Four Classic Albums Plus (Just You, Just Me / All Of Me: The Debonair Mr Hartman / Songs From The Heart / And I Thought About You)

"Just You, Just Me"; "All Of Me: The Debonair Mr. Hartman"; "Songs From The Heart" and "And I Thought About You" plus nine bonus tracks.
In the AVID tradition of releasing albums not only by the big and famous names in jazz but also the not so big and famous names, but none the less great artists and fully worthy of your attention, we welcome to the AVID catalogue an incredible jazz singer by the name of Johnny Hartman. Born in Louisiana in 1923, Hartman was a baritone singer who became known primarily as a jazz ballad singer. Although as you will discover when you listen to our selected albums, he could also swing with the best of them. Following early stints with Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie and Errol Garner, Johnny went solo in 1950 and five years later released his first proper album "Songs From The Heart" which featured Howard McGhee on trumpet and Tony Bennett's piano player, Ralph Sharon at the ivories. Just a quick run through of some of the fine jazz men who played alongside Johnny would have to include the following - Lucky Thompson, Jerome Richardson, Ernie Royal, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, Ernie Wilkins, Frank Rehak and Hank Jones. It's also worth noting when trying to assess the talent of Johnny Hartman that not long after recording the last album in our set he was teaming up with none other than John Coltrane for what would be Trane's only album with a singer. Trane's thoughts were summed up in the following quote, "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". Word had it that Coltrane was keen to record another album with Johnny but sadly that never happened. Perhaps also worth noting for any Andrew Hill fans is our four bonus tracks on CD2 featuring Johnny with the great and much missed pianist in a live setting in St. Louis from 1961.