A velvet smooth jazz vocalist who delivered ballads with purring, elegant warmth, Johnny Hartman is best remembered for his performances with John Coltrane's classic quartet in the early 1960s, but years after his death he also had a resurgence in popularity when his music was used in the hit movie 'Bridges of Madison County'.

Growing up in Chicago, Hartman took up the piano at the age of eight, received a scholarship to study music at college and sang while serving in the army during the Second World War, getting his big break in 1946 when he won a talent competition and landed a regular spot with pianist Earl Hines. He went on to make his first recordings for Marl Young's Sunbeam record label and toured with Dizzy Gillespie's big band for a year, before making his name as a solo star in the mid-1950s with albums 'Songs from the Heart' and 'All of Me: The Debonair Mr Hartman'.

He didn't really fit in with the jumping bebop style of the time, but he was recruited by jazz legend John Coltrane in 1963 and his sensual, romantic delivery complemented Coltrane's woozy, slowed-down sax melodies perfectly, and their album 'John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman' was later inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame. He was the only vocalist to ever work with Coltrane, but the racial prejudices of the era prevented Hartman crossing over and becoming a mainstream pop crooner, although he did continue to tour with orchestras and release popular solo records including 'I Just Stopped By to Say Hello' and 'The Voice That Is'.

As fashions changed, Hartman's rich baritone tones never faltered and he remained popular in Japan and Australia and played cocktail lounges in New York and Chicago throughout the 1970s with his penultimate album 'Once in Every Life' nominated for a Grammy in 1980. He died in 1983 aged 60 after suffering with lung cancer, but became more celebrated by jazz critics after his death and was introduced to a wider audience when Clint Eastwood used several of his songs in the romantic dramas 'The Bridges of Madison County' in 1995 and its sequel 'Remembering Madison County' in 1996.

Johnny Hartman

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