Lyricist Alan Bergman and pianist Michael Feinstein will share an Ira Gershwin “Summertime” moment when they perform together in San Francisco next week.
As a kid, Bergman saw the original 1935 Broadway production of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” which included the classic “Summertime.”
One of the writers credited on that piece is Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), who, in 1977, hired a young Feinstein to catalog his record collection — an assignment that ended up lasting six years and helping assure George and Ira’s legacy. Ten years later, Feinstein recorded his first CD, “Pure Gershwin.”
Now, on the eve of summertime in San Francisco, Bergman, 90, and Feinstein, 59, are set to perform together at Michael Feinstein’s cabaret club in the city — Feinstein’s at the Nikko. Feinstein, ambassador of the “Great American Songbook,” will play songs from the Bergman collection from May 18 to 22, with Bergman joining him onstage on the final three nights.
Like Feinstein, Bergman is an adept crooner, and expected to make their set list will be some of the classics for which Bergman wrote or co-wrote lyrics, including “Nice ’n’ Easy” (made famous by Frank Sinatra), “Piece of the Sky” (Barbra Streisand) and “The Way We Were” (1974 Academy Award for best song).
Fans of great songwriting will be glad to know that Bergman, who has been co-writing with his wife, Marilyn, for 60 years, is still alive and kicking. He prefers to think of it as “alive and writing,” because the duo is still at it.
Both natives of Brooklyn, New York, the Bergmans have lived in Los Angeles for many years. The couple passed on churning out pop tunes like fellow Jewish songwriters Carole King, Neil Diamond and Neil Sedaka. Instead, they chose to write mostly for the movies, a wise decision considering the three Oscars lining their mantle.
“We were not interested in writing hit records,” Bergman said. “We were interested in writing in a dramatic context. In those days, songs in the movies were used entirely differently than they are today. We loved that challenge, so we pursued it.”
Among their best-known works were the Oscar-winning “The Windmills of Your Mind” (from “The Thomas Crown Affair”) and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” (both co-written with composer Michel Legrand), “In the Heat of the Night” and the songs from “Yentl,” the hit 1983 screen musical directed by Streisand, which won the couple their third Oscar, this time for best score.
Bergman urges “Yentl” fans to check out the DVD, which includes rare footage of Streisand and the Bergmans rehearsing songs in the couple’s living room. Streisand is a big fan of the Bergmans, having recorded 64 of their songs over her career.
Working on that project gave the Bergmans a chance to explore their roots. Like the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and so many other greats from the Golden Age of American song, Alan and Marilyn Bergman are New York Jews.
Bergman said that he, like George Gershwin (1898-1937) before him, was influenced by the melodies heard in the synagogue. He also said that both he and his future wife were part of another great New York Jewish tradition.
“Growing up in Brooklyn, when you were Jewish and got to age 6, you took piano lessons,” he recalled. “It was automatic. Both of us had parents who were very interested in the artistic bent of life, in theater and classical music.”
Alan and Marilyn attended performing arts high schools and prestigious colleges, she at NYU, he at the University of North Carolina. As a foretaste of their 60-year partnership, on the day they met in 1956, the two sat down and wrote a song.
“It was not a very good song, but we really enjoyed the process,” Bergman recalled. “We’ve been writing together ever since. There could be silences where we listen to a melody over and over, and more often than not we come up with the same idea. We always feel there are words in those notes and we have to find them.”
He described their work style as “pitching and catching.”
In addition to their movie work, the couple has written notable TV themes, including “Maude” and “Good Times.” They have won four Emmys and are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“People ask us how we do it,” Bergman said of the decades-long professional and personal partnership with his wife. “I have an answer that we put into a song we wrote. It’s called ‘One Washes, One Dries.’ ”
Michael Feinstein celebrates lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman. May 18-22. Alan Bergman to sing May 20-22. At Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St., S.F. $80-$95, plus food and beverage minimum. www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins