Thanks for bringing attention to one of my favorite singers. I enjoyed Gregg Ackerrmann’s biography too. I’m especially partial to several songs from what you’d call his later period. For example, he sings “Nobody Home” on YouTube. It’s a song in the “Cottage for Sale” vein. Emotionally powerful!
Johnny has long been one of my very favorite singers since I first heard him as a college student in the early '60s. I was lucky to study engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and got to hear Johnny, Mark Murphy, Jack Sheldon, Frank D'Rone, Bill Henderson, and Coleman Hawkins in an intimate club during those years. This was before the session with Trane.
Many years later, I was doing a lot of live recording for NPR in Chicago, and got to mix their first several live New Years' Eve broadcasts. The second or third of them featured Clark Terry's small band and Johnny working with Billy Taylor's trio. It was at Rick's Cafe Americain; the earlier live shots were at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase.
Yes, I'd love to hear more about Johnny Hartman. And I think both Henderson and Murphy would be great subjects. Two observations. Sometime in the '90s or early '00s, in Chicago, I drove Mark to a session somewhere to a set to hear someone after his gig. In the car, he was thinking about his age, he was about to turn 65, and was feeling inadequate about his legacy. My response to him was that I'd been listening for a very long time, and that I couldn't think of a single recording that he should feel badly about. Without mentioning it, I was thinking about some really dog commercial things that guys like Bud Shank were pushed into doing. There are 25 of Mark's CDs in my collection.
A second observation. In the late '00s, I mixed a set with Bill Henderson at the San Jose Jazz Fest. I also attended the rehearsal the night before, in a hotel meeting room, where he ran through all the tunes. In those two hours, he was in great voice throughout, and my non-musician's but serious listener's ears never heard a single clam. I recorded the performance. His daughter has the master.
A few years ago, I came across a reference to the Akkermann bio, and chased it down (on ebay, I think, my primary source for vintage books and CDs). I enjoyed it, but I was a bit put off by Akkermann's extensive analysis of business aspects of why Johnny didn't achieve greater success with the public.
I'd love to see references to where we can chase down those early rare recordings. Thanks very much for sharing them.
I would love more Hartman "deep cuts" editions!
Thanks for bringing attention to one of my favorite singers. I enjoyed Gregg Ackerrmann’s biography too. I’m especially partial to several songs from what you’d call his later period. For example, he sings “Nobody Home” on YouTube. It’s a song in the “Cottage for Sale” vein. Emotionally powerful!
Johnny has long been one of my very favorite singers since I first heard him as a college student in the early '60s. I was lucky to study engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and got to hear Johnny, Mark Murphy, Jack Sheldon, Frank D'Rone, Bill Henderson, and Coleman Hawkins in an intimate club during those years. This was before the session with Trane.
Many years later, I was doing a lot of live recording for NPR in Chicago, and got to mix their first several live New Years' Eve broadcasts. The second or third of them featured Clark Terry's small band and Johnny working with Billy Taylor's trio. It was at Rick's Cafe Americain; the earlier live shots were at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase.
Yes, I'd love to hear more about Johnny Hartman. And I think both Henderson and Murphy would be great subjects. Two observations. Sometime in the '90s or early '00s, in Chicago, I drove Mark to a session somewhere to a set to hear someone after his gig. In the car, he was thinking about his age, he was about to turn 65, and was feeling inadequate about his legacy. My response to him was that I'd been listening for a very long time, and that I couldn't think of a single recording that he should feel badly about. Without mentioning it, I was thinking about some really dog commercial things that guys like Bud Shank were pushed into doing. There are 25 of Mark's CDs in my collection.
A second observation. In the late '00s, I mixed a set with Bill Henderson at the San Jose Jazz Fest. I also attended the rehearsal the night before, in a hotel meeting room, where he ran through all the tunes. In those two hours, he was in great voice throughout, and my non-musician's but serious listener's ears never heard a single clam. I recorded the performance. His daughter has the master.
A few years ago, I came across a reference to the Akkermann bio, and chased it down (on ebay, I think, my primary source for vintage books and CDs). I enjoyed it, but I was a bit put off by Akkermann's extensive analysis of business aspects of why Johnny didn't achieve greater success with the public.
I'd love to see references to where we can chase down those early rare recordings. Thanks very much for sharing them.