The Johnny Hartman Collection 1947-1972

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Johnny Hartman (vocals); Rudy Traylor (conductor); Jimmy Carroll (alto saxophone); Budd Johnson, John Coltrane, Illinois Jacquet (tenor saxophone); Bernie Glow, Terumasa Hino (trumpet); Tyree Glenn (trombone, vibraphone); Bobby Tucker, Erroll Garner, Ralph Sharon, McCoy Tyner, Hank Jones, Mikio Masuda (piano); Carmen Mastren, Kenny Burrell (guitar); Ray Brown, Leonard Gaskin, Jimmy Garrison, Milt Hinton, Richard Davis, Yoshio Ikeda (bass); Cozy Cole, Elvin Jones, Osie Johnson, Motohiko Hino (drums); Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra, Jimmy Carroll's Orchestra, Norman Leydon Orchestra & Choir, Perez Prado Orchestra, Howard Biggs Orchestra & Choir, Ernie Wilkins Orchestra, Frank Hunter Orchestra.

Compilation producers: Will Friedwald, Andy McKaie.

Recorded between 1947 and 1972. Includes liner notes by Will Friedwald.

Digitally remastered by Erik Labson (MCA Music Media Studios, North Hollywood, California).

This is the first career-length retrospective of Johnny Hartman, the late, exquisite jazz baritone who has enjoyed a posthumous resurgence since director Clint Eastwood featured his recordings in Bridges of Madison County. Here we finally have a chance to hear some of Hartman's earliest recordings, some with Dizzy Gillespie, Perez Prado and Erroll Garner. Hartman had a reputation as a Billy Eckstine imitator early in his career, but a close listen to 1947 tracks like "Why Was I Born?" and "Close Your Eyes" reveals an altogether different approach--much softer in timbre, somewhat like a black Perry Como(!)

Hartman seems to have sung best with small jazz combos, as on "I See Your Face Before Me" from the excellent 1956 SONGS FROM THE HEART, with trumpeter Howard McGhee, and of course, the classic 1963 collaboration JOHN COLTRANE & JOHNNY HARTMAN. Only "My One And Only Love" and a definitive "Lush Life" are included from that magical session. But tasty versions of "In The Wee Small Hours," "Stairway To The Stars" and other numbers culled from the superior Impulse albums Hartman recorded soon after the Coltrane sessions compensate nicely for any omission.