Harbinger Records

A division of The Musical Theater Project, Harbinger Records was formed in 1983 by musical theater authorities Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom with the mission of preserving the traditions of musical theater, cabaret and the Great American Songbook.

In addition to distributing the entire ​Harbinger Catalog, TMTP is pleased to showcase the following releases available on Amazon and iTunes:

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS EVE

Songs old and new, standards and rarities, all make up this delightful new CD for the Christmas season. A quartet of New York cabaret favorites lead by the legendary Steve Ross sings it way through some of the oldest carols as well as some of the newest.

It's Almost Christmas Eve is a nostalgic, cozy, smart, sophisticated and sometimes even wistful journey through the Great American Songbook. Here you'll find great songs from Broadway and popular song favorites including Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Charles Strouse, Cy Coleman, Sammy Fain, E.Y. Harburg, Carolyn Leigh and also Richard Maltby and David Shire. Plus a bevy of newer composers taking a crack and Christmas cheer and goodwill toward men. 

It's like being invited to the most exclusive Park Avenue holiday party. Warm and intimate and full of holiday good cheer among friends old and new. And by the time you finish listening you'll want to have these talented performers be a part of every Christmas celebration. It's sure to be a Christmas perennial for the whole family.

RELEASE DATE: November 16, 2018
Available now on AMAZON

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SIDNEY MYER:
​LIVE AT THE LAURIE BEECHMAN THEATRE

Harbinger Records is pleased to announce our premiere DVD release. And for this prestigious debut we've chosen to present a live recording of the estimable Sidney Myer at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York. Known for his witty musical comedy, Sidney delivers numbers that are understated and even heartbreaking. Disarming, funny, preposterous, touching, and utterly unique, Myer is one of the country's leading cabaret performers. He's performed around the world making New York his base.

For the past 25 years, despite constant urging from admirers, Sidney limited his brilliance to cameos at clubs, benefits and conventions. But for this, his debut DVD, Sidney sold out six one-man shows emphasizing his wide range of material and thrilled his audiences. We are proud to say the result is an utterly marvelous record of a uniquely versatile performer that will thrill aficionados of musical comedy, cabaret, popular song and standup comedy. There's something for everyone in this record of a master showman at the top of his game.

Release Date: November 2, 2018
This DVD is now available from Harbinger Records (HarbingerRecords.com) and Amazon.com.

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SHUFFLE ALONG OF 1950

Continuing with Harbinger Records’ acclaimed series of CDs devoted to jazz pianist, composer, Broadway songwriter, and black music pioneer Eubie Blake, we proudly present the original demo to the proposed Broadway musical Shuffle Along of 1950.
Harbinger’s recording of Sissle and Blake singing the score to the original production of Shuffle Along won the 2017 Grammy Award for its brilliant liner notes by Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom, authors of an upcoming biography of Eubie Blake published by Oxford University Press. They’ve repeated the assignment with liner notes for this recording of Shuffle Along of 1950 and tell the fascinating story of the production and its eventual premiere on Broadway as Shuffle Along of 1952. It’s a story of great highs and the lowest of lows: a tale that both Broadway acolytes and jazz fans will find fascinating.
The 1921 all-black musical comedy Shuffle Along was the most successful Broadway show of its time. The score contained the future standards “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Love Will Find a Way.” It marked the emergence of a new black musical theater. It desegregated theaters in New York and across the country. Years later in 1950, songwriters Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle devised a revision of their original hit and made an acetate recording to interest potential backers. This recording contains narration by lyricist Noble Sissle explaining the plot of the new show. Several of the songs from the original Shuffle Along are included, as are new songs written especially for this production by Sissle and Blake. Later, others augmented the score and their songs are also included.
Also included as bonus tracks is a remaster of the only surviving acetate of a historical “Tribute to Ruth King.” Ruth King was a famed Cleveland DJ who celebrated black musicians. Notables as Sissle and Blake and the legendary W.C. Handy, composer of “St. Louis Blues” play for Ms. King.
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RELEASE DATE: October 19, 2018
Available now on AMAZON

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LET'S GO IN TO A PICTURE SHOW

Grammy Award-winning Harbinger Records, a division of The Musical Theater Project, proudly announces our newest release, "Let’s Go In to a Picture Show," available to all via download and CD purchase on September 21, 2018.

Popular songs on the subject of moving pictures were an international phenomenon from about 1900 through the coming of sound in the late 1920s, and constitute a body of work that has yet to be fully documented and examined. 

Now, for the first time, these early recordings are saved from obscurity giving us a window into a world long disappeared.  These twenty-six recordings feature every variety of instrumentation and feature top bands and vocalists of the era. Extensive liner notes are written by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art.  As an added bonus complete lyrics and background information are included on each song.

For more information and to purchase now, click HERE.

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JONES & SCHMIDT: HIDDEN TREASURES

NEW RELEASE!

This two-CD retrospective is a must-have for all lovers of musical theater! Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt first won fame as the creators of The Fantasticks—the longest-running musical in the history of the world, with more than 21,000 performances given in New York over a period of 58 years. But the Jones & Schmidt musicals also include Broadway classics such as I Do! I Do!, 110 in the Shade and Celebration. Selections from these and 12 other shows are included in Harbinger’s deluxe set, which features many previously unreleased “demos” by the songwriters themselves.
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For more information and to purchase now, click HERE.

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SISSLE & BLAKE SING SHUFFLE ALONG

Winner of the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes!
“A treat that bubbles over with energized performances and sprightly melodies. Affection, pride, and nostalgia are palpable when we hear the writers perform these numbers.” 
---Rob Lester, Talkin’ Broadway

“This 64- minute CD is A MUST for theater and early jazz collectors.”
---Steve Ramm, Anything Phonographic

1921’s all-black musical comedy, Shuffle Along, was one of the most successful Broadway shows of its time. The score contained the future standards “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Love Will Find a Way.” It marked the emergence of a new black musical theater, and desegregated theaters in New York and across the country. A recent Broadway revival of Shuffle Along opened in April of 2016 with Tony Award-winning stars such as Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Alongside that production, Harbinger Records released the only available archival recording of the groundbreaking musical.

The recording features the show’s composers, Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, as well as members of the original cast. This is the show exactly as heard on Broadway in 1921, though many of the cuts were recorded by the composers in 1950, making the sound exemplary.

“Sissle and Blake are amazingly magnetic even when they’re tossing off renditions not meant for release. Content to play professional, elegant accompaniment most of the time, Blake seems to relish these breaks, leaping out like a rodeo bull from the gate, transitioning in an instant to the most intricate, bouncy and unmistakably authentic Harlem stride piano.” 
---David R. Adler, New York Jazz Record

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​John Kander: Hidden Treasures, 1950-2015

A biography in sound.”  ---Jesse Green

Here is the first retrospective of one of Broadway’s most important composers—the man who wrote the music for Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman and many other acclaimed shows. Now in his 90th year, John Kander is still writing for the theater, and this extraordinary 2-CD set spans 55 years of his compositions. Featured among the 49 tracks are rare demos recorded by Kander and his longtime partner, lyricist Fred Ebb, along with new recordings by Broadway stars Anita Gillette and Karen Ziemba. The deluxe 64-page booklet is lavishly illustrated, with extensive notes by Jesse Green, a theater critic of The New York Times, that include comments on the songs by Kander himself. This collection—the newest edition in Harbinger Records’ Songwriter Showcase Series—is a must for musical theater fans, and for anyone interested in the tradition of great American songwriting.

ARTISTS: John Kander, Fred Ebb, Anita Gillette, Karen Ziemba, Brent Barrett, Julia Murney, Alix Korey, Barbara Walsh, Michael Winther, Lewis Cleale, Linda Emond, Paul Anthony Stewart, Greg Pierce, David Loud, John Riddle, Elena Shaddow and others.

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​Sheldon Harnick: Hidden Treasures

"This magnificent set is testimony to Sheldon’s place in the pantheon of Broadway musical creators.”
---Harold Prince

This spectacular 2-CD set features 53 demos and cut songs from 17 shows including Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, Fiorello!, The Apple Tree and The Rothschilds as well as rarities from The Body Beautiful, Trafalgar, Smiling the Boy Fell Dead, Rexand A Wonderful Life.

With a Foreword by Harold Prince, and spotlighting archival performances by Sheldon Harnick, Audra McDonald, Brian d’Arcy James, Hugh Martin, Margery Gray, Charlotte Rae and more, this superb collection (with extensive liner notes) unearths the hidden gems of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning lyricist.

Reflecting on the release, producers Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom note: “Exploring Sheldon’s lesser-known songs over the past two years has been a labor of love for us. He is a true mensch–and a man with more than a touch of the poet. The two CDs make for delightful listening!”
The package includes a 60-page booklet.
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Listen to NPR’s Fresh Air interview of Sheldon Harnick about this CD and his 90th birthday (broadcast on April 30, 2014).

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​Cy Walter: Centennial Tribute:
​Sublimities, Volumes 1 & 2

​“… performed with a consummate elegance and technical wizardry that make you wonder how the man who recorded them could possibly have fallen into obscurity.”
---Terry Teachout

Read Terry Teachout’s full review in The Wall Street Journal

Cy Walter is remembered with two historic CDs and two 24-page booklets celebrating his remarkable career and even more remarkable talents. Cy Walter was one of the preeminent jazz and pop interpreters of the Great American Songbook, and here are two generous CDs brimming with music that hasn’t been heard in over a half century (see track listing below). It’s music that is still considered to be the top in piano jazz. The booklets include essays by fellow pianists and music historians Mark Walter, Michael Feinstein, Peter Mintun, Chilton Ryan, Maggie Perrin, Alex Hassan, Richard Behrens and Stanley Turkel.
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ARTISTS: Cy Walter, Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, Mabel Mercer, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Liberace, Eileen Farrell, Stan Freeman, Buddy Barnes, Steve Ross, Alex Hassan, Doug Bowles, Margaret and Forrest Perrin, Walter Gross, Earl Wild, Audrey Christie, Wynn Murray, Gil Bowers, June Valli, Bob Haymes, Helen Carroll and Inez Carrillo

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​Cy Coleman: You Fascinate Me So

Hear Cy Coleman’s wonderful songs as played and sung by the man himself!

Cy Coleman, composer, jazz pianist and five-time Tony Award winner was one of the most successful Broadway composers in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. His shows include such smash hits as Sweet Charity, Barnum, Little Me, City of Angels and Seesaw. Coleman was the only composer in Broadway history to win consecutive Tony Awards for Best Score at the same time that the corresponding musicals won for Best Musicals.

Now, for the first time on CD, Coleman performs 28 songs from Broadway, Off-Broadway and even those that never opened. This CD spans the entire length of Coleman’s career with hits like “Hey, Look Me Over” and “I’ve Got Your Number” to previously unheard numbers like the humorous “The Laarge Daark Aardvark Song” written with humorist Allan Sherman.

​A must for any Broadway aficionado as well as lovers of American Popular Song, You Fascinate Me So is a unique overview of the career of one of America’s greatest composers.

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​Hugh Martin: Hidden Treasures

“Hugh Martin’s music, lyrics and vocal arrangements are the quintessence of 1940s musical comedy: they define what is meant by ‘show tunes’ or ‘pizzazz’.” The goal of the Harbinger release is to document in both rare recordings and extensive commentary the art of a neglected figure in musical theater history – a man who, as Tony Bennett said a year ago, “is the single most talented and finest human being I know.”
---Stephen Sondheim

Composer-lyricist Hugh Martin is best known for three classic American songs featured in MGM’s 1944 film musical Meet Me in St. Louis: “The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” But his output extended from 1941 (his first Broadway musical, Best Foot Forward) through 2010, an unprecedented career of seven decades that made him the elder statesman of American song.

Drawing on the archives of Martin, Michael Feinstein and many other collectors, “Hidden Treasures” features mostly demo recordings of songs written for such stage and screen musicals as Best Foot Forward, Make a Wish, Athena and High Spirits. It also offers memorable songs from unproduced musicals including the legendary Here Come the Dreamers, a fascinating 1961 project planned for Jeanette MacDonald and Liza Minnelli, but aborted when MacDonald was diagnosed with cancer. Produced by musical theater authorities Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom, the “Hidden Treasures” CD is supplemented by an 88-page booklet with articles on Martin’s multifaceted talent. 

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​Richard Rodgers: Command Performance

During the 1920s, when a player piano was a proud feature of every fashionable home, the producers of piano rolls sought out the most celebrated entertainers of the day to preserve their own keyboard artistry on paper. Those entertainers were Broadway composers, and the rolls they produced were enormously popular not only for the music they contained, but for the seemingly direct connection they afforded listeners to the creative genius of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and other masters. In 1926-29, the twenty-something Richard Rodgers was creating delightful scores with lyricist Lorenz Hart – and re-creating the biggest hit tunes from those musicals for the American Piano Roll Company. His infectious performances have now been transferred to CD through digital technology on a Boesendorfer grand piano, providing an irresistible taste of Rodgers’s art in a foxtrot-crazed America. Songs  include “My Heart Stood Still,” “Mountain Greenery,” “The Blue Room,” “With a Song in My Heart” and a dozen more. Additional rare performances by Rodgers as pianist, conductor and vocalist are also included on the CD.

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