Early Cy Coleman

Before he became famous as a Broadway composer, Cy Coleman was a fixture in the better clubs with his piano trio - even as a very young man.

This obscure 10-inch LP is from 1955, when Coleman was either 25 or 26. (The back cover says 24, but news accounts from 1950 had him as 22, so that's unlikely.)

This was not Coleman's first record - he had a contract with Coral as early as 1950 - but it may be his first LP.

The young Cy Coleman

Coleman was a very effective pianist. The back cover says he offers "an almost symphonic form of jazz," which is nonsense: he was not really a jazz artist. Although he offers his own takes on some very familiar tunes, little here sounds improvised.

Coleman's cohorts were jazz players, though. Bassist Ernie Furtado had stints with Bill Evans, Chuck Wayne and Morgana King. Drummer John Cresci played with Helen Merrill and Lena Horne, later, oddly, with Al Kooper and Michael Bloomfield.

By the time this LP came out, Coleman had already written such songs as "Why Try to Change Me Now." The only song here that may be his work is the opener, "One-Two-Three."

The cover makes it look like Coleman played the accordion, but there's none of that here.

My singles blog has a post of one of Coleman's greatest hits - "Playboy's Theme" - along with his own vocal on "You Fascinate Me So."

[Note (June 2023): The piano on this LP has a plonky sound, probably because it was recorded too closely. I've remastered the record in ambient stereo with a small amount of natural reverberation to help counteract this effect.]