[3] Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction.

"[5] Fields was revitalized by working with the much younger Coleman, and by the contemporary nature of their first project, which was Sweet Charity, again with a book by Simon, starring Gwen Verdon, and introducing the songs "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "I'm a Brass Band", "Big Spender" and "The Rhythm of Life".

The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Seesaw which reached Broadway in 1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour.

[1] Also in 1970, he produced the single "Lying Here" (Mercury 73150)[6] for the Rock opera Sensations, and took a full-page (back cover) advert in Billboard magazine to promote his upcoming star vocalist Steve Leeds.

[1] In the latter, inspired by the hard-boiled detective film noir of the 1930s and 1940s, he returned to his jazz roots, and the show was a huge critical and commercial success.

The 1990s brought more new Coleman musicals to Broadway: The Will Rogers Follies (1991), again with Comden and Green, The Life (1997), a gritty look at pimps, prostitutes, and assorted other lowlife in the big city, with Ira Gasman, and a revised production of Little Me.

Coleman's film scores include Father Goose, The Art of Love, Garbo Talks, Power, and Family Business.

[9] One final musical with a Coleman score played in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum between December 2003 and January 2004, under the title Like Jazz, as a Broadway tryout.