Masterly and underestimated. Palace about Johnny Hartman.
Hartman already was dead and gone when Clint Eastwood’s voice could be heard on the soundtrack of ‘The Bridges of Madison County’, and the world discovered how great a singer Johnny Hartman had been.
Forty years earlier, hardly anyone had been interested in a black singer who, influenced by Sinatra and Billy Eckstine, did not choose to sing the blues, but chose to sing romantic ballads, dressed in a neat suit.
Hartman had hardly made any records, and even less after he made a brilliant album with John Coltrane in 1963 – with this his fate was sealed: from then on, he was seen as a jazz singer, and consequently, he hardly got a chance to perform in ‘pop-clubs’ any more.
It characterized Hartman, that he stayed true to the original melody, and, just like Billie Holiday, could turn an average song into something exquisite – let alone what he could do with good material. Like with the difficult ‘Lush Life’, of which he recorded the definitive version, according to its composer, Billy Strayhorn.
One full hour of Johnny Hartman (1923-1983).
