{"id":9919,"date":"2018-08-11T21:50:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T04:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9919"},"modified":"2018-08-16T20:04:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T03:04:10","slug":"recent-listening-cy-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/08\/recent-listening-cy-coleman\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Cy Coleman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cy Coleman<\/strong>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2MID6Kw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Jazzman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Broadway<\/a><\/em> (Harbinger Records)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-9920\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_.jpg 436w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/51oKwsSRApL-1._AC_US436_QL65_-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/a>Cy Coleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success as a popular songwriter and a composer for musical theater overshadowed his effectiveness and influence as a jazz pianist. Nonetheless, as this album reminds us, he could be a spirited improviser whose background as a classical prodigy equipped him with impressive technique and a feeling for the harmonies inspired by classical music that underlay much jazz improvisation in the late 1950s. The album has no music written by Coleman. It consists of his interpretations of 22 Broadway showpieces by Harold Arlen and Richard Rodgers. The songs are from Arlen and Yip Harburg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Jamaica<\/em>, with others from <em>Flower Drum Song<\/em>, and <em>South Pacific<\/em> by Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. His singing on several tracks is infectious, on others show-bizzy and over the top.<\/p>\n<p>He comes closest to &#8221;\u00a0piano in the modern mainstream tradition in Arlen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Savanna\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What Good Does It Do?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bassist Aaron Bell, guitarist Skeeter Best and drummer Osie Johnson are among his accompanists on several of the Arlen and Rodgers tracks, giving them firm rhythmic boosts. Coleman plays four songs from <em>South Pacific<\/em> with considerable verve, all as solo piano performances. He leaps into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with near abandon before winding it down and out with a subdued low E-flat that ends the piece and the album.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entertaining collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cy Coleman, A Jazzman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Broadway (Harbinger Records) Cy Coleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success as a popular songwriter and a composer for musical theater overshadowed his effectiveness and influence as a jazz pianist. Nonetheless, as this album reminds us, he could be a spirited improviser whose background as a classical prodigy equipped him with impressive technique and a feeling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}