NANCY LaMOTT - Beautiful Baby [1991]

This album, Nancy LaMott's first, was originally released in 1991 and then reissued in 1996, shortly after her tragic death from uterine cancer. Even at this, the outset of her recording career, she shows all the moves needed to be a top-of-the-list cabaret singer. Not content to simply recite the story of the lyrics, each track is a separate dramatic event filled with just the right emotional intensity to fit the character of the song she is singing. For "It Might as Well Be Spring" there's a feeling of yearning, while "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" starts off cute and ends up on the barroom floor. On the latter she engages in some slow-motion give and take with the trumpet of long-time session player Glenn Drewes. "Blues Skies" is a production with LaMott treating it like a hymn at the start, then with each successive chorus the tempo picks up speed, with the rest of the rhythm section joining in with Christopher Marlowe as LaMott's coda is a note somewhere in the upper stratosphere. On this tune, she shows how effective a vibrato can be if applied judiciously to emphasize a line or a word. There are times when a lieder recital atmosphere is created by the pure, crystalline, expressive LaMott vocalizing combined with the classical like piano of Christopher Marlowe. Standards are not LaMott's only forte. She handles award-winning Annie Dinerman's wistful, hopeful, and stop the world "Child in Me Again" with aplomb. Mike Migliore's flighty flute helps make this track one of the finest on an album of good tracks. Beautiful Baby is cabaret at its best, and is recommended.  by Dave Nathan  
Tracklist

1 Skylark 3:07

Hoagy Carmichael / Johnny Mercer  

2 The Surrey With the Fringe on Top 3:41
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers  

3 Child in Me Again 4:00
Annie Dinerman 
 4 I Have Dreamed 4:11

Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers
5 Why Don't We Run Away 3:07

David Zippel 
 6 It Might as Well Be Spring 6:22

Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers  

7 Blue Skies 4:15
Irving Berlin 
8 With Every Breath I Take 5:09

Cy Coleman / David Zippel  

9 You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby 4:38
Johnny Mercer / Harry Warren  

10 Help Is on the Way 3:11

Nancy LaMott 

11 In Passing Years 4:03

Rick Jensen 
Credits:
Nancy LaMott (vocals)
Ken Sebesky (guitar)
Deborah Assael-Migliore (cello)
Mike Migliore (flute, alto saxophone)
Glenn Drewes (trumpet)
Kenny Werner, Rick Jensen, Christopher Marlowe (piano)
David Friedman (synthesizer)
Jim Miller, John Riley (drums)

 NANCY LaMOTT - Beautiful Baby 

[1991] Midder Music / FLAC / scans

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