Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling brought his tribute to John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman to Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. The show was inspired by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, a landmark recording by the legendary saxophonist and the most sensuous baritone in jazz, Johnny Hartman. Coltrane's sax and Hartman's lush vocals blended like honey in black tea. The entire album was completed in one session, seven tracks in one take each, except "You Are Too Beautiful" (Rodgers and Hart), which demanded another take because a drumstick was dropped.

Elling, while not matching the tones of Hartman, still imbued the warmth and mellowness of that one collaboration of the two jazzmen. Elling and featured saxophonist Ernie Watts, with the Lawrence Hobgood Trio and a quirky string quartet named ETHEL, expressed their homage to the famed recording that has influenced jazz and pop through the years. Elling's "You Are Too Beautiful" with accompaniment by Watts on sax was a smooth standout.

Elling has an expansive range, secure pitch, unusual phrasing, and an individualistic repertoire of melodic avenues to take. His vocalese, scatting, and swooping occasionally took exuberant leaps and drops, but he limited the extravagances. The songs he delivered from the recording, including the title tune, "Dedicated to You" (Cahn/Chaplin/Zaret) were his own renderings with links to the original. He brought the tempo up on Irving Berlin's “They Say It’s Wonderful,” wandering from the rich romanticism of the Hartman tone. With Watts' sax introduction of "What's New," Elling evoked the drama of "Lush Life" (Billy Strayhorn) although his interpretations are still salutes to Hartman in melody and understanding.

Johnny Hartman was a communicator who said, "There's nothing else to do with a great song but sing it." For that moment in recording history in 1963, Hartman and the virtuosity of Coltrane were in perfect tune with the song. Kurt Elling acknowledged this with his own inventiveness and the musicianship of the fiery Ernie Watts, ETHEL, and the Lawrence Hobgood Trio adding an instrumental effervescence to the evening.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
January 21, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org