Ending with a jazz improvisation, the members of this gifted duo flex their instrumental muscle, impressing the audience with a heartfelt and passionate in-the-moment performance.

Reminding the audience that “Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp” comes from Laura’s album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, a record which was produced by The Young Rascals’ Felix Cavaliere, Spero starts to play a few bars of the Cavaliere penned Rascals song, “Groovin’.” The moment she stops, however, listeners in the audience sigh and Spero wonders aloud if it would be appropriate to perform the entire piece, given — as the lyrics suggest — we’re all here in the library “groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon.” Not surprisingly, the audience wholeheartedly agrees and ultimately finds themselves bopping along to Spero’s breezy performance of this classic 1960’s Rascals’ hit.

Moving on to a Nyro composition which Spero says, “The Fifth Dimension thought would be a hit, but wasn’t,” she performs a spirited version of “Black Patch.” Elliot provides the snappy rhythm to propel the song ever forward, Spero’s joyful voice singing out about “Happiness on the uptown side/Of my party in the morning tide.”

On one of many highlights of this afternoon’s performance, audience members groove to the music in their seats as Spero channels the spirit of Laura Nyro on a soulful version of “Eli’s Comin’.” Opening with a mysterious out-of-tempo intro, the song soon shifts into high gear, Spero soulfully and intensely warning, “Eli’s comin’, hide your heart, girl!”

Moving on to a lesser known piece which Laura composed for a film on the forced displacement of Navajo tribe members, the audience is taken on a musical journey with “Broken Rainbow,” Elliot impressing the audience as he skillfully plays both wind and percussion instruments simultaneously.

Following heartfelt applause, Christine reveals to the crowd how she was originally introduced to the music of Laura Nyro.

At the age of 16, while working at her neighborhood King Kullen market, Spero reveals she was given a promotional copy of Nyro’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession LP by a co-worker who also spun records for a local college radio station. Holding up the album jacket, the audience laughs when Christine goes on to joke that, nowadays, the record probably smells more like her attic than “the original lavender scented lyric sheet” which initially came packaged inside the record album jacket.

Moving on to yet another highlight of the afternoon’s performance, Spero plays one of her own original compositions — one she dedicated to both Laura Nyro and jazz great John Coltrane. Entitled “Laura and John,” Spero gives a lively yet emotional performance which tugs at the audience’s heartstrings upon singing lyrics like, “You left the party way too soon.”

Spero also tells an intriguing story about a time in 1967 when Laura played the Monterey Pop Festival. During her performance at this event — the very first large music festival, with a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands — Laura thought that listeners were booing her when, in fact, they were chanting “beautiful.” Unfortunately, according to Spero, the experience scarred Laura and, as a result, Nyro decided against performing at the next big music festival which took place two years later in upstate New York — Woodstock.

Performing a tune which Spero calls “heavy duty stuff,” she goes on to give a heart-wrenching performance of the song Nyro did at Monterey entitled, “Poverty Train,” accompanied by Elliot on winds and percussion.

Next up is the title track from the Nyro album, Smile, an “avant garde” piece which ends with a spacey instrumental jam called “Mars.”

Moving on to a Motown tune from an album which Laura recorded in 1971 with Patti LaBelle’s group, Labelle, Spero performs “The Bells,” a song initially recorded by The Originals. Then, she deftly segues into a finger-snapping rendition of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ hit “Jimmy Mack,” the audience spontaneously snapping and clapping along.

After an ebullient version of Nyro’s “Lucky,” Spero performs a number which she reveals was “Laura’s highest-charting single as a performer,” a cover version of Carole King’s “Up On the Roof,” which managed to break the Top 100 in 1970.

This is followed by “Once It Was Alright Now,” a song which Spero describes as having a “constantly-changing feel” — a hallmark of Nyro’s innovative compositional style. And next up is a wonderful Latin-influenced rendition of “Stoned Soul Picnic,” a Nyro gem on which the “There’ll be trains of trust, trains of golden dust” bridge features some of the most brilliant melodic/harmonic writing in pop music history.

After a lively version of “Wedding Bell Blues,” Spero concludes this afternoon’s performance with a number she says is as “appropriate for the times today” as it was when Nyro originally wrote it in 1968, “Save the Country.” Connecting with the audience on lyrics such as “We could build the dream with love, I know/We could build the dream with love,” Spero receives a well-deserved standing ovation from the crowd.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of her hits were performed by other artists, in the 1960s, Laura Nyro made herself a creative force in American popular music. As with the case of Bob Dylan — who always had something important to say, even if one didn’t especially like the way he was singing it — some listeners had a difficult time listening to Laura sing her own catalog of songs, however, finding her voice less refined than other more polished entertainers.

But many of those who’ve made it a point to go on and listen to her various recordings have come to find a performer who grew to become one of the most soulful singers in music history, particularly during her later years when her voice mellowed and became more resonant and controlled.

So that’s pretty much the story with respect to Laura Nyro and the musical element we commonly refer to as “timbre,” or tone color.

But what about the talents of Laura Nyro with respect to the six remaining elements of music?

In terms of “melody,” “harmony,” “rhythm,” “form,” “texture,” and “dynamics,” in our opinion, Laura Nyro ought to be considered among the elite of 1960’s era songwriters.

And what about her talents as a lyricist?

A half-century following its creation, her ingenious poetic imagery still has the ability to stir souls.

Thus, our response?

Case closed.

Not every composer can write music that can make a listener experience an emotional lump in the throat by virtue of its melodic/harmonic brilliance or heartfelt lyrics.

But Laura Nyro’s music can.

Especially when Spero Plays Nyro.

For more on Christine Spero — notably information about upcoming performances including a Spero Plays Nyro duo performance at the NJ Botanical Gardens in Ringwood, NJ on April 22 at 2pm; a Spero Plays Nyro duo performance at The Springfield Public Library in Springfield, NJ on May 21 at 2pm; and a live performance of the entire Christine Spero Group at the NJ Botanical Gardens in Ringwood, NJ on July 21 at 6:30pm  — please go to www.christinesperogroup.com. For more on the life and music of Laura Nyro, please go to www.lauranyro.com