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Triubte to Johnny Hartman
with Kevin Mahogany
"There was something about
his voice."
- John Coltrane.
Johnny Hartman was the quintessential romantic balladeer. The only
singer to record with John Coltrane, Hartman was mostly known only to
true jazz lovers during his lifetime. It took a movie soundtrack --
released 12 years after his death -- that took Hartman to the top of
the jazz charts.
Actor, producer and director Clint Eastwood chose several of Hartman's
recordings for the dreamy romantic scenes in his film The Bridges of
Madison County and its sequel, Remembering Madison County.
Hartman was a master of emotional expression, putting everything he had
into every word he sang. With any other vocalist, performing a love
song with this kind of intensity could easily come across as being over
the top or gushing, but Hartman's rich, masculine baritone voice never
wavered in its sincerity.
Kevin Mahogany takes Johnny Hartmann to a
wider audience.
By Bob Karlovits
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
 Kevin
Mahogany is a man on a mission.
"Singers like Johnny Hartmann," he says. "People call him a singer's
singer. But I'm hoping to take him to a wider audience."
Mahogany, a baritone with a stunning voice and a great grasp of song,
will be doing his Johnny Hartmann tribute Downtown this evening. It is
part of his effort to take Hartmann's music to more people. That effort
will lead to an album early in 2007.
Mahogany says he thinks Hartmann (1923-83) was one of the best
balladeers ever.
"He had a rich voice with a great sense of song that we may not have
had since," he says.
Hartmann was primarily a balladeer who sang to pop-music fans, so he
wasn't necessarily considered a jazz singer. He did the 1963 album
"John Coltrane & Johnny Hartmann" that moved him more in that
direction.
"Of course, having John Coltrane around didn't hurt," Mahogany says.
While that album may have some jazz fans, Hartmann's acclaim still was
limited, the singer suggests. Clint Eastwood used some of his music in
"The Bridges of Madison County," and that made more people aware of
him, Mahogany says.
"They realized what a stylist he was," he says.
The show doesn't restrict Mahogany too much in his presentation of song
because he uses much of the same music in his repertoire, he says.
It leads to him doing a song such as "Centerpiece," which he performs,
and Hartmann also did.
"But that might change the interpretation of the song," he says.
While a tribute can shape a concert, he says, it doesn't necessarily
define the way the songs are presented. He might be doing
Hartmann-related songs, but he still is presenting the music as Kevin
Mahogany.
"Kevin Mahogany is
unquestionably one of today's most exciting and musically adept jazz
vocalists. His latest project, Big Band, is, as the title suggests, a
foray into the big band groove, and it's a mighty successful one."
Billboard Magazine
"Kevin Mahogany, the Kansas
City cyclone, would sound terrific singing in the shower or standing on
his head. Mahogany is blessed with a voice that is instantly
seductive—smooth as butter, sweet as honey and deep as a freshly dug
well."
Jack Bowers
All About Jazz
"If the majesty of Kevin
Mahogany has somehow eluded you through the dozen years and 11 albums
that have accumulated since his dynamic 1993 debut, the Kansas
City-born baritone's richly polished Big Band is an ideal introduction.
For long-standing Mahogany connoisseurs, it's simply continued proof
that he remains in an exalted class all his own."
Christopher Loudon
Jazz Times
Downloads
>
Kevin Mahogany Bio (pdf)
>
Johnny Hartman Bios (doc)
Audio
 Kevin_Mahogany's_"It's_Alright_With_Me"
(mp3)
Kevin_Mahogany's_"There_Will_Never_Be_Another_You"
(mp3)
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