Tunes For The Troops
**Artist Showcase**
Nyro was born Laura Nigro in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Gilda Mirsky Nigro, a bookkeeper, and Louis Nigro, a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter. Laura had a younger brother, Jan Nigro. Laura was of Russian Jewish and Italian ancestry. As a child, she taught herself piano, read poetry, and listened to her mother's records by Leontyne Price, Billie Holiday and classical composers such as Ravel and Debussy. She composed her first songs at age eight. With her family, she spent summers in the Catskill Mountains, where her father played the trumpet at resorts.
While in high school, she sang with a group of friends in subway stations and on street corners. She said, "I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth." Among her favorite musicians were John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Pete Seeger, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison, and girl groups such as The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and the Shirelles.
Nyro's own renditions of her songs never attained hit status, but between 1968 and 1970 a number of other singers had achieved significant successes on the charts with her works. Other artists scored hit after hit with her songs, led by the 5th Dimension’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness” in 1968 (then “Wedding Bell Blues” in ’69 and “Blowin' Away” in ’70). Over two consecutive weeks in October 1969, Blood, Sweat & Tears entered the Hot 100 with “And When I Die,” and Three Dog Night followed with “Eli's Coming.” In 1970-71, Barbra Streisand charted three consecutive times with Laura Nyro songs, “Stoney End,” “Time And Love” and “Flim Flam Man.”
Nyro's evocative vocal style mixed jazz and rhythm-and-blues with street pop, gospel, and Broadway, and her three-octave range has led her voice to be characterized as both "a blues soprano" and "a rich, charcoal-smudged alto."
In 1996, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After the diagnosis, Columbia Records prepared a double-disc CD retrospective of material from her years at the label. The company involved Nyro herself, who selected the tracks and approved the final project. She lived to see the release of Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro (1997), and was reportedly pleased with the outcome.
Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997, at 49, the age at which the same disease had claimed the life of her mother.
Nyro's influence on popular musicians has also been acknowledged by such artists as Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Elton John, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, and Melissa Manchester. Todd Rundgren stated that, once he heard her, he "stopped writing songs like The Who and started writing songs like Laura".
On April 14th, 2012, Laura Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen Deejays provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops!
All music is removed on Monday.
Thanks to all the DeeJay's for their time & effort providing entertainment for the Troops!
*Canteen Mission Statement*
Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.
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