Allaire Village. Oct. 12, 2014. By Lee Morgan ©  Click image to enlarge.

JOHNNY HARTMAN (vocals) and JOHN COLTRANE  (alto sax) from the album recorded in 1963 called  John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.  Some of this music was featured in the movie Bridges of Madison County

“Autumn Serenade” lyrics by Sammy Gallop and music by Peter de Rose.

“Thru the trees comes autumn with her serenade.

Melodies the sweetest music ever played.

Autumn kisses we knew are beautiful souvenirs.

As I pause to recall the leaves seem to fall like tears.

Silver stars were clinging to an autumn sky.

Love was ours until October wandered by.

Let the years come and go,

I’ll still feel the glow that time can not fade.

When I hear that lovely autumn serenade.”

It was 1946, and 23 year old John Hartman won a singing contest and a one-week stint  with Earl Hines in Chicago at the El Grotto nightclub.  Hines hired Hartman for a year.

After the Hines band broke up, Dizzy Gillespie asked Hartman to join his big band in 1948 in California.  After a year with Gillespie he worked with Erroll Garner before setting out on a solo career in 1950.   Hartman recorded several pop-styled albums and, in 1963, got an invitation to record with John Coltrane.  It is said that Coltrane remembered performing on the same bill with Hartman at the Apollo Theatre in 1950 and liked his sound.

Comprised of all ballads, “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman” is considered a classic.  That recording led to four more recordings produced by the legendary Bob Theile at ABC-Paramount.

Before succumbing to lung cancer in 1983 at the age of sixty, Johnny Hartman received a Grammy nomination in 1981 for Best Male Jazz Vocalist and performed at jazz festivals, made numerous television and radio appearances.

Listen to John Coltrane’s alto sax and Johnny Hartman’s baritone voice on this memorable recording of Autumn Serenade from the recording “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.”    You may recall selections from this album in the movie “Bridges of Madison County.”     ——-by Lee Morgan of Ocean Grove.