Sep 21, 2026 · 1 hr 51 min · 13 segments
Musicians recount the strange and unexpected story behind the making of your favorite albums. Laura Nyro wrote songs her own way and eschewed commercial appeal at every turn until eventually it was…
And we're back.
So this week I read Soul Picnic, a biography of Laura Nero by Michelle Court.
I'll be pulling heavily from that book in addition to a bunch of Internet articles, interviews and YouTube clips that I found.
Lou, a professional trumpet player and his wife, Gilda, welcomed into this world on October 18th.
A gig.
See, Lou was playing a gig and his wife was off, I don't know, somewhere having a baby.
But Lou would at least call during his set breaks to see if Gilda had given birth yet.
See, the show must go on.
And times is tough when you got to take the gig, you know, versus helping your wife have a baby.
So it was on that evening that Lara was born and named after the old jazz standard Lara from the movie of the same name.
Now, her last name, though, might raise some eyebrows, but the proper Italian pronunciation is Negro.
Even in 1947, her family realized it was a bit cringy, so they began pronouncing it Nigro.
Now, Lara would eventually drop the G later on in her life when she was trying to become a professional.
So as you can imagine, with a professional musician as a father, she was exposed to a lot of music.
By age three, little Lara was already memorizing songs and could carry a tune.
And in addition to her family being very artsy, since they were from Russia, they were also commies.
No, seriously, her parents were red diaper babies, which was a new term for me.
That is a person who grew up as a child of parents who were members or active supporters of the Communist Party and radical left in Russia.
Oh, wow.
Red
diaper
babies.
Yeah,
that's a...
And we're back.
So this week I read Soul Picnic, a biography of Laura Nero by Michelle Court.
I'll be pulling heavily from that book in addition to a bunch of Internet articles, interviews and YouTube clips that I found.
Lou, a professional trumpet player and his wife, Gilda, welcomed into this world on October 18th.
A gig.
See, Lou was playing a gig and his wife was off, I don't know, somewhere having a baby.
But Lou would at least call during his set breaks to see if Gilda had given birth yet.
See, the show must go on.
And times is tough when you got to take the gig, you know, versus helping your wife have a baby.
So it was on that evening that Lara was born and named after the old jazz standard Lara from the movie of the same name.
Now, her last name, though, might raise some eyebrows, but the proper Italian pronunciation is Negro.
Even in 1947, her family realized it was a bit cringy, so they began pronouncing it Nigro.
Now, Lara would eventually drop the G later on in her life when she was trying to become a professional.
So as you can imagine, with a professional musician as a father, she was exposed to a lot of music.
By age three, little Lara was already memorizing songs and could carry a tune.
And in addition to her family being very artsy, since they were from Russia, they were also commies.
No, seriously, her parents were red diaper babies, which was a new term for me.
That is a person who grew up as a child of parents who were members or active supporters of the Communist Party and radical left in Russia.
Oh, wow.
Red
diaper
babies.
Yeah,
that's a...
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