JEFF HARNAR

As singer and interpreter, Jeff Harnar’s passionate exploration of the Great American Songbook has yielded award-winning recordings like 2022’s I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim’s Words and thrilled audiences with his takes on Porter, Gershwin, Comden & Green and many more. On A Collective Cy: Jeff Harnar Sings Cy Coleman, Harnar brings his exuberance, interpretive acumen and “voice that out-Sinatras Sinatra” (Broadway World) to bear on a titan of popular song whose work won multiple Tony, Grammy and Emmy awards over a six-decade career. Adapted from an award-winning stage show heralded as “a major event” by EDGE, A Collective Cy ― which represents 40 years of Harnar’s fruitful collaboration with music director Alex Rybeck, here conducting a full orchestra in charts arranged specifically for this recording ― works its witchcraft on 20 Coleman songs, from classics to lesser-known gems. But this is no mere anthology: this is a bravura celebration of a composer equally at home in the worlds of pop and Broadway, in performances soaked in Harnar and Rybeck’s jazz-tinged theatricality. Much as Coleman did, Harnar and Rybeck marry stage-worthy savvy to the seeming effortlessness of jazz. It’s an approach – and an album ― of which Coleman himself would no doubt have heartily approved, and indeed, two-time Coleman collaborator Tommy Tune raved, “Jeff Harnar’s singing and Cy Coleman’s music make a perfect duet.” And David Zippel, Coleman’s lyricist on their Tony Award–winning City of Angels, concurred: “Cy would’ve loved it.” The album is further brightened by two guest artists: Ann Hampton Callaway pairing with Harnar on a sly and provocative “I’ve Got Your Number” and her sister Liz joining Harnar for “Our Private World,” their intertwining voices illuminating the purity of the melody while allowing it to soar. A vocalist at the height of his powers, Harnar blazes a unique path through this ravishing set that stands out brightly among the tributes to Coleman and his contemporaries. PS Classics is proud to present this ideal pairing of artist and repertoire.