Outward bound and exploratory as Coltrane's 1960s recordings could be, his producer at Impulse, Bob Thiele, tried to ensure the saxophonist didn't neglect fans of his more melodic side. Exhibit A is this 1963 meeting with a fine singer remembered mostly for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (though his other Impulses are also worth your time, starting with The Voice That Is). With all due respect to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, this is the great jazz-for-lovers album, a set of timeless, mostly not-too-familiar ballads, the main exception being Billy Strayhorn's world-weary "Lush Life," given a definitive reading. Hartman was a bedroom baritone out of 1940s crooner Billy Eckstine, but with a lighter touch, timbre and vibrato. He listens to every word he sings, makes you feel what the songs' (often woeful) protagonists feel. The combination with Coltrane's pleading tenor gives you goosebumps; they set each other up extraordinarily well. On "Dedicated to You," Hartman sells us on his devotion with one quick chorus, then lets the saxophonist preach on the text. Devotion is a topic Coltrane knows something about, and his even, muscular tone across the range of his horn makes him that much more attentive a lover… read more »