Welcome
to the Official Cy Walter Web Site. This is the only web site
created and maintained by Cy's family. We hope that you find this
site to be a treasure trove of images, memories, and most importantly, music
pertaining to this very special and unique musician.
You can start your journey with
Cy's
Biography or
if you prefer, you may immediately listen to and download Cy's
Music.
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Cy Walter's Rodgers Revisited album has been released on CD by the Collectable label. Originally issued by Atlantic Records in 1956, this album is considered by many to be one of Cy's finest, and showcases Cy's love for Rodgers' music and the two musicians' life-long collaborations.
For more information :
www.footlight.com
www.cduniverse.com
www.oldies.com
MARK WALTER LECTURES ON CY WALTER
Mark Walter, son of Cy Walter, made an in-store appearance at Classics Bookshop in downtown Trenton NJ on June 23rd, 2007. Mark discussed his father's life and musical legacy as well as his own personal journey that led to the development of the Official Cy Walter web site. An audio recording of this talk will be posted on this site. Stayed tuned.
 JUDY CARMICHAEL'S
JAZZ INSPIRED
Mark Walter, son of Cy Walter, was interviewed on Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired Radio Show between Feb 10 and Feb 16. Tune in and hear Mark talk about his father, the web site, the music and more.
Visit Jazz Inspired
On February 13, 2007, an Alec Wilder Centennial event was held at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Pianists Tony Caramia and Bill Dobbins, among other musicians, peformed; as did Soprano Karen Holvik. The first of these MP3s has Tony Caramia and Karen Holvik performing Cy Walter's "Time and Tide"; the second has Tony Caramia performing Cy's 1965 arrangement of Alec Wilder's "While We're Young" as well as Bill Dobbins' 2004 arrangement of the same song (also performed by Tony Caramia). Listen to the performances here.
PUBLICATION: Michael Kanan has published an article about Cy Walter in Jazz Buttletti, a Catalan-language, Barcelona, Spain magazine. You can read the original in PDF format or you can read the translation here.
THE PARK AVENUE TATUM
Read The Downbeat Magazine Review of The Park Avenue Tatum from their February 2007 issue.
Due to the concerted efforts of Alex Hassan and others, a terrific disc entitled "The Park Avenue Tatum: Cy Walter Piano Solos+" has been released by the British label, Shellwood. This CD is available from Shellwood's website. The Walter family is hopeful that much more of Cy Walter's recorded music will soon be re‑released commercially in CDs produced in America, and will keep you posted as these efforts progress to happy fruition.
Guestbook Quote of the Month
If the family intended to create new fans, you and they have done so!
I listened to "All the Things You Are."
I experienced the shy courtship, the not-yet-sure-and-stumbling, then the fun and frivolous, then maturity but with a light step, a unification of a couple, a ponderable glowing, then reminiscence. The phases of love and commitment. It was inspired playing.
Kat Koorey
Central Florida
Dec 12, 2006
MUSIC FOR TWILIGHT
Garden Bay Films is currently starting pre-production on Music For Twilight, a short film about Cy Walter, written and produced by Cy Walter's webmaster, Richard Behrens.
Keep an eye on
www.gardenbayfilms.com
for details.
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 Paul James Lewis Plays Cy
Paul James Lewis is a classical pianist living in Chicago, who has been the Principal Company/Performance Pianist for The Chicago Joffrey Ballet since 2002. Paul describes himself as "mainly a perfomer not a composer", playing music written in the last hundred years. Paul has a special fondness for ragtime and piano music from the 1910's - 1940's, listing his favorite composers as being: Maurice Ravel, Leos Janacek, Ernesto Lecuona, Charles Griffes, Cyril Scott, Claude Debussy, Billy Mayerl, Rube Bloom, Dana Suesse, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Lothar Perl, Scott Joplin, Joseph Lamb, James Scott, and several others. Paul has recently included on his "MySpace" page his performance of Cy Walter's "Isn't It Romantic?"
Cy Walter, the Rachmaninoff of the lounge pianists
by Paul James Lewis
I've just put up a new file of my playing an arrangement by Cy Walter of a Richard Rodgers song, "Isn't It Romantic?". Cy Walter was an amazing piano stylist of the 40's and 50's and played the best lounge rooms in the New York hotels. His technique was astonishing, yet never let the melody be washed away by improvisation or over-embellishment. I sometimes think of him as the Rachmaninoff of the cocktail pianists. Enjoy!
 The Story So Far - Stephen Sondheim 4-CD Set Due for Release
Previously-Unreleased Cy Walter and Stan Freeman Performance of Stephen Sondheim's "I Must Be Dreaming" Coming Out on Compilation CD to be in Stores on 30 September 2008.
Sony BMG Masterworks is proud to announce the release of Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far, a comprehensive four CD box set with a playing time of over four and a half hours devoted to the entire career of the legendary Broadway songwriter. The box, the first of its kind, will be released on Tuesday, September 30.
For more information and track listing check out the American Theater Web.
In the new issue of the Dramatists Guild Quarterly, Craig Carnelia, asks Stephen Sondheim: "What was the first moment you saw something of yours really work in a theater?"
SS: It must have been in college. This is not really the answer to your question, but if you said to me, 'What's your first emotional memory of hearing something you'd written?' I'd reply that I wrote a song in college called 'I Must Be Dreaming,' a love song, for an adaptation of BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK. My father often went to the Barbary Room to hear Cy Walters and Stan Freeman play two pianos. He got a copy of the song to them, and they played it on WNEW, and I heard the broadcast. I was all alone. I went up to the Hammersteins', a five-story townhouse between 5th and Madison. The house was empty, and this was the hilarious neurotic thing I did: I was there all alone, and I turned on the radio and I sat under a table to listen to it. I don't think we need to go any farther into the psychological implications of that, but I sat under the table and felt so proud. That's what I remember. I still have a recording of that broadcast.
EVENT: Some wonderful musicians are soon to be performing in that unique and delightful venue, Bargemusic. Since 1977, Bargemusic has
presented chamber music in an unlikely and startlingly beautiful venue --
a floating barge at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Both established
and emerging musicians perform at Bargemusic on a small stage with
the dramatic backdrop of the East River and lower Manhattan skyline.
The performances now include a Thursday "Jazz Night", events well
worth patronizing!! Tickets, further information, or directions can be obtained
by calling 718-624-2083 or visiting www.bargemusic.org .
September 25 . Thursday, 8 pm
Jazz Night
Judy Carmichael, Piano
Dan Barnett, Trombone
Dave Blenkhorn, Guitar
Mike Hashim, Saxophone |
October 23 . Thursday, 8pm
Jazz Night
Daryl Sherman, Piano
Dan Levinson, Reeds |
Tony Caramia
Professor of Piano, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York
Eastman Faculty Artist Concert:
- Sunday, November 16:
3:00 PM, Kilbourn Hall (Gibbs Street and East Main Street, Rochester, New York)
Mr. Caramia's program will include arrangements by Cy Walter (1915-1968 )
The Blue Room (arr. 1941)
I Have Dreamed (The King and I, 1951; arr. 1955)
Isn’t It Romantic? (Love Me Tonight, 1932; arr. 1942)
Lover (Love Me Tonight; arr. 1948)
EVENT:Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks
Monday Evenings
Club Cache at the Hotel Edison
221 West 46th St.
 Starting May 5th, VINCE GIORDANO AND HIS HIGHTHAWKS ORCHESTRA will be appearing on Broadway, for three sets every Monday eve from 8:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M., at Sofia's Restaurant, Club Cache (Downstairs) at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street (between Broadway and Eighth Avenue); reservations call 212-719-5799. Dining and Dancing To Music of the 1920s and 1930s, superbly performed by a maestro of the genre and his superlative eleven-piece orchestra. In 30 years as a bandleader, Vince Giordano has become the authority on recreating the sounds of 1920s and '30s jazz and popular music. "I just love the energy of the early jazz," says Giordano. "I wanted to recapture some of that." Early Girodano appearances included working with Leon Redbone and on The Prairie Home Companion; as well as Vince's lending his talents to Francis Ford Coppola's film, The Cotton Club. These led Vince to working with Dick Hyman's Orchestra in half a dozen Woody Allen soundtracks, then as a bass player in Sean Penn's band in Woody's Sweet and Lowdown. Vince and band were featured in Gus Van Sant's film, Finding Forrester; in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator; in Robert DeNiro's film, The Good Shepherd; and, most recently, in Sam Mendes' upcoming film: Revolutionary Road. Also a big-band historian and collector, Giordano has more than 30,000 scores in his collection. Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks are renowned on the New York scene for their commitment to preserving and authentically presenting 1920s jazz and popular music.
Visit Vince Giordano and His Nighthawk Orchestra's MySpace Page!
 Alex Hassan, a tremendously-talented Northern Virginia pianist whose forte includes novelty piano of the 20s and 30s, had a central role in the creation and release of the Shellwood "Cy Walter: The Park Avenue Tatum" CD. At the time of the CD's release, Alex shared his thoughts on Cy's artistry and on the CD with others in an e-mail forwarded to the "78-L" internet forum
Read his letter here
VISIT THE EVENT ARCHIVE
 
A WORD FROM PETER MINTUN
ABOUT CY WALTER'S WEB SITE
Dear Mark,
 Even though I am thoroughly biased, the [Cy Walter] web site is the most
detailed and spectacular biographical site I have ever seen. I
devoured each available page and it was as if I had the exclusive
privilege of going through the personal affects of this great
musician. It is apparent you have devoted nearly every waking moment
to the preservation of your father's music. I hope others will
appreciate it as much as I. Perhaps the Minnesota Historical Society
should be linked to this site. ... [T]hanks for the preview. This is monumental!
Sincerely,
Peter Mintun
New York, New York
30 March 2006
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