I googled Eartha Kitt, who died the other day at 81, AND Laura Nyro and, frankly, didn’t come up with any significant links. So I’ll have to suggest two of my own:
1) Both were iconoclasts, refusing to stick to the well-trod path carved for women performers.
2) Both had a great sense of humor. Check out the song above to see/hear just one example of Ms. Kitt’s. As for Laura, her funny side didn’t usually show on stage, at least in her early days of performing when you could hear a pin drop if she paused mid-song but nary a laugh at anything said or sung. By the late 1980s, however, she had written and frequently performed an entirely humorous song, “Japanese Restaurant”–how about that! It never ceased to draw laughter, especially when she told the waiter that she’d given up smoking, so now she wanted a big bowl … of chocolate ice cream.
Miss Kort,
I found your very cool blog site through a reader who found a blog I wrote on Laura (one of my favorite artists of all time) last October to honor her birthday. If you’re interested, it can be found at:
http://lexneon.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/265/
I love the blogs, and will continue to read them as long as you keep writing. Thanks for your time.
Yours truly,
Alex Oliver (Lex Neon)
a fan
Eartha Kitt seemed to live a fuller life than most people ever manage to do.. and it was so funny to find out that she was a voice in “The Emperor’s New Groove”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIA DESIDERIO
Hi Debra/Virgil – Debra J. Wolstein
Thank you so much for the feedback.
I would love to acquire the 1973 version of your treatment of Désiree.
You are the first person who had personal knowledge of Lauria
to admit to a belief of their intimate connection pre-1977.
“Laura & Maria had to have at least tested the waters in the early 70’s
for that song to have manifested in ’71 as such a personal tribute of love and desire.”
Your agreement and support comes at a critical time for me.
June 10, 2009 is Maria’s 55th birthday.
I was despairing of ever finding an appropriate birthday present.
Edgar Allan Poe married his first cousin, Virginia Clemm, when she was thirteen.
Jerry Lee Lewis married his first cousin, Myra Gale Brown, when she was thirteen.
Perhaps, as Laura sang in “Emmie’…time to design a woman”?
While respecting by her discretion, Maria’s tender age,
Laura could not resist her own love’s vanity.
In her flame, “Emmie” Laura sang (bragged)
“oo who stole Mama’s heart and cuddled in her garden? darlin’ Emmie, la la la, oo la la la…”
Eli was an album of confessions.
According to Charlie Callelo, every song “had some underlying meaning about her own life.”
Michele Kort, Soul Picnic, p. 62.
Now, it is not so grand a leap, i.e. Emily – Emmie – M – Maria.
Thank You for your gift and Happy Birthday Maria.
P.S. How preciousness must be your time in rehearsing “Songs for a New World;”
this comes as such a boon.
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