Laura Nyro

Smile

COLUMBIA 1976, £17.01 You say: “Very underrated.” NickTriani, Twitter Prone to “enormous depressions connected to her relationships and other disappointments”, claimed manager David Geffen, but in 1971 Nyro finally found her man and left her beloved New York City for rural Massachusetts. After a fiveyear hiatus, and divorce, came Smile. Despite being single again, Smile radiated relative calm, from the longplayer’s title to the one cover version, a slinky Sexy Mama (by DC soul group The Moments). Even I Am The Blues, a throwback to Tempestuous Laura, sang of “horn’s warm red love makin’ funky music”. The band, including the luxurious reeds-brass Brecker Brothers team, was not so much funky as a cross between

Hejira-era Joni and Gauchoera Steely Dan.