The Sweet Dreams of Cecilia Coleman

Cecilia Coleman has dreams.

She imagines being signed to a major label, like Blue Note or Warner Bros. Or she sees herself at her piano on a European bandstand--maybe it’s the one at the Bilbequot in Paris, or in the Jardins des Arenes de Cimiez at the Grande Parade du Jazz Nice--and an enthusiastic crowd is listening keenly as her quintet delivers one deeply lyrical original song after another. She feels ripples of excitement as the audience cheers at the conclusion of the set.

“I’d love to go to Europe, or New York,” she says in a soft voice that doesn’t hide her longing. “If you’re playing in New York, you’ve made it.”

But these days, Coleman plays mostly right here at home. And she finances her own recordings, supplying the money for both 1992’s “Words of Wisdom” and her just-released CD, “Young and Foolish,” which spotlights her year-old quintet. She acknowledges the reality of this situation.

“First things first,” says Coleman. “I know a record with (a company) like Blue Note is a little ways down the road. I can pretend all I want, but the bottom line is I’m paying to put the record out again.”

Coleman, 31, a devoted artist who for years has worked exclusively in the jazz field, has been on the L.A. scene for about a decade. After studies with pianist Eloise Ferguson, vibist Charlie Shoemake and at California State University, Long Beach, she began a partnership with saxophonist Benn Clatworthy that led to her winning the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s New Talent Award in 1990.

As a result of the award, named for the late drummer Shelly Manne, Coleman began to lead an excellent trio with bassist Eric Von Essen and drummer Kendall Kay. She also was heard with, among others, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, saxophonist Dan St. Marseilles and flutist Holly Hoffman. Then, last year, she expanded her horizons and formed a quintet.

“I started to write pieces that had a more modern sound,” says Coleman. “It was kind of a New York sound, like Art Blakey or saxophonist Bobby Watson: aggressive, rhythmically more intense, harmonically more experimental. To have the sounds accurately represented, I needed a larger group. I couldn’t get those sounds out of a trio.”

Coleman is an unpretentious, sometimes shy woman, who surprises people by writing and performing powerful, challenging works. “She’s so low-key that you’re shocked when you hear this incredible fountain of musicality pour forth,” says singer Ruth Price, who is musical director of the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, where the pianist has appeared.

“I think Cecilia’s the most stunning young talent that has come along the pike in a long time,” Price adds. “She’s all for the music. There doesn’t seem to be anything that has to do with personal aggrandizement.”

Coleman’s quintet--Steve Huffsteter, trumpet; Andy Suzuki, tenor sax; Dean Taba, bass; Kay, drums--works regularly. She’s been playing about twice a month at such clubs as Jax in Glendale, the Atlas Bar & Grill in mid-Wilshire, where she performs tonight, and the Jazz Bakery. (She also plays a free noon hour concert at downtown L.A.’s Citicorp Plaza Wednesday.) And while she’s not drawing huge crowds, more and more fans are starting to pay attention to her forceful, communicative music.

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On a recent Thursday night at Jax, Coleman bent over the piano, her body swaying back and forth easily. She seemed completely absorbed as Huffsteter or Suzuki soloed, or as she delivered her own spirited improvisations. A group of about 10 patrons seated near the bandstand responded with the same degree of concentration as the leader, while others, such as a couple at the bar, simply chatted. Coleman was pleased that even a handful were listening.

“Finally, people are coming to sit and hear the group,” Coleman says. “It’s kind of a thrill to realize that people are seeing my name” and want to hear what the music is.

Coleman wonders if some of the people who come to listen to her come out of curiosity, wanting to see what a woman is doing playing jazz. The pianist gets testy at the thought.

“What I want to know is what makes playing a musical instrument a masculine or feminine thing? To me, a woman being a plumber, I’d think, ‘Wow!,’ because that’s strenuous work. But why is it so bizarre to see a woman playing music? People ask me what’s it like to be a woman playing jazz and I tell them it’s probably pretty much the same as a man playing it.”

There are plenty of die-hard Coleman fans, even if they don’t show up continually at her performances. One is Benny Green, the acclaimed pianist who has known Coleman for several years.

“Cecilia plays with deep emotion, a fine sense of rhythm and clarity of thought,” he says. “She’s very dedicated to music and the love and sincerity that she puts into her craft makes her piano playing a joy to hear.”

More people will discover Coleman next month when she travels to Colorado--where she’ll appear at festivals in Telluride and Trimble Hot Springs--Utah and New Mexico, playing club dates in the latter two.

To increase her exposure, Coleman will make the trip armed with her new CD. She’s optimistic that the album will quickly pay for itself with sales beginning at these festivals. “A new CD is a business card for me,” she says.

Born in Long Beach, Coleman began classical piano studies at age 5. Ten years later, she discovered jazz, via the album “Satch and Josh,” with pianists Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. Then, at age 16, Coleman encountered her first important teacher: Eloise Ferguson, who introduced her to such greats as Red Garland and Wynton Kelly. “I didn’t realize at the time how hip she was,” says Coleman.

By the time she was in her late teens, Coleman was swept away by jazz. She says now that it wasn’t so much a fascination with the sound of the music, but the camaraderie with the other players, in which she found a sense of home and warmth that she felt was missing from the classical world.

“I like the feeling of being involved in a group, the interacting with the other musicians--how I fit in--and with the audience as well,” she says. “I see now that I was always looking for that.”

Coleman’s modern pianistic approach was further enhanced about 10 years ago when she undertook improvisation studies with Shoemake, whom she calls “a great teacher.”

“He gave me a broader view of the players and their styles,” she says. Then came her days with Clatworthy--she’s on his “Thanks, Horace” Discovery album--her trio, and now her quintet.

Coleman finds continued inspiration in the challenge of playing, and writing, jazz. “I listen to all the great players that have come before me and I guess what I keep trying to do is get to that level, or the highest level I can,” she says. “I didn’t realize that I could be as intense about anything as I have become about jazz. It’s been a long process and I must really love it or else I wouldn’t be doing it.”