Cy Coleman: A Jazzman's Broadway

Ken Bloom

By Ken Bloom
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​There are Broadway composers who write great songs but whose piano playing isn’t always of the highest quality. In fact, there are a few like Bob Merrill and Lionel Bart who couldn’t play piano at all. Then there are the piano virtuosos like Harold Arlen and Jule Styne. Others could play the piano the first time they sat down at the keyboard like George Gershwin and Jerry Herman.
 
But there’s only one who was not only a wonderful composer but also a terrific jazz pianist. You may surmise that the man I’m referring to is Cy Coleman. I’m sure that’s not a surprise since, after all, that’s who this week’s blog is all about.
 
And the reason I’m bringing his name up is that The Musical Theater Project and Harbinger Records are so very proud to be issuing another amazing Cy Coleman performance in our unofficial but delightful series of recordings by Cy (if you don’t mind us being familiar). And we are using his first name because he himself was one of the most gregarious performers in musical theater. He loved nothing more than to sit at the piano and entertain an audience. And entertain himself, too! And that joy was contagious, as you’ll discover when you listen to this wonderful CD.
 
Now, if you knew him, Cy took great pride in his own compositions. But he wasn’t so egocentric as to not appreciate his fellow toilers who ran their fingers up and down the keys and came up with timeless scores. And so, here’s Cy paying tribute to two of the best composers of all time.

• The first is by some people’s account the greatest show composer of all time (you may disagree, but look at his record), and that man is Richard Rodgers. He had a longer career than most composers just in the first half of his career with lyricist Lorenz Hart. But then he reinvented himself and an equally successful stint with Oscar Hammerstein II. So it’s not a surprise that in Cy chose to pay tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein with jazz treatments of much of the score of Flower Drum Song plus four previously unissued recordings of songs from South Pacific.
• Cy also chose to record the Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg score for Jamaica. This time, he sings—and it shouldn’t surprise you that his singing had the same élan as his playing.

 
The whole CD is so infectious that though I produced the album and have listened to its contents dozens of times, I keep returning for more. And I bet so will you!

Learn more about "Cy Coleman: A Jazzman's Broadway" and purchase at Amazon.com and iTunes.

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