Nancy LaMott

Nancy LaMott (December 30, 1951 – December 13, 1995) was an American singer and Broadway performer born in Midland, Michigan. She built her reputation on the New York City cabaret circuit during the 1980s before expanding to radio and national and international audiences in the 1990s. Along with Karen Mason, she was among the first singers to complete a continuous long run at Don't Tell Mama in New York City, and she went on to perform at the city's smaller clubs before graduating to more prestigious venues.

LaMott's father was a supervisor with the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, and she grew up singing along to Barbra Streisand records. By age fifteen she was performing with her father's dance band and also held a job at a local Sears store. At seventeen she received a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, an incurable condition involving chronic intestinal problems, pain, and arthritis. She later moved to San Francisco, where her early years alternated between singing engagements and hospital visits, accumulating medical debt while taking various jobs to cover living expenses. The disease sometimes forced her to perform seated to manage spasms. She relocated to New York City in 1979 and spent twenty-five years working toward recognition in the music industry.

In 1991, songwriter and producer David Friedman established MIDDER Music Records, Inc. specifically for LaMott, and recorded her debut CD with pianist Christopher Marlowe. The album found immediate success in the cabaret world, and Friedman reinvested profits from each release to fund the next recording. As her catalog grew, LaMott became a regular presence at Tavern on the Green and The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, where she set house attendance records. In 1993, radio host Jonathan Schwartz began featuring her on his internationally broadcast programs, broadening her audience considerably. That same year she won the MAC Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist and underwent an ileostomy operation to remove a portion of her small intestine, a procedure that significantly improved her health. New York Magazine named her the best cabaret singer.

Friedman composed numerous songs that became closely associated with LaMott, including "We Can Be Kind," "We Live on Borrowed Time," "Listen To My Heart," "I'll Be Here With You," and "Your Love." "Just in Time For Christmas" featured lyrics by David Zippel. In 1994, arranger Peter Matz selected LaMott to perform at a Los Angeles concert honoring Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and her reception there accelerated her rise to national prominence. Matz subsequently orchestrated her fifth album, Listen To My Heart, which brought her widespread national attention. That same year LaMott appeared on Broadway in The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. She performed twice at the White House for President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, sang at Carnegie Hall, appeared at the annual Cabaret Conventions at Town Hall, and regularly closed John Znidarsic's In Celebration of Life Concert. She also performed major concerts in Midland, Michigan, and in San Francisco, and participated in numerous benefits for causes related to AIDS and human rights.

In March 1995, LaMott was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She postponed a scheduled hysterectomy in order to record Listen To My Heart, completing the album in two days. Surgery subsequently revealed that the cancer had metastasized. Her final public performance took place on December 4, 1995, at a WQEW live event, and on that same day she made her last television appearance on CNBC's The Charles Grodin Show, performing "Moon River." On December 13, 1995, Father Steven Harris officiated at her marriage to Peter Zapp shortly before her death. LaMott died at 11:40 PM EST at St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, nine days before her forty-fourth birthday.

Over the course of her career LaMott recorded eight albums and one DVD under the MIDDER Music label, all produced by Friedman: Beautiful Baby (1991), Come Rain or Come Shine (1992), My Foolish Heart (1993), Just in Time for Christmas (1994), Listen to My Heart (1995), What's Good about Goodbye? (1996), Live at Tavern on the Green (2005), and the two-disc set Ask Me Again (2008). The posthumously released Ask Me Again, which collected recordings made between 1988 and 1995, reached number twelve on Billboard magazine's Top Jazz Albums chart in 2008. Posthumous honors included a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs in April 1996 and the Cabaret Hotline Critic's Choice Entertainer of the Year award for 1996.