As we head into our celebration of Laura Nyro next month at Lyrics & Lyricists – Soul Picnic: The Songs and Legacy of Laura Nyro (Mar 2-4), led by Broadway’s Judy Kuhn – we thought we’d share a few words from a dozen of the many luminaries who have admired her and counted her as an influence. Join us as we spotlight this incomparable artist and her enduring place in the American Songbook.
Elton John:
“I idolized her. The soul, the passion, the out-and-out audacity of her rhythmic and melodic changes was like nothing I’d heard before.”
Roseanne Cash:
“Laura was in the vanguard: a sublimely self-sufficient, unapologetic artist whose songs of romance were social commentary, and whose songs of social commentary were romantic.”
Sara Bareilles:
“There’s so much depth and passion and bravery in her work. She was authentic to the core.”
Stephen Sondheim:
“In economy, lyricism, and melody, [“Stoned Soul Picnic”] is a masterpiece.”
Bette Midler:
“She was the essence of New York City: passionate, romantic, ethereal, eternal.”
Graham Nash:
“She wrote these dark, moody beauties … In many ways, she reminded me of Joni.”
Jackson Browne:
“She was inexorably the way she was: a person who could focus her feeling and summoned the song in a way that was real, every time.”
Suzanne Vega:
“I still listen to [Laura Nyro], with my whole heart. I loved the world that she wrote about. I felt that she really understood the world of a teenage New York girl.”
Todd Rundgren:
“Laura Nyro was a really big influence on me, and what really tipped it was her album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. It blew my mind – it blew everyone’s mind, that a girl this young was singing with this much soul, with songwriting that wasn’t like anyboy else’s.”
Joni Mitchell:
“Laura exerted an influence on me. Some of the things she did were very fresh. “New York Tendaberry? Beautiful record, beautiful.”
Billy Childs:
“I don’t chastise people for not knowing Laura Nyro, but I make it incumbent upon them to find out about her, because she’s one of the most important songwriters – in the mold of Gershwin and Simon and McCartney and Lennon. She’s on that level.”
Felix Cavaliere:
“Laura Nyro was the purest artist I’ve ever known.”
Alvin Ailey chose Nyro’s “Been on a Train” as part of the musical score for his solo masterpiece for Judith Jamison, Cry. Audra McDonald recorded two songs on her 2006 album Build a Bridge, calling Nyro “an inspiration.” Yo-Yo Ma and Renée Fleming are among the artists who assembled, along with Dianne Reeves, Shawn Colvin, Wayne Shorter, Rickie Lee Jones and others, to interpret her songs on the 2014 album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. Legend has it that Miles Davis joined Nyro in the studio only to say, “I can’t play on this record. It’s already perfect.” And on and on.
We hope you’ll join us in March to discover – or rediscover – the songs and legacy of the one and only Laura Nyro.
SOUL PICNIC: The Songs and Legacy of Laura Nyro — Saturday, March 2 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, March 3 at 2 PM, and Monday, March 4 at 7:30 PM. Additional details here.