Dreams of a Kitten by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Dreams of a Kitten

Page 200

Composer/producer Charlie Calello knew he was in the presence of

something special when he began working on the landmark “Eli and

the Thirteenth Confession “album with Laura Nyro early in 1968.

"I first heard it in the studio; she played me the entire record

and I was dumbfounded," Calello, who co-produced the album with

Nyro, tells Billboard. "I'd never heard anything like it and

still haven't heard anything as good. There was never a record

that was actually written by a composer who displayed her

emotions and her feelings the way she did."

In his foreword, John calls Nyro "one of my all time idols. She

wrote songs that had no kind of fixed compass point, they had

different sections, codas and various tempo changes. They remain

as unique and absolutely spellbinding to this day as when I

first heard them in the '60s. She was a giant of a songwriter

who sadly didn't have the legacy and recognition she deserved

during the years she was with us."

Calello, who also co-produced Nyro's 1976 album “Smile,” echoes

John's praise about Nyro's fusion of pop, jazz, R&B and gospel.

"The whole thing did not glue together from a pop standpoint,"

he explains, "but yet when you collectively put it together, it

was its own thing. It had all of those elements. It had the R&B,

it had that jazz, all of it; and it also had the honesty she