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You see, my friend went to hear Hartman in the early 80s at a club in Englewood, NJ, where the album was originally recorded. They talked, tried a few things and decided to do it.It was literally on the way to the recording studio when they heard Nat King Cole's rendition of "Lush Life" playing on the car radio that Hartman said they should include it.
There is only one track that required a second take, and that was only because the drummer dropped a stick. He didn't know all of the words, and they had to get them for him that day.
A friend introduced me to this album and the story behind it. Hartman wasn't so sure and went to meet Coltrane in NYC.
This album is pure musical alchemy that happens only when you bring the greats together, and even they become more than the sum of their parts. I fell in love with it within the first few notes.There is a great story that he shared with me.
Hartman himself gave him a copy on vinyl telling him, it was the album of which he was most proud.As another reviewer said, it was Coltrane's idea.
Coltrane, Hartman, tenor sax, bari vocals, Tyner on keys, gorgeously restrained bass and percussion, and all of these beautiful, romantic, and deeply-considered gems. I knew (or thought I knew) it had the word "Love" and had a tenor sax, but as powerful as Google is, it couldn't tell me the answer, nor could it tell me that, "duh, John Coltrane was the most obvious answer, what was I thinking." Tonight, Sonny Rollins' cover of this track started playing from my iTunes library and within seconds it all came flooding back. Just downloaded it and fell back in love.You'd be well advised to do the same. I've been trying to find this album again after first falling in love with "My One And Only Love" about 8 years ago (probably due to a girl). For the life of me, I couldn't locate it anywhere on my computer's hard drive (somehow the only track I had that didn't make it after my last machine crashed), nor could I remember its name nor the artists.
They call this CD good.WHO ARE YOU ALL TRYING TO KID.This is NOT a good CD this is a SUPERCALAFRAGILISTIC CD.It does NOT get any better then this.PERIOD.
Brilliant. This is perfection on a par that can never and will never be matched.The greatest jazz disc in my collection - and that is saying a lot, since there are about 15,000 jazz discs in it. I own this album on vinyl, cassette, CD, and now as a remastered download.and I would buy it 20 more times, and still not feel I paid too much. "My One and Only Love" is the most perfect jazz ballard every recorded - and the rest, with Trane and Johnny bouncing back and forth with such skill and ease, and McCoy Tyner just sprinkling brilliance around the outside.
For example, the Originals version of "You Are Too Beautiful" features _no saxophone at all_; Hartman is accompanied by Tyner, Garrison, and Jones only. But some listeners will miss the familiar sax ornamentation before "They Say It's Wonderful" is even underway. I'm satisfied with the sound of the "Originals" digipak reissue of this classic (the one in a cardboard folder with an orange and black strip on the left side of the cover, with the word "ORIGINALS" on it) but fans of the album should know that this version may be different from the one to which you're accustomed.After the session with Hartman, Coltrane returned to the studio to overdub some extra saxophone on several of these songs. I actually prefer this unadorned version of the album for its plainer, more spacious sound; the well-known version is spoilt by too much reverb. Perhaps more importantly though, this version of the album is NOT the one preferred by Coltrane himself.The commonly-available CD version in a jewel case offers the version Coltrane approved. The songs that received the extra saxophone were "They Say It's Wonderful", "You Are Too Beautiful" and one other (I've forgotten which). As with ASCENSION, two versions of this album were released - one with the overdubs, and one without.The Originals version does _not_ contain these overdubs.
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