Smile

Smile is the sixth music album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.

The album was released in early 1976 following a four-year hiatus from the music industry during which time Nyro both married and divorced and lived away from the spotlight. Her return came at a time when her chief musical rival Joni Mitchell had ascended into the public eye with a series of successful jazz-pop albums, and as a result Nyro's popularity had waned.

The music of Smile is smooth jazz-pop, and Nyro was reunited with producer and arranger Charlie Calello, who had worked with Nyro on her 1968 opus Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

Musically, Smile finds Nyro exploring Japanese culture with traditional Oriental instrumentation and lyric allusions, particularly on the mildly controversial "Children of the Junks." Elsewhere, Nyro rails against the music industry ("Money") and sings of her new laidback lifestyle away from the glare of the media.

Despite her long absence, Columbia Records had re-signed Nyro and the album became a small chart success during 1976, peaking at #60 on the Billboard 200, then known as the Pop Albums chart. It produced Nyro's first full-band tour in 1976, which was documented the following year on the live album Season of Lights.

Overview

After Nyro's huge burst of creativity between 1966 and 1971, when she recorded five well-received albums and well over 40 original songs, she retreated from the limelight, partly stung by her lack of major commercial success in her own right but also because of the lure of love.

Nyro married Vietnam War veteran David Bianchini in 1972 after a whirlwind romance and spent the next three years living with him in a small town in Massachusetts. The marriage ended after three years, during which time Nyro grew accustomed to the country life as opposed to the city life where she had recorded her first five records.

In 1975, she split from Bianchini and also suffered the trauma of the death of her mother Gilda Nigro to ovarian cancer at the age of 49 — Nyro herself died from the same disease at the same age two decades later. She consoled herself largely by recording a new album, enlisting arranger and producer Charlie Calello, with whom she had collaborated on Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

Musically, Smile begins the "mellow period" that Nyro stayed with on her studio albums for the rest of her career, although it continues her fascination with mysticism with various exotic instruments and arrangements. The title track, particularly, explores a deep flirtation with Japanese music.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Laura Nyro; except where indicated

References

• Michele Kort's biography Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro (ISBN 0-312-20941-X)

External links

• Allmusic Laura Nyro biography entry.
• Laura Nyro official web site.