her son in the late 1970s, releasing her next album, Mother's Spiritual, in 1984. In 1985, she wrote the title song for Broken Rainbow, a documentary about the forced relocation of the Navajo which won an Academy Award; it is considered one of her finest social protest songs. A U.S. tour in 1988, her first in ten years, was dedicated to the animal-rights movement and resulted in the album Laura—Live at The Bottom Line, released the following year. Although she appeared fairly infrequently, it was always to glad crowds, as at the Newport Folk Festival in 1989 and a tour of Japan in 1994. In 1993, she released her first studio album in nine years and what would be her last original album, Walk the Dog and Light the Light. The album contains "To a Child," a lullaby written for her son, as well as a studio version of "Broken Rainbow."

Like her contemporaries Carole King and Joni Mitchell , Nyro was a pioneer in giving an authentic female voice to her work, defying the industry dictum that men should write songs for female performers. She retained control over her art and her business throughout her career, and in the process created a distinctive and highly individual sound that has influenced several generations of songwriters and singers. She died of ovarian cancer at her home in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997. A tribute album, Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro, was released that year.