Kevin Mahogany Celebrates the Life of Johnny Hartman

In the tattered pages of jazz history, the music of Johnny Hartman has often gone unnoticed. His organic collaboration with John Coltrane in 1963 was sadly short-lived. Hartman would go on to record many albums on his own, yet never managed to receive the same notoriety as his peers.

Many years after Hartman’s death, Clint Eastwood invited the world to discover the rich Hartman songbook in the soundtrack of the “Bridges of Madison County.” Johnny Hartman finally had arrived.

In a carefully crafted presentation, vocalist Kevin Mahogany has stepped forward and fused those two events into an evening of romance that will debut at Lincoln Center. Listeners will be enchanted by the ballads of Strayhorn, Ellington, Gershwin and more from nearly four decades of Hartman recordings.

Dave Chappelle (Comedy Central comedian) on Johnny Hartman:
"When I was 6, that was the first time someone told me I should be a comedian," he said. "A jazz singer named Johnny Hartman was a friend of my grandmother's. He was over at the house and I remember he said, ..You're really funny, you should be a comedian.' I asked him what that was and he told me…Eight years later, I was doing standup in a Washington, D.C. coffee club.”

For bookings:
Cheryl Hughey
Mahogany Jazz
314-660-1755
cherylhughey@charter.net

Artwork credits:
Webworx
Glorianon