Laura Nyro

Angel In The Dark

ROUNDER 2001, £18.06 You say: “Intimate songs of youth and maturity.” Ryan Murray, via e-mail Before she died in 1977, Nyro kept busy with a long-player of originals and of covers. The posthumous Angel In The

Dark (the ‘angels’ being her departed mother and grandmother, whose photos sat on Nyro’s piano during sessions) conflated the two. A few wobbles aside (which she’d surely have vetoed were she still around for the release), Nyro’s voice was undimmed by chemo-therapy: seven tracks were just vocal and piano, including Bacharach & David’s Walk On By, and Rodgers & Hart’s He Was Too Good To Me, learnt from Nina Simone. As usual, her backing band were top-notch, supportive rather than competing: the haunting title track especially benefits from their restraint.