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IVH: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman [1]
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Date: 2025-07-24
Tonight’s selections from 1963’s self titled collaboration between John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman; the only album Coltrane ever recorded with a singer.
They Say It’s Wonderful
Jazz legend John Coltrane made only one record with a vocalist — Johnny Hartman, a crooner who hadn’t yet found success when the album was released in 1963. Why would Coltrane choose Hartman, a crooner, over a jazz singer? This is the question Professor of English Michael Coyle addressed in an essay that will be published in Cambridge University Press’ forthcoming Companion to Jazz and Modernism. [...]
“Lots of people who don’t like John Coltrane because he’s not melodic enough love this record, because it’s just beautiful,” says Coyle.
Altogether, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman was unlike any record that Coltrane had made. So why did he make a crooning record anyway?
“There were a lot of reasons,” says Coyle. “Coltrane’s music was so radical at that point that white jazz critics were attacking him as being anti-jazz. So he was under pressure from his manager to make a traditional-sounding record.”
The choice of whom to feature on vocals was then entirely Coltrane’s. It came as a surprise that Hartman, a crooner who was unknown on the mainstream scene, was chosen. Coyle and audiences agree with the choice.
“It’s gentle and it’s lyrical. You think, ‘How does anybody sing that way?’ It’s just perfect.” — Colgate.edu
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