For those unaware, Omnivore Recordings will release two sets of rare Laura Nyro music over the next few months: Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan and the never-before-issued Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape.

Both will be available on CD and Digital, with Go Find the Moon also available on vinyl (a 45-rpm LP). Each was restored and mastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves and produced for release by Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski and George Gilbert with the approval of the Laura Nyro Trust.

A member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Laura Nyro not only wrote songs that became hits for artists like 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night, and Barbra Streisand, but has been cited as a major influence by artists as varied as Kate Bush, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked), and countless others.

Born in the Bronx in 1947, she left us far too soon, at age 49 following a bout with ovarian cancer.

She recorded ten of her own studio albums (one released posthumously), but a live performance from Nyro was always a particularly special event.

Originally issued only in Japan as Live in Japan in 2003, the 16 tracks recorded at Kintetsu Hall, plus five recorded at On Air West return as Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan, to be released July 16th, 2021.

1. Dedicated to the One I Love
2. Ooh Baby Baby
3. Woman of the World
4. Louise’s Church
5. Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)
6. Walk the Dog & Light the Light (Song of the Road)
7. The Japanese Restaurant Song
8. And When I Die
9. To a Child
10. The Descent of Luna Rose
11. Wild World
12. Save the Country
13. Wedding Bell Blues
14. Trees of the Ages/Emmie
15. Walk on By
16. Let It Be Me
17. Oh Yeah Maybe Baby (The Heebie Jeebies)
18. Wind
19. Broken Rainbow
20. My Innocence/Sophia
21. Art of Love

With a set running the gamut of her career, she first introduces a pair of teenage heartthrob songs from her youth, the 1957 hit single Dedicated to the One I Love and the 1965 hit Ooh Baby Baby, before heading into a cut from her then-new album Walk The Walk and Light The Light, the delightful Woman of the World, before bringing us a song dedicated to artists of sweet inspiration (such as Billie Holiday), Louise’s Church and the delicate Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song).

Next up is the key-sterner, more forthright Walk the Dog & Light the Light (Song of the Road) and a song about a mother taking her kids to a Japanese restaurant, and how plum wine comes into play, The Japanese Restaurant Song, and that is followed by the piano bounce of her hit And When I Die, the Japanese-introduced To a Child, and then both the lighter fare of The Descent of Luna Rose and Wild World.

Her hit Save the Country is next brought forth and after being rapturously appreciated thereafter, is backed by her clap-along pop hit tune Wedding Bell Blues, the pure, unadulterated gossamer of Trees of the Ages/Emmie, Nyro’s stunning rendition of Burt Bacharach’s 1963 smash Walk on By, and then we get another stand out cut within the delicate orchestrations of Let It Be Me.

They are seamlessly followed by the Motown soul of Oh Yeah Maybe Baby (The Heebie Jeebies) (made famous by The Crystals) and the crystalline harmonies of Wind, with this quite mesmerizingly beautiful flashback album (to 1994, sure, but sounding as if it were recorded by Carole King back in the early ’70s) rounding out on the organic flow of Broken Rainbow, the upbeat, impassioned power of My Innocence/Sophia closing on more harmonization on the short, but sweet, but no less beautiful Art of Love.

Simply put, Trees Of The Ages: Laura Nyro Live In Japan is an essential document of Nyro’s historic February 1994 visit to Japan. With Nyro on piano and vocals, augmented by the harmonies by Diane Wilson, Dian Sorrell, Diane Garisto, the performances are sublime.

The reissue packaging contains updated artwork and new liner notes from author and musician John Kruth. Looking and sounding incredible, this essential addition to Nyro’s discography is available worldwide for the first time.

For Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan cements the legacy of an incomparable artist.

Official Omnivore Laura Nyro Trailer

Official Purchase Link