Search - Nancy Lamott :: Beautiful Baby

Woo M. from ANNAPOLIS, MD
Reviewed on 9/7/2006...

She had a fabulous voice and I have enjoyed this CD I just don't listen to it much anymore and thought someone else should enjoy it.

Excellence Personified

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 09/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Testifying to the emotional experience of listening to Nancy Lamott has its limits. Some of her following swear by the direct statement and undisguised sentiment to be found on the big orchestral arrangements, manifestos of feeling well suited for a trouper known for "singing her heart out." But others may be more moved by the musical poetry, far more subtle but no less dramatic and powerful, characteristic of her readings of the greatest songs by the best composers. In this role, as a commanding interpreter of the "Great American Songbook," she is best served by little more than her accompanist and musical soulmate, Christopher Marlowe. For my money, the combination of Nancy's musical intelligence, Marlowe's flawlessly empathetic support, and a Berlin or Rodgers/Hammerstein song-poem is art of the highest order, an American "lieder," with no apologies whatsoever to Schubert, Elizabeth Schwartzkop or Gerald Moore.If you're a member of the second camp, "Beautiful Baby" is a must, surpassed by "My Foolish Heart" but running a close second along with "Come Rain or Come Shine." Of all the interpretations I've heard of Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark," Nancy's is the one that truly takes wing; and her reading of Berlin's "Blue Skies" creates an azure heaven more than grey clouds. The normally bombastic "I Have Dreamed" becomes a meditative, longing wish in Nancy's reading of this Rodgers/Hammerstein classic; Cy Coleman's "With Every Breath I Take" is animated by Nancy's phrasing/breathing in a way that literally enacts the meaning of the song; "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," a great old Warren/Mercer tune, is a grand old time, belted out by Nancy in brash, bouyant style.For this listener, songs like "Help is On the Way," a tuneful pep talk substituting momentary sentiment for aesthetic feeling, pitch modulation for melodic/harmonic/rhythmic invention are not worthy of an artist whose art is timeless, whose gift and legacy are for the ages."

Debut album announces a major new talent.

Mary Whipple | New England | 07/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The debut album of any star is especially fascinating in retrospect, especially when most of the songs are standards. New treatments of old favorites can bring the songs alive, and the singer's interpretations can give new meanings to them. This album is no exception. Here Nancy LaMott resurrects some tired, old chestnuts and makes them positively her own. "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" has never sounded so good, with the traditional clip-clop beat removed, the melody slowed down and softened, and a piano accompaniment that sounds like a harp. "I Have Dreamed," from the King and I, with a simple piano accompaniment, begins slowly and quietly, and gradually becomes more dramatic, until the speaker's dream is resolved with an assertive "I know what it is like to be loved by you."LaMott is a ballad singer, with a voice that ranges from a sweet whisper to a gravelly vamp. With her great diction, every word is understandable, and her control allows her to interpret songs in unusual ways, often in a tempo much slower than normal, and always in intimate communication with the listener. Using the lyrics as the inspiration for the arrangements, she keeps her accompaniments simple, with her instrumentalists playing up her range. In "Child in Me Again," she sounds like the jazz flute which accompanies her; in "Every Breath I Take," she and the tenor sax join so well that it is difficult to separate which notes are whose.Two of the most interesting songs are "It Might As Well Be Spring" and "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby." In the former, which begins with a bluesy, minor-keyed dissonance, she sings in counterpoint in a major key, slowing the tempo, and ending with a lyrical, jazzy improvisation. In "Beautiful Baby," her bassist establishes a strong beat as she moves from a ballad to a finger-popping swing that ends with a wailing jazz interpretation. Five years after recording this, LaMott succumbed to cancer, ending the bright promise seen here and in the five increasingly popular albums which followed. Fortunately, her recording company and her estate have apparently settled their differences now (2004), and several new albums are expected soon. Mary Whipple"