Singer Nancy Lamott: A Forgotten Voice

I first heard of Nancy Lamott several years ago through an unlikely source. A number of years ago, on PBS's "Great Performances" program, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld, et.al.) performed an hour of Broadway showtunes. At the very end, he did a tune called "We Live On Borrowed Time" which I really liked. When something hits me like that, I invariably end up doing some homework to find our more about it. "Borrowed Time" was written by David Friedman and I found the song on an album called What's Good About Goodbye by someone named Nancy Lamott. Apparently she was a jazz/standards/cabaret singer from New York (by way of Midland Michigan) who was very well known on the East Coast but not much elsewhere…

Nancy Lamott was born near Midland Michigan, and gigged as a singer around the San Francisco scene with her brother/drummer Brett before moving onto the cabaret club scene of New York. There in New York, she was able to connect with composer David Friedman and pianist/arranger Christopher Marlowe who would help guide Nancy through to success. Through the years, Lamott struggled with Crohn's Disease and many surgeries, which delayed or stalled her career at times. But she still managed to make a go of it, slowly becoming the New York scene's best-kept secret. Her confident yet vulnerable vocals started to win her many influential fans including Kathie Lee Gifford and Bill Clinton.

She never achieved the status of a Streisand or a Clooney or Peggy Lee, but to those who know the New York scene remember Nancy Lamott. She had a way with a song on the level of some of the great interpreters of the Great American Songbook. She communicated fun, sass, heartbreak, and intense longing on a level near Fitzgerald, Washington, James, Streisand, and others. She did make the rounds in all the East Coast venues especially in New York, and was regularly featured on television shows.

Nancy's troubles illness slowly got worse over the years and she developed cancer from which she passed away in December of 1995 with her family by her side. Her albums, out of print for a stretch in the 1990's are now available from reissued through Friedman's Midder Music www.middermusic.com. Five of those albums (Beautiful Baby, Come Rain or Come Shine, My Foolish Heart, Just In Time For Christmas, and Listen To My Heart) were released during her lifetime, while two were release posthumously (What's Good About Goodbye and Live at Tavern on the Green).

For a while in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Nancy's recorded output was out-of-print and the rights were tied up in court. Now thankfully it is available to the public again. You owe it to yourself if you are into pop standards/jazz, to check out her songs. Since the Great American songbook is now back in vogue thanks to Rod Stewart, Michael Buble and many others, now would seem to a great time to go find the songs of Nancy Lamott.

(If it weren't for seeing Jason Alexander on PBS, I would have never known about Nancy Lamott. I would urge all of who are fans of good singing and interpretation to listen to her CDs. You will be surprised I can assure you.)