Season of Lights
| Season of Lights | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by Laura Nyro | ||||
| Released | June 1977 | |||
| Recorded | various locations, 1976 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 69:39 | |||
| Label |
Columbia (UK) Columbia (US) |
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| Producer | Laura Nyro | |||
| Laura Nyro chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
  link
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| Robert Christgau | B- link |
Season of Lights is the first live album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.
Columbia Records issued the album in the summer of 1977, taking the songs from various locations on Nyro's 1976 tour in support of her most recent studio album, Smile. Although the album had no strict producer, Nyro is credited as the "musical director." Dale Ashby was engineer and mixer, assisted by Don Pulse and Ken Robertson.
The album was originally intended to be a double-vinyl set consisting of 16 songs, and this version was sent to some outlets as a promotional copy. Instead, Columbia released a single vinyl set of ten songs, including music from her first six studio albums. Nyro played guitar, piano, and other keyboards, and was backed by a stellar cast of musicians including John Tropea on guitar and Carter Collins on percussion.
The laidback, easygoing jazz atmosphere of the album, which was to be expected following the smooth Smile. The album was not a huge commercial success, peaking at #137 on the Billboard 200 chart, then known as the Pop Albums chart. It was Nyro's penultimate US chart entry after a run of seven successive charting albums stretching back to 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. Her final chart entry would come in 1984.
The album was recorded during Nyro's 1976 tour in support of the Smile album, which had returned her to the American pop charts. The album documents Nyro's very first full-band tour, with esteemed backing musicians. Nyro accompanied her voice on guitar and piano.
The atmosphere of the album is laidback, smooth, and jazz-inspired. It is musically similar to the explorations on Smile, and Nyro skillfully re-arranges many songs so that they fit her new band sound rather than copying album versions, such as slowing down "Sweet Blindness" considerably or making "And When I Die" funkier.
The original vinyl LP was planned to be a double-set but a single vinyl LP was released instead. There is a Japanese import version of the full album, which features 16 songs as opposed to the standard version's ten songs.
Reissue imprint Iconoclassic Records released a remastered version of Season of Lights, including all sixteen songs plus a bonus solo version of "Timer," on CD in August 2008.
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Wikipedia