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Cy Coleman

Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.

Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida (née Prizent) was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason.[1] He was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at venues such as Steinway Hall, the Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall between the ages of six and nine.[2] Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction.

Despite the early classical and jazz success, Coleman decided to build a career in popular music. His first collaborator was Joseph Allen McCarthy, but his most successful early partnership, albeit a turbulent one,[3] was with Carolyn Leigh. The pair wrote many pop hits, including "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come". One of his instrumentals, "Playboy's Theme," became the signature music of the regular syndicated late night TV show Playboy After Dark in the 1960s and specials presented by editor/publisher Hugh M. Hefner of Playboy magazine, and remains synonymous with the Chicago magazine and its creator, Hefner.

Coleman's career as a Broadway composer began when he and Leigh collaborated on Wildcat (1960), which marked the Broadway debut of movie/television comedianne Lucille Ball. The score included the hit tune "Hey, Look Me Over".When Ball became ill, she left the show, and it closed. Next for the two was Little Me, with a book by Neil Simon based on the novel of the same name by Patrick Dennis. The show introduced "Real Live Girl" and "I've Got Your Number," which became popular standards.

In 1964, Coleman met Dorothy Fields at a party, and when he asked if she would like to collaborate with him, she is reported to have answered, "Thank God somebody asked."[4] Fields was revitalized by working with the much younger Coleman, and by the contemporary nature of their first project, which was Sweet Charity, again with a book by Simon, starring Gwen Verdon, and introducing the songs "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "I'm a Brass Band" and "Big Spender". The show was a major success and Coleman found working with Fields much easier than with Leigh. The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Seesaw which reached Broadway in 1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour. Despite mixed reviews, the show enjoyed a healthy run. The partnership was cut short by Fields' death in 1974.

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Recent Listening: Cy Coleman

Recent Listening: Cy Coleman

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Cy Coleman, A Jazzman’s Broadway (Harbinger Records) Cy Coleman’s 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 ...

184

Performance / Tour

Claire Martin Styles Sly Cy Coleman Songs Blas to Brokenhearted

Claire Martin Styles Sly Cy Coleman Songs Blas to Brokenhearted

Source: Michael Ricci

What goes on the road, stays on the road, is how the English jazz singer Claire Martin described When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do), one of 15 songs with music by Cy Coleman at Tuesdays opening night performance of Witchcraft, her show with Richard Rodney Bennett at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. When in Rome has lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Colemans greatest collaborator and the only major American lyricist whose bon mots consistently match Cole ...

74

Performance / Tour

Quincy Coleman/Kate Walsh/Brandi Shearer L.A. Amoeba Tour Show to Benefit Multiple Sclerosis Research

Quincy Coleman/Kate Walsh/Brandi Shearer L.A. Amoeba Tour Show to Benefit Multiple Sclerosis Research

Source: conqueroo

Teri Garr and Ed Begley Jr. to co-host the May 16 show at the Roxy

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Stage and screen actress Teri Garr and actor/activist Ed Begley Jr. will co-host the Los Angeles tour stop of the Amoeba Music Spring Tour featuring singer/songwriters Kate Walsh, Brandi Shearer and Quincy Coleman. The L.A. show, a benefit for the Southern California Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, takes place Friday, May 16 at the world famous Roxy on West ...

71

Performance / Tour

Quincy Coleman Joins Kate Walsh & Brandi Shearer on Amoeba Music Spring Tour

Quincy Coleman Joins Kate Walsh & Brandi Shearer on Amoeba Music Spring Tour

Source: conqueroo

QUINCY COLEMAN JOINS KATE WALSH AND BRANDI SHEARER ON THE AMOEBA MUSIC SPRING TOUR Starting May 12 in Portland and closing June 3 in Denver, tour includes a benefit for multiple sclerosis in Los Angeles on May 16 LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Quincy Coleman, the singer/songwriter cited by American Songwriter magazine for her “gorgeous voice" and “undeniably catchy" songs, will join fellow artists Kate Walsh and Brandi Shearer as part of the Amoeba Music Spring Tour. The tour will launch ...

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