Johnny Hartman, the iconic, baritone-voiced jazz singer, is joining the Acoustic Sounds Vinyl Series this summer. His classic 1964 album The Voice That Is! will officially hit shelves on August 28 and is available for preorder now.
Recorded in September of 1964 and released later that same year, The Voice That Is! followed Hartman’s iconic 1963 album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, which saw the vocalist team up with the legendary jazz saxophonist. The Voice That Is! pivots, presenting Hartman’s voice with mostly just a rhythm section. The album features Hank Jones on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums, along with accents of English horn, flute, marimba, and Latin percussion.
The Voice That Is! sees Hartman cover several classics and standards. Highlights include “Sunrise, Sunset,” composed by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick for the musical Fiddler On The Roof, Ira Girshwin and Kurt Weill’s “My Ship” from the musical Lady In The Dark, and “It Never Entered My Mind,” written by the duo Rogers and Hart for their musical Higher and Higher. The album was produced by Bob Thiele, the famed jazz producer who frequently worked with musicians like Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Sonny Rollins, Leon Thomas, Buddy Holly, and many more.
Thiele was very open about the brilliance of Hartman, specifically as it related to his collaborations with Coltrane. Speaking about John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman years later, Thiele said, “Aside from the generous friendly gesture, Coltrane considered Hartman’s rich baritone and musicianly phrasing of lyrics to be the closest approximation of his saxophone sound.” Said Coltrane about Hartman, “I just felt something about him, I don’t know what it was. I liked his sound, I thought there was something there I had to hear.”
Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Vinyl Series highlights classic jazz albums and presents them anew with pristine vinyl. Upcoming releases in the series include John Coltrane’s Live at Birdland and Ella Fitzgerald’s Like Someone in Love.
