Just heard the sad news that Cy Coleman had a massive heart attack and has died.
I have so many lovely memories of him - he was very sweet, very kind, very gracious. I remember going over his house to play him the Coleman cuts on Emily and Alice's album (I think there were three) and he was just like a little kid and he loved them.
I remember the first time I met him - I'd sent him a note about including a classical piece by him on the Bay Cities' Classical Broadway album. I hadn't heard back from him, and then one day the phone rang and I heard, "Bruce? This is Cy. Listen to this." And he proceeded to play for me over the phone "Never Met a Man I Didn't Like" which he'd just gotten the mix of. I thought it was such a funny way to meet one of my legends.
I remember badgering him to come and record a jazz CD for me - we talked and talked about it, but sadly the timing was never right.
I remember doing the revival cast album of Little Me - Neil Simon didn't want to be involved in the dialogue choices for the album, but I was insistent on having them because I felt it was the only way you'd know what Marty Short was about in the show - so, Cy and I sat for two days figuring it out, and we just had so much fun doing it. I met his lovely wife that day, and her telling the story of how they met and their courtship was priceless and pure Cy. And I remember the Little Me session as one of the easiest ever, and Cy just sitting next to Harold Wheeler, the orchestrator, and just loving hearing the tracks go down.
Finally, I remember him getting me his house seats for The Life, which he wanted me to see. After the show, I handed him Lost in Boston IV, which we'd just finished, and which had Gimme a Raincheck, a cut song from Sweet Charity. I'd seen a workshop of The Life months before and hated it - but somehow between then and what I saw that night, the show had become pretty good, thanks to Cy's music and Michael Blakemore's production. Anyway, I handed Cy the CD and he, as always, was thrilled that the song had been recorded - I then told him how much I'd enjoyed the show, and said, "Cy, you are always the hippest one in the room."
And that was Cy - always the hippest one in the room.
