This week - Friday, April 6th, 2018 Harbinger Records is releasing CY COLEMAN A Jazzman's Broadway (Jamaica, Flower Drum Song, South Pacific) HCD 3401. Harbinger loves composer/jazz pianist Cy Coleman. In fact, they have undertaken an entire series of CDs devoted to his vast musical talents. The first Coleman CD was a companion to the first biography on Cy, You Fascinate Me So (an overview of rare songs by Coleman with as disparate a bunch of lyricists as Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, Floyd Huddleston, A.E. Hotchner, and even comic Allan Sherman). The CD got rave reviews and opened many musical theatre aficionados to the depth of his composing skills.
Before he was a noted composer of such shows as Little Me, Sweet Charity, Will Rogers Follies, and On the Twentieth Century, Cy was the favorite of the New York cabaret and supper club scene. Now, for the first time on CD, Cy and his fellow musicians play the scores of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's hit show Jamaica in addition to songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein hits Flower Drum Song and South Pacific. The latter from rare transcription discs making their debuts since being recorded in the early 1950s.
Artists: Cy Coleman with bassist Aaron Bell, drummer Ray Mosca, plus a vocal group and three additional musicians: Ossie Johnson(drums), Romeo Pinque (flute) and Skeeter Best (guitar). Songwriters: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Produced for Harbinger Records by Ken Bloom. HARBINGER RECORDS is a division of THE MUSICAL THEATER PROJECT: Bill Rudman, Artistic Director; Heather Meeker, Executive Director.
Songs: 1. I Don't Think I'll End It All Today; 2. Savanna; 3. Monkey in the Mango Tree; 4. Napoleon; 5. Take It Slow, Joe; 6. Pretty to Walk With; 7. Little Biscuit; 8. Cocoanut Sweet; 9. Push de Button; 10. What Good Does It Do?; 11. The Other Generation; 12. I Am Going to Like It Here; 13. You Are Beautiful; 14. Chop Suey; 15. Grant Avenue; 16. A Hundred Million Miracles; 17. Love, Look Away; 18. Sunday; 19. Younger Than Springtime; 20. This Nearly Was Mine; 21. Happy Talk; 22. I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.
Last year Harbinger Records presented a true rarity: the backers audition for one of Cy's most popular shows, Barnum. With lyrics by Michael Stewart, Barnum celebrated the career of P.T. Barnum, the man who coined the saying, "There's a sucker born every minute." This live CD catapulted back in time to the early 1980s in a swank New York apartment as potential theatrical investors listen to the composer and lyricist run through their newest Broadway score; as Cy and Michael entrance the audience into putting up the dough for the Broadway production. That they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams speaks to the brio with which the two songwriters sing and tell the story of the musical Barnum. This CD was crowned one of the Top Ten CDs by no less than the Huffington Post.
Harbinger Records (a subsidiary of The Musical Theater Project) was founded in 1983 by Ken Bloom and Bill Rudman. They specialize in the Great American Songbook - in particular, songs of stage, screen and cabaret. And the artists range from Peggy Lee, Mabel Mercer and Ethel Merman to first-rate contemporary vocalists including Barbara Fasano, Eric Comstock and Sylvia McNair. Historic and rare demos and recordings by songwriters Richard Rodgers, Hugh Martin, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander and Cy Coleman also grace our catalogue, along with many other releases that will surprise and delight. http://harbingerrecords.com
Videos