Cy Coleman Plays and Sings Arlen's 'Jamaica'

Pianist and songwriter Cy Coleman also was a talented singer. Still, most of his records showcase his piano playing, where he was a virtuoso, rather than his vocal skills, where his natural gifts were modest. The most notable exception to this rule was a 1966 Columbia LP of his own compositions, which is quite wonderful, with his gift for wry interpretation on full display.

There are a few other examples of his way with a lyric, and today we have the first vocal recordings he made, per the superb Coleman biography, You Fascinate Me So, written by friend of the blog Andy Propst. Those four vocals are found on a LP of songs from the Arlen-Harburg musical Jamaica.

Ricardo Montalban and Lena Horne

When the record came out in 1957, Jamaica had just opened on Broadway. It was the second consecutive Arlen musical to take place in the Caribbean; his 1954 House of Flowers had a Haitian setting. Today the earlier musical is better remembered - it has the superior score - but Jamaica ran for much longer, possibly due to the star power of Lena Horne in a leading role. The production was not without its problems - here is a good article on the backstage dramatics.

Before Jamaica's opening, record companies lined up to exploit this potential blockbuster of a show by presenting their own takes on the Arlen score. There were four such LPs, per Andy's book, including jazz interpretations by Phineas Newborn Jr. and Don Elliott, along with Coleman's effort for the small Jubilee label.

It might seem odd to task Coleman with singing the score's quasi-patois lyrics, but he does well with Yip Harburg's topical and ironic words, supported by a vocal group. The vocal numbers are "I Don't Think I'll End It All Today," "Napoleon," "Little Biscuit" and "Push De Button." Oddly, the LP does not include "Ain't It the Truth," one of the best known songs from the score.

The cover notes get a few spellings wrong, so let me list the backing musicians. On the vocal numbers they are Romeo Penque, flute, Skeeter Best, guitar, Aaron Bell, bass, and Osie Johnson, drums. On the instrumentals, Barry Galbraith and Dan Perri replace Best. The arrangements are by Coleman and Bell.

The young piano prodigy,
courtesy You Fascinate Me So

As a bonus, I've added two of Coleman's early singles. "Sabia" and "Caprice" come from his first recording session, in March 1950. "South" and "In a Little Spanish Town" are from two years later. All show off Coleman's bristling piano technique. The first two items appeared on the blog several years ago in an LP compilation. These particular transfers come from the original 78s and have better sound. They were remastered from lossless originals found on Internet Archive. The sound from the LP, sourced from my own collection, is fine as well.

The cover presents one minor mystery - Coleman is shown against a backdrop of the Shubert Theater's marquee, but IBDB says the show was staged at the Imperial.

Andy's biography tells us that this LP came at a turning point for Coleman - he was just about to embark on a career as a composer for the stage, working with Carolyn Leigh. His greatest successes were yet to come.

By the way, Andy's latest book, The 100 Most Important People in Musical Theatre, just came out a few months ago.