More Info on Johnny HartmanSimilar Undetermined MusicSearch Artistopia
Biography
Infobox musical artist |name = Johnny Hartman|image = Johnny_Hartman.jpg|caption = Jazz singer Johnny Hartman (right) at the Village Jazz Lounge in Walt Disney World |background = solo_singer|birth_name = John Maurice Hartman|birth_date = birth date|mf=yes|1923|7|3|death_date = death date and age|mf=yes|1983|9|15|1923|7|3|origin = Houma , Louisiana United States |instrument = Vocals, piano|genre = Jazz ,|occupation = Singer |years_active = 1946–1983|label = Bethlehem Records , Impulse Records , ABC Records , Perception Records, Blue Note Records , Savoy Records |associated_acts = John Coltrane , Dizzy Gillespie|Dizzy Gillespie Big Band , Earl Hines |website =|current_members =|past_members =|notable_instruments = John Maurice Hartman (July 3, 1923 – September 15, 1983) http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-hartman-p84859/biography Allmusic was an American bass jazz singer who specialized in ballad s and earned critical acclaim, though he was never widely known. He recorded a well-known collaboration with the saxophonist John Coltrane in 1963 called John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman , and was briefly a member of Dizzy Gillespie 's group and recorded with Erroll Garner. Most of his career was spent recording solo albums.
Biography
Born in Louisiana, but raised in Chicago , Hartman began singing and playing the piano by age eight. Hartman attended DuSable High School studying music under Walter Dyett before receiving a scholarship to Chicago Musical College . http://johnnyhartmanbook.com/hartman_biography :the author of this website was shown Hartman's Louisiana birth certificate by family members He sang as an United States Army|Army private during World War II , but his first professional work came in September 1946 when he won a singing contest awarding him a one-week engagement with Earl Hines . Seeing potential in the singer, Hines hired him for the next year. Although Hartman’s first recordings were with Marl Young in February 1947, it was the collaboration with Hines that provided notable exposure. After the Hines orchestra broke up, Dizzy Gillespie invited Hartman to join his big band in 1948 during an eight-week tour in California. Dropped from the band about one year later, Hartman worked for a short time with pianist Erroll Garner before going solo by early 1950.
After recording several singles with different orchestras, Hartman finally released his first solo album, Songs from the Heart , with a quintet for Bethlehem Records in 1955. Releasing two more albums with small labels, neither very successful, Hartman got a career-altering offer in 1963 to record with John Coltrane. The saxophonist likely remembered Hartman from a bill they shared at the Apollo Theater in 1950 and later said, “I just felt something about him, I don’t know what it was. I like his sound, I thought there was something there I had to hear so I looked him up and did that album.”Kofsky, Frank. Black Nationalism and The Revolution In Jazz. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970. P. 237. Featuring all ballads, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman is widely considered a classic. This led to recording four more albums with Impulse Records|Impulse! and parent label ABC Records|ABC , all produced by Bob Thiele .
With the 1970s being difficult for singers clinging to the pre-rock American songbook , Hartman turned to playing cocktail lounge s in New York City and Chicago. Recording again with small labels like Perception and Musicor , Hartman produced music of mixed quality as he attempted to be viewed as a more versatile vocalist. Referring to his approach to interpreting a song, Hartman said, “Well, to me a lyric is a story, almost like talking, telling somebody a story, try to make it believable.”1978 phone interview by Frank Kofsky in the special collections at UC Santa Cruz Returning to the jazz combo format of his earlier albums, Hartman recorded Once in Every Life for Bee Hive, earning him a 1981 Grammy Awards|Grammy nomination for Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male| Best Male Jazz Vocalist . This was quickly followed up by his last album of newly recorded material titled This One’s for Tedi as a tribute to his wife.
Hartman recorded new tracks for Grenadilla Records on their jazz label - Grapevine. These were dance tracks of Beyond the Sea and Caravan with Caravan also having an extended 6-minute version.
In the early 1980s Hartman gave several performances for jazz festivals, television, and radio before succumbing to lung cancer at age sixty. His reputation grew considerably in 1995 when the soundtrack to Clint Eastwood’s The Bridges of Madison County (film)|Bridges of Madison County (1995) featured seven songs from the then out-of-print Bee Hive album.
Hartman's first-ever biography, The Last Balladeer: The Johnny Hartman Story by Dr. Gregg Akkerman will be released in June 2012 by Scarecrow Press as part of their "Studies in Jazz" series.
Discography
Songs from the Heart (Bethlehem, 1955)
All of Me (Bethlehem, 1956)
Johnny Hartman Sings...Just You, Just Me (Savoy Jazz, 1957)
Persondata | NAME =Hartman, Johnny | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =July 3, 1923 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH =September 15, 1983 | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Hartman, Johnny Category:1923 births Category:1983 deaths Category:American jazz singers Category:American crooners Category:Impulse& #33; Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists
