Search - Nancy Lamott :: Live at Tavern on the Green

Eight years late, but in time for Valentine's or any day!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 02/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nancy Lamott tragically lost her battle with cancer just a few short weeks after this last recording was made at Tavern on the Green in Manhattan, New York. Yet this recording shows her strength to battle cancer and overcome it--for at least a while--since this is a great CD. Her rapport with the audience is excellent; and that cabaret "feel" to her performance is unmistakable. Although this "new" recording is actually from late 1995 you'll swear she was right there in your living room!



Nancy's voice on this CD varies all the way from soft and velvety to such a belty quality you simply have to admire her talent. She emotes well even when you just listen to the CD!



The CD opens up with one of Lamott's signature songs, entitled "Listen To My Heart." She really gets into the song and emotes the feelings to her audience so well. It's hard to say which song is my favorite here; although perhaps I would have to go with "How Deep Is The Ocean" by Irving Berlin. A "fun" song would obviously have to be "Jeepers Creepers" by Warren and Mercer.



One note: this recording was "put together" from several different performances Nancy did during her final engagement at Tavern on the Green. This is not a complete concert but PLEASE don't let that stop you from getting this and enjoying! It's a wonderful CD to put on just after you pour that glass of wine (or whatever you drink) and relax on the couch or the bed.

"

An historic event made for you and me

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 02/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded weeks before her death, this live set testifies to the singularly sublime instrument that belonged to Nancy Lamott. Hers is a voice of understated innocence, youthful freshness, and heartbreaking vulnerability yet capable of soul-stirring power, especially in the rousing final choruses of songs like "I've Got the Sun in the Morning." Her understanding of lyrics is no less compelling. As many times as I've heard Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," I'd completely missed its poignant, even tragic, sentiments until Nancy's meditative reading of the tune on this date.



For a newcomer to Nancy's music, this may not be the first--and it certainly can't be the only--Nancy Lamott CD to own. Tastes differ, and Nancy can make any tune--even the novelty ones--a gripping, emotional experience. My own leaning is toward the "Great American Songbook." Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean" expresses the same sentiment as "Listen to My Heart" but does so through metaphor and unmodulated harmonic and melodic invention, one of the reasons "My Foolish Heart" lands at the top of my now-complete Nancy Lamott CD collection.



But it's not going too far out on a limb to call "Tavern in the Green" an indispensable acquisition. The audio quality is miraculous, considering the recording was done by a non-professional using cassette tape. Moreover, the art of "cabaret" has practically vanished. Outside of 2-3 clubs in NYC, try to find a room anywhere else in the country that would book this kind of music. The versatile Eva Cassidy may have had difficulty with record producers who didn't know how to categorize her music, but she could be a self-contained act, playing blues, folk, or jazz clubs. Nancy, on the other hand, represented a sophisticated, nuanced, even complex form of American chamber music--a sensitive collaboration and delicately balanced interaction among performer, accompanist, and material.



Finally, if the art of Nancy Lamott received attention proportionate to its significance and true worth, pianist Christopher Marlowe would be the most sought-after accompanist in the world."

Thanks to Jonathon Schwartz and David Friedman

Eric Weber | Kettering, Ohio United States | 02/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first exposure to Nancy LaMott was via xm radio and Jonathon Schwartzs' Sunday afternoon simulcast on WNYC. The clarity of her voice and her wide melodic range raised the hair on my neck and goosebumps on my skin. I rarely can listen to any of her recordings without this reaction repeating over and over.



Live at Tavern on the Green is true gift for those who are Nancy's fans and the newly initiated. With less than a couple of months to live, she exudes such enthusiasm and a zest for her craft...which is why her talent will continue to be appreciated along with the great ones....Sinatra, Clooney, Bennett and all the rest of the performers that made the American Songbook the gold standard in music.



I cannot close without saying many thanks to Jonathon Schwartz for playing her music during the "embargo". It is hard to contain such a bright lamp under a bushel basket. And to David Friedman for writing lyrics/music that enabled us all to "hear the angel(s) sing"."