Laura Nyro
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| Danbury resident, long recognized as one of this country's most talented and successful singer/songwriters.
Born Laura Nigro in New York, the daughter of a jazz trumpeter, Nyro began writing songs at age eight and attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. Nyro listened to and was influenced by a wide range of music, from late 50s and 60s "girl groups" to John Coltrane and Miles Davis, to the protest music of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. ".I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music," she said. At the age of seventeen she wrote her first hit, "And When I Die," recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary. In 1966 she released her debut album More Than A New Discovery on the Verve/Folkways label.
She joined Columbia Records in 1968 and released Eli and the Thirteenth Confession , followed shortly thereafter by New York Tendaberry and Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. Radio airwaves were filled with her songs in the late 1960s and 70s, many of which became hits for other performing artists, including "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic" recorded by The Fifth Dimension, "Eli's Comin'," by Three Dog Night, and "Stoney End," by Barbra Streisand. Nyro recorded several albums in the late 70s and 1980s, including Season of Lights , a live album in 1977, Nested in 1978, and Mother's Spiritual in 1984. As a working musician, Laura Nyro spent much of her career singing in clubs and concert halls across America and abroad. Laura Nyro inspired a generation of female musicians "Her contributions," according to one music critic, "have paved the way for the rise of the urban female singer-songerwriter." At the age of forty-nine, Laura Nyro lost her battle with ovarian cancer. | |||||||||||
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