The Last Balladeer, The Johnny Hartman Story

[Pete C]

You know, on Wikipedia one can submit one's own bio-and embroider as desired. Just sayin'.

It'll be flagged eventually if it's undocumented or suspicious. You seem to be implying a level of mendacity that I don't see any warrant for.

[fasstrack]

Nah, I didn't mean anybody lied here, just a general caveat. Wikipedia isn't taken too seriously by real researchers. It doesn't seem to have much of a vetting process for what gets put up. They cover themselves w/statements like 'this article, etc. needs verification'. A real encyclopedia would get laughed out of the biz for that. So Caveat Emptor, that's all. It's OK in a pinch but I'd dig deeper for the facts.

[Pete C]

Wikipedia shouldn't be a source for any serious researcher, but neither should any encyclopedia. The nature of the beast is capsule entries culled from other sources. But show me the Oren Bloedow entry in Britannica. I consider Wikipedia a good source for quick info; yes, there are issues, but not the same challenge of verifying the veracity of miscellaneous websites that may or may not have the basic information in an easily discoverable format.

They cover themselves w/statements like 'this article, etc. needs verification'. A real encyclopedia would get laughed out of the biz for that.

A "real" encyclopedia would have a fixed editorial board and contracted writers, so that issue would never arise. In the case of Wikipedia it's a signal that a particular entry should be handled with care, but there's still a lot of useful baby in the bath.

[fasstrack]

Maybe we should call his mother

[CraigP]

"I must say, in the '40s he was almost as unbearable as Kenny "Pancho" Hagood"

Wow, hadn't run across that name in a long time. I think I have either a Charlie Parker or Don Byas album with him on a couple of tracks; one was "All The Things You Are" IIRC.

Edit: I just read his Wikipedia entry, so maybe it was Monk.

Edited August 27, 2012 by CraigP

[fasstrack]

They left my smiley out of that last one. Bastards! Lets see if it works now. Let's call Bledsoe's mother..

[Pete C]

Hagood sang I Should Care with Monk and was the Birth of the Cool vocalist. Apparently he had a local career in Detroit for many years after that. I remember some critic described his vocals as "mawkish."

Let's call Bledsoe's mother...

You mean the Booker T. Washingtonish character from Ellison's Invisible Man?

[CraigP]

Hagood sang I Should Care with Monk and was the Birth of the Cool vocalist. Apparently he had a local career in Detroit for many years after that. I remember some critic described his vocals as "mawkish."

That's right! It was I Should Care. It cracks me up to hear it.

[fasstrack]

I get mixed up w/those Ellison names. I remember Reinhart, though. And Tempest Bledsoe. If anyone passes through upper Manhattan there's an Invisible Man iron sculpture at 150th &RSD, east side of the street-where Ellison lived. It looks like a guy running w/empty space on all sides.

[JSngry]

I kinda get the...reluctance about Hagood, but only up to a historically disinterested/uninformed point. All those immediate post-Eckstine guys in all those bop circles, plenty of dots to connect up, and after that a picture of a thing emerges, of which Hagood was really no worse or no better than most part.

[.:.impossible]

I've always loved his "I Should Care".

[JSngry]

It took me a while to really "get" Eckstine (if I really have), but that's the point of reference for most all of those early male "bebop" ballad-vocalists, it all stems from there. They didn't (usually) have the voice, but the phrasing and elasticity of syllables, and shaping of vowels, yeah, that's coming from Mr. B.

Check out Kenny Dorham's vocal album, for that matter.

[.:.impossible]

I didn't know there was one. I will!

I think I just really like that tune. Those lyrics. Monk.

Other recommendations for "I Should Care"?

[.:.impossible]

I also really like the treatment on Julie Is Her Name.

[.:.impossible]

Sounds like I need to buy the Abbey Lincoln Hank Jones duet album. I imagined she would do this song well.

[fasstrack]

I think it would be a mistake to put Hartman in the drawer w/Mr. B and that 'school'-not that anyone here is. Hagood, yeah, and the way better Arthur Prysock. But Hartman to me was great b/c he was class act enough to shun that nanny-goat, Mr. Acker Bilk wide vibrato. And he had scope and didn't want to be typecast as ballad singer. So he made All of Me, a very swinging recording. I love what he did with A Slow Hot Wind on one of those Impulse dates. A really sensual tempo in-between bossa and rhumba. The guitars brought that one way out. Also Let me Love You. There's no way anyone could call him remotely Eckstineian on these dates. His timbre is so creamy and rich w/o that distracting vibrato. Got to give it up to Clint Eastwood for exposing the American public to someone that great. He would've been proud.

[Lazaro Vega]

The book is now in its second run in hard cover.

Sunday night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. eastern time we'll feature the music of Johnny Hartman and an interview with this author, Gregg Akkerman. So, over the 3 hours we'll hear Hartman from 1947 up to the Bridges of Madison County soundtrack (taken from the Beehive LP) interspersed with 21 "modules" of the interview.

Here's hoping there's some flow to the program, eh? Great story.

Please join our web stream via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html or through the iPhone or Android smart phone app (search Blue Lake Public Radio at your app store). And, of course, here in Michigan on FM 90.3 or 88.9.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Lazaro Vega