Podcast 990: A Conversation with Janis Siegel and Yoran Gershovsky

With The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook, Manhattan Transfer founding member and Grammy Award-Winning vocalist Janis Siegel and acclaimed pianist/arranger/musical director Yaron Gershovsky, together have co-produced their first duo songbook album. And it comes from a classic “When a door closes, a window opens” moment.

The Manhattan Transfer performed its final concert a year ago, bringing to a close one of the most storied chapters in vocal jazz history. With their scintillating live performances and memorable recordings, The Transfer bridged the gap from the fabulous four-part harmony groups of the thirties and forties and Lambert Hendrick & Ross to the 197u0’s, teaching late baby boomers how jazz singing should be done.  Years earlier, Siegel and Gershovsky discovered that both had worked with the revered songwriter Cy Coleman – Gershovsky as the vocal arranger for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical City of Angels, Siegel as part of the all-star vocal ensemble for Coleman’s final collaboration with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman at the Kennedy Center.

 That conversation soon evolved into a full-fledged project: The Colors of My Life: A Cy Coleman Songbook on the Club44 label. It features the duo’s spirited interpretations of ten favorite Coleman compositions, pairing Siegel’s unmistakable voice with Gershovsky’s inventive music and vocal arrangements. The album boasts an elite roster of musicians including bassists David Finck and Boris Kozlov, drummer Cliff Almond, guest vocalist Aubrey Johnson, and The Crosby Street String Quartet. 

The alnum marks the first songbook album of Siegel’s diverse and prolific career, the first collection in her rich discography devoted to the work of a single composer. Beyond her ten Grammys with the Transfer, Janis has collaborated with pianists Fred Hersch, Edsel Gomez, Cedar Walton, Gil Goldstein, John di Martino, Addison Frei, and fellow vocalists including her former Transfer bandmate Laurel Massé, Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices, Bobby McFerrin, and Bob Dorough.

Gershovsky is a highly accomplished, internationally recognized and award-winning pianist, arranger, composer and producer who has recorded and performed with such artists as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Smith, Steve Gadd, Take 6 and the Count Basie Orchestra. His Broadway credits include vocal arranging for the Tony Award-nominated musicals Swing and City of Angels, and serving as keyboardist for Broadway megahits Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. He has been the pianist and musical director for Manhattan Transfer since 1979, and is Janis’ first call collaborator.

The repertoire on The Colors of My Life ranges from familiar standards to more obscure material. They range from the oft-performed  “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come,” to the previously unrecorded melancholy “Being Without You,” which Siegel took note of during that Kennedy Center workshop and always knew she’d return to.

 Podcast 990 is my conversation with Janis and Yaron, as they dissect the manner in which the Coleman tribute was prepared, what they find so moving about his work, and how best to bring freshness to well-loved standards. Musical selections include the silky slowed-down take on “Witchcraft,” and the afore mentioned “Being Without You.”