Johnny Hartman - I Just Dropped by to Say Hello (1963), CD, Impulse IMPD-176

 

Known most for the album that preceded this one, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, this is Hartman's second of three LPs for Impulse which finds him continuing to use his beautifully deep and rich baritone on a number of familiar ballad standards mixed with a few lesser-known numbers, such as the coy title track and the three tracks that end the disc. Hartman's remarkable vocals are backed by top-flight jazz accompanists who may not be John Coltrane but are still pretty darn great: Hank Jones on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums augmented by guitarists Kenny Burrell on three tracks and Jim Hall on two others. But the real stand-out is tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet, who appears on five tracks, backing Hartman's already sumptuous voice with buttery, decadent accents that give the whole affair a late-night romantic atmosphere. I could quibble with the slightly cheesy choice of leading the set off with the theme from Charade or with the Truman Capote & Harold Arlen standard "A Sleepin' Bee," never a favorite of mine, but it's also hard to complain about anything Hartman sings, especially with such stellar backing. Like Lou Rawls, Hartman's voice gives everything he tackles a touch of class. Despite a career that spanned from the 1940s through the 1970s, Hartman was not a prolific recording artist, his first album not appearing until 1955 and having a 5-year gap before the Coltrane collaboration suddenly made him a hot property. And despite the fact that allmusic.com gives that Coltrane album its highest rating of 5 stars, it picks this one, at 4½ stars, as his career best. But why pick between the two when you can have both?

Originally recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder, this CD was remastered by Erick Labson using 20-bit super mapping for this 1995 reissue. While Labson's work has mixed reviews on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums, I did not give it a super-close listen but, as mentioned above, the Jacquet solos lept out as particularly rich and rewarding. Knowing that Analogue Productions is preparing an all-analog 180g vinyl reissue of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman remastered by the always great Ryan K. Smith due out on December 10 of this year, it would be nice if they would also add this title to their Verve/Impulse reissue series. I could go for that.

Do I Really Need This record?  The best, or perhaps second-best, album by one of the best male ballad singers of the 20th century? No brainer--I had to add this title to my collection, especially for only $6 used.