Dick Hyman

Over a 50+ year career, Dick Hyman has delighted listeners in his varied roles as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and composer. His impact on the jazz world has been huge. Here is an early recording of Hyman taking on the music of Noël Coward, approaching each song with his characteristic subtlety and style. An exciting look at a jazz legend's early days.

Very few jazz performers have recorded a full-length set of Noel Coward compositions, and for good reason. Coward wrote his songs for the British theater. None of his tunes became major jazz standards. His best known songs include “Mad About The Boy,” “Poor Little Rich Girl” and “Dance, Little Lady” but none of those were adapted by many swing bands. However pianist Dick Hyman, being a brilliant player, picked out 15 of the most suitable numbers for his solo recital in 1952, and shows that Coward could have been a jazz composer too, if he had the time.

Noel Coward (1899-1973) was perhaps most significant as a playwright but he was also an actor, singer, director and composer. He was one of the symbols of British show business and high society for decades. As a teenager he started writing plays and more than 50 were staged in his lifetime including Private Lives and Design For Living. He wrote over 500 songs, additional special works for musical theater, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, poetry, short stories and an autobiography that was three volumes.

Coward appeared in amateur contests when he was just seven, and was always interested in performing. He appeared in many children's plays, sold short stories to magazines, and began to seriously work as a playwright in 1918, sometimes starring in his own works. 1923's The Young Idea and The Vortex were his first successes. He became so productive that by 1925 he had four plays running simultaneously, all of which did well. From that point on, he was a legend in England.
The Depression did not slow him down and, if anything, his productivity accelerated. In addition to his other activity, he made a series of recordings of his own songs including “I'll See You Again” and “Mad Dogs And Englishmen.” In later years he had a cabaret act that played in both London and Las Vegas, and he also appeared in a few movies..Noel Coward never lost his popularity and was active until a few years before his 1973 death.

On his solo CD Mad About The Boy, the brilliant pianist Dick Hyman shows that many of Noel Coward's songs could have a life independent from the theater. “Any Little Fish,” “World Weary,” “Ladies Of The Town” and “Twentieth Century Blues” are among the 15 songs that he revives, adding swing, occasional stride, soul and his own virtuosity to the music. The results, which feature fresh and unexpected material, are memorable. -Scott Yanow


New York, May 22 & 23, 1953

Tracks: 1. Cabin in the Sky, 2. What Is There to Say, 3. Now, 4. April in Paris, 5. London in July, 6. Autumn in New York, 7. Suddenly, 8. I Am Only Human After All, 9. Rio Cristal,10. Taking a Chance on Love, 11. When You Live on an Island, 12. I Can’t Get Started, 13. The Love I Long For, 14. I’m Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight.