Johnny Hartman
Unforgettable (Impulse! 152)

Unforgettable reissues some 1966 material recorded by Johnny Hartman for ABC/Paramount Records, highlighting Hartman's pop side by putting him in front of a "little" big band and having him cut straightforward standards. The arrangements are all breezy and warm, and Johnny's great understated baritone is in full effect.

It's a totally solid record with the exception of the idiotic "Girl Talk," which is about as genuinely an offensive song as I've ever heard, doping away on "charming" observations on gender differences. Unforgettable, true, but in an Andrew Dice Clay sort of way. Even Johnny's Sinatra-like smoothness can't save this one.

If there's a downside to Johnny Hartman in general, it's that smoothness, which limits the amount of real emotion he projects … check out John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman to hear Hartman at his best.

On this album, Hartman puts every cut across with a ton of finesse and undeniable class, but it does lose its power somewhat over the long haul. The songs are well-paced and well played (some of the musicians: Shelly Manne, Curtis Amy, Mike Melvoin, Harold Land, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Stan Levey – hardly a bunch of no-names) but in many cases, the songs are a bit too tried-and-true, and few are really definitive ("Almost Like Being in Love" is, and maybe "The More I See You").

Still, it's hard to beat Hartman as a master of style, and like Billy Eckstine, it's tough to reconcile his comparative lack of renown against lesser voices like Sinatra and Tony Bennett. It's almost as though people tend to be prejudiced against black folk!

Even though Johnny's voice is a thing of subtle majesty, there's just as much pleasure to be found throughout the album in the arrangements (Gerald Wilson's), which are tonally colorful and suit Hartman's approach very well. The horns in places recall Gil Evans, in others, Oliver Nelson, but Wilson's taste rules here.

My problem with Unforgettable is that the tunes tend to be sort of samey after awhile, and with no huge emotional connection all you're left with is that sort of "swinging" finger-popping swankiness that so many idiots today idolize.

If you're going to listen to that sort of thing, and this is not to say there's anything wrong with swinging finger-popping swankiness in and of itself, you'd be doing yourself a favor listening to Johnny Hartman rather than any of those Rat Packers … hugely overrated idiots, if you ask me.

Highlights: the title track (might be preferable to Nat King Cole's), "Bidin' My Time," "The Very Thought of You." Not-so-highlights: "Ain't Misbehavin'" (just not a good song; why does everyone record it?), "For the Want of a Kiss," "Girl Talk."

A good record, and attractively packaged in true Impulse! fashion, but not essential. "Sometimes you just have to wipe off the smoky late-night shimmer and go from the gut," as mom always says.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Anne Chumbawumba