Johnny Hartman with John Coltrane

They don't get much better than that.

Yes the classic of classic where the rich coffee Hartman met up with Tranes "Classic Quartet" who played more beatiffully and "in the pocket"(something which some crtics thought Coltarne could not do) than even their legendary "Ballds" LP.A defineite classic!
If you want more Hartman his second best is also a Impulse gig called "I just Dropped By To Say Hello" with Illinois Jacquet on Sax and Kenny Burell on Guitar.Net in the Impulse catalogue almost in that top tier "Unforgettable" while "The Voicve That is" another Impulse! IS good but not great.
His early Savoy work is like pre-Capitol Sinatra just not mature enough .Next to his to great two Impluse! Lp's is the 1980 LP on Bee Hive Called "Once in Every Life" but hard to find used as LP on ebay yet fotunately Clint Eastwood used it in his soundtrack for "Bridges Of Madison County" which has a few of the Bee Hive cut's and the rest on "Rembering Madison County"(making Hartman much more known in death than life since eveybody who went to the film asked smarmy opinonated record clercks like me which was his best and of course the Coltrane gig came up A+)

Hartman also had some other fine efforts like "And I thought about you (orginally Roost but put out by Blue Note/Capitol) and a Japanese band led by Terumasa Hino called "For Trane" and another fine outting on Audiophile called "This One's For Teddy".With his good looks and sexy voice he could have been a star but his career was started in the 50's and eneded through lung cancer in 1980.with his overt sensuality well remember how hemmed inthings were for Poitier and Belafonte in their early careers and you see if he came along a little latter Johnny Hartman might have much more recorded than he was.
For a list of his complete discography and a list of other barritones from the lighter (and wonderfull )Bill henderson to pioneer Billy Eckstine and full deep baritones like Joe Williams and Earl Coleman just get a copy mof the jazz lovers bible "The All Music Guide To Jazz" or see thier web site www.amg.com.
Yeah Johnny Hartman.Durring 6 years of running a jazz section at a equipment/CD shop I could get into disagreements about Billie versus Ella,if Mel Torme is/was the male Ella,or if Chet Baker was a great singer though be it with a narrow range NOBODY in the know who wasn't a comlete pinhead said anything other than Hartman was one of the under reccongnized greats.
Chazz

Chazzbo, you be the man. Got your aside e mail. That's some collection you got there. This is just what I was looking for. I love all these singers, but now I have some specifics. Cool...warren :)

I always heard great music growing up with my dad, a jazz musician, and this was always one of his favorites and I think my all-time favorite. "Blue Train" is an essential Coltrane album as well as many others. Hartman's catalog is kind of inconsistent and I don't think this recording w/Coltrane was ever matched. Hartman recorded another Impulse album about the same time with Hank Jones, Illinois Jaquet, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, Milt Hinton, and Elvin Jones that's pretty good-"I Just Dropped By to Say Hello"-I think it's still available (I have the LP and the CD). Clint Eastwood is a fan of Hartman's and I know he included some of his tunes in movies such as "The Bridges of Madison County". Also check out Joe Williams.

Just a side note, the SACD version has both the mono and stereo recordings. Your right, it just doesn't get better than this.