Hartman Coltrane Strayhorn, it doesn't get any better than this. Maybe Ellington and Coltrane in " A Sentimental Mood" and Lester Young and Billy Holiday any time they were on a stage together.
the truthful black experience for you, me for all man and woman for all time, with roots firmly in the soild of africa for yesterday today and tomorrow and into the future.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the best ever in history, the afro american classical music of jazz, with blues as the grand father. lsiten enjoy learn and respect. for you, this music of you from you and for you and all regardless of whom.
@bob2714 WTF?????? Why does the "real world" need to know about this person's private life??????? Take that homosexual crap and keep it to yourself!!!!!!!
Wow, I am learning this song now. Amazing range and words that I lived out for real. Happy to sing this now and look back at what I survived. " I'll live a Lush Life in some small dive." Beautiful music...and amazing vocals. Thanks for posting.
Great comments... read them all, even the stupid ones... because that's what great art does, it makes you think, and talk, and argue...
The tune, by the way, as performed here, becomes an "Art Song," what the Germans of the Romantic Period called "Lieder," worthy to stand along side the best work of Schubert and Hugo Wolf.
This is the pinnacle cut from what, IMO, is one of the greatest jazz LP's of all time.
I don't see any praise here of Johnny Hartman's fantastic vocal artistry. What a silky voice, what easy delivery... such grace and depth to his expression.
@CARLDBIRMAN ---His diction and vibrato are impeccable as he tells a story of a broken heart,during a haze of too many through the day...smiling inspite of it. Forgetting the lost love.,.,burning inside his brain., Romance is mush, stifling those who strive...living a lush life in some small dive, I over came this phlight! Thank GOD, Beautiful track, vocals...Coltrane and McCoy Tyner...wow!
Strayhorn was gay... nothing on him... he was amazing... but read some books on him... he clearly states his choice.. but back then... hard as hell to be black... really hard to be black and gay...
@tlmcq80 the word "gay" in the song still meant "happy" then....not saying you are not correct about Strayhorn, but it has long been a wonder to me that so many tunes from this time period included the word "gay" but it meant something different then....same as lyrics to "I feel pretty, oh so so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay"
@vaughnhardy666 Actually, you are both right. Gay meant happy then, but it was also an inside code between men who were in the life. You could be on the bus with your friend and talking about going to a "gay" party tonight and no one around you would think anything of it, even though both of you knew what that really meant. I've always felt Strayhorn really was using double entendre here. And listened to in that light the "loneliness" and despair takes on new meaning.
@tlmcq80 his proclivities are not important. This man had the chops, and the depth of expression in a heartbreaking song.,.with the hope of some sort of relief of getting over it...forgetting and while they are burning inside his brain! Wow.,.I got out of the Lush Life and grateful not to be rotting with the rest!
Yeah...this was the music that my soul would listen to -- pure piano, voice, upright bass, soothing sax and brushes on high hat. What did I do to be reincarnated into this electronic age of talentless wretched rappers and so-called video singers! I'll say a prayer as I lay down to die this time: take me back or take me forward...just get me to a place where singers actually sing. And no more reality shows please!
@Frisbieinstein I should have known that was my man McCoy Tyner, and with Johnny Hartman.,,this is too much..too muchh talent...God is smiling that he created that.,,,Wow!
@shop4sue I know....this is amazing...listening to Tyner and Coltrane...weaving their way in and out of Johnny Hartmans singing....I feel like I'm floating on air.
@LittlPussi I agree and there is no reference to sexuality in this song as everyone over a certain age would know that the word gay meant a totally different thing at the time.. for those who don't know it meant "one being happy or gay" as the word states. Even though Strayhorn who in fact was "gay" not a word that was used as it is today with regards to being gay as in homosexual at the time he was writing about these women or people being happy before they became lushes. As in lush life.
Jazz made an early civil and human rights statement. While African American were being brutalized, humiliated, subjugated, discriminated, incarcerated, and mis-educated they managed to create this great American art form. In a beautiful and quite manor, Jazz musician added their voices and horns to help defeat the lies and hate. Think about it, these sounds and feelings never existed on our planet before Jazz. We all have value. America, together we all won the battle, let's not go backward.
@omoroomoro yes!!!!!!!!!yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yes!!!!!!!!!! truly well said and put across exceptionally truthfully! best ever of all time, best instrumentalists in all categories of african american heritage, be proud! best ever xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
First and best version I've ever heard. This song kept me company while I was suffering the same misery, I swore he wrote it for me. It really gets across what the feeling is. Thanks for the posting of this masterwork.
Written by Billy Strayhorn, the song depicts a lovers loss and longing. The real story however,is much more interesting. The song was originally penned by Strayhorn at the young age of 16. The lover? Strayhorn. The subject of infatuation? Duke Ellington. Strayhorn was one of the few openly gay jazz musicians at that time and he kept his feelings toward Duke a secret. He didn't let anyone hear the song for 15 years til Duke convinced him. Duke never learned of the songs true meaning
I disagree. That was an interesting background story that only compliments this gorgeous song. Take away the gay aspect and it still would be a great piece of information.
@taiyo06 I don't understand what you're saying. In case it was not clear, my comment was meant to point out that I think Duke knew exactly what was going on in this song.
This song sums it all up for me. I first took note of it in the early 60's. The older I have gotten, the more I get out of the simple elements that Trane and Hartman concocted into Sweetpea's coplex chord progressions. So simple, so lush so beautiful
@1meaka1 This song sums it all up for me. I first took note of it in the early 60's. The older I have gotten, the more I get out of the simple elements that Trane and Hartman concocted into Sweetpea's coplex chord progressions. So simple, so lush so beautiful
@1meaka1 yes my friend a true masterpiece sung and play by two of the very best and at their best! If you listen to Johnny singing this song in 1983 the year of his death you will see that he is very sick but yet he tries to get through the song and does.
I never get enough of this song I listen to it when I'm in the mood or not, the richness of Hartman's voice and Coltrane's unequaled sax. I like it better than my one and only love, it's one of the better written songs of all time.
Curt Elling's no wanker, you putz. D'you even play? If not, STFU. And don't come back until ya sorry ass can write a chart.
RE the stockings; the visible flaws aren't part of the stockings; they're in the flesh and run deeper than most of y'all will ever know. Of course the tune is brilliant...but you gotta have ears connected to a brain ta hear it. These days brains are hooked up ta computers...ears are unfashionable. Come ta think of it, so is brains...
I heard this song at Ronnie Scotts tonight for the first time, and I went straightaway to the dj and asked, WHO is this singer? I must confess that I'm not crazy about this song, but Johnny Hartman makes a spiritual, unique rendition that makes me love it!
Good grief - that's what I call music. Hartman really knew how to push a ballad to exactly the right level. His baritone voice was just a joy to listen to.
It's hard to tell who makes this song so great, Hartman or Coltrane. The phrasing by both make this one of the greatest renditions of Lush Life. I can listen to it forever.
I have never found a better version of Lush Life than this one. I have looked for it but as of yet it has not appeared. I do quite like Julie Londons version but it lacks Johnny's expression and the perfect composition this one brings. Sublime sax solo too. Aaaaaaah.. :D
So far, this is my favorite sung version of this tuneon You Tube, Coltrane's instrumental from the album with the same title is my fave over all. There is an awesome documentary, i think on the American Masters series on PBS, about Billy Strayhorn's life and , about how Duke Ellington took credit for a lot of Billy's stuff, and he was gay so that was tough too, but what an utter genius!
How something so beautiful could simultaneously be riddled with the anguish of loneliness is proof enough to me that music is beyond both our minds and our hearts.
Bill Strayhorn deserves heaven for this composition alone.
Just showing a glimpse of a women(just her legs in isolation) suggest the glimpses of happiness the people in the song experience in a sea of longing
I think it's brilliant. The song is sung by a helpless romantic. Someone who longs for love, for happiness. Defeated, he consigns himself to taking comfort in a life of misery. The stockings suggest a sense of class, a yearning for a better life. The rips and misplaced seams tell us she's fallen on harder times...but she hasn't forgotten the dream. She reposes in grief, fantasizing about what might have been. The romantic elegance of anguish=the heart of jazz.
What´s puzzling me is that the picture takes "where i rot with the rest" literally why imho it should be taken metaphorically. I´m convinced that the "lyircal I" in this song - especally when sung by Hartman - wouldn`t go to places where people are not impeccably dressed. Know what I mean?
But he's already said he would, "..while I rot with the rest of those whose lives are lonely too." Living on a shoe string, utter poverty, but a nice suit or shoes. This is the story of the jazz musician in harlem in the 1930's and 40's. It's not Hartman singing, it's Strayhorn. More class than money could ever buy, but a continued life-long persecution by depression and misery. The fact that he wrote this music and these lyrics at age 16 tells you he wasn't just anybody.
@yisacknayrabin HOW WELL YOU HAVE DEFINED THE SPIRIT OF THIS SONG.
HOW SAD FOR THOSE WHO ARE LONELY. HOW GLAD FOR THOSE WHO FIND LOVE AT WHATEVER TIME OR PLACE OR AGE. thank you johnny for these beautiful lyrics. roselli 5/19/10
@yisacknayrabin I don't know what you're smoking, but put that pipe down before you hurt someone (lmfao). What does the fucking picture have anything to do with this song??
@soulrebel68 absolutely you're right about romantic elegance of anguish but the picture? haha it's cheesey and stupid. Beautiful song with or without the picture.
@yisacknayrabin Oh puh-lease, stfu with your ridiculous pompous You Tube "analysis." Smarter people than you have discussed this song, the world does not need your sad little thoughts, mmkay?
@mustangred Wooah....sorry to hear about your spouse leaving you, your losing your job, and everyone on the planet dropping deuce on your head your entire life. I can't think of any other circumstances that would make someone so bitter and pathetic toward a total stranger who just commented on a video. It's a new year, maybe things will get better for you?
@yisacknayrabin Wow.. Who wrote this critique? [It's lovely].
You clearly understand the [mind of melancholia],Man. I have always been drawn to B.Strayhorn's piece about that indescribable loneliness of things remembered and forgotten that so many writers+poets have attempted to express. Mr.Strayhorn did a bloody good job with his description. And you my man, made a righteous+emotional+loving connection with this song.
Aguillera, Timberlake, Scooter, Rihanna should all quit or be forced to quit or shot just because a song like this exists!... It's such un unfair world...
You CAN find great pop arrangers these days, but the last great arranger in pop was Stevie Wonder. Writers in pop, alas, are long dead, having done little to merit the name in 40 years. Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, they were the last to write anything that would have been considered a "standard" by anybody.
@aeryaluai I still have hopes for Christina Aguilera because she does have a great voice - just tends to oversing everything. Maybe as she gets older she'll become more sophisticated about her style.
Props to the writer Billy Strayhorn. Like Johnny Hartman he wasn't as well known as Trane and his band, but in my opinion the best standard ever written. Just so much soul in the lyrics. Beautiful haunting melody and chords. Too me, this tune paints the picture of the highs and lows of life of a guy like Coltrane. Just living for your art and the inner turmoil that comes with it.
This is really special. I love it. No matter how many times I listen to this record, though, I always think Coltrane is gonna bust out a blistering 'Pursuance'-esque riff!
wonderful voice and diction that puts so many modern singers to shame. This is the song of my marriage and divorce. I even went to Paris. A great, moving song. sensitive accompanyment by Trane and Tyner,
@1meaka1 Hello my friend you must be a helpless romantic like me LOL this song is filled with so much about life and it is also sung so well that it makes you feel, and I believe that's what a song like this is suppose to do.
Hartmans performance is clear, even and perfectly sung as a blues/jazz ballad. The feeling is a sad story but not so sad that the listener is swept under the bus by a depression. Music should never conjour pain, only the possibility of it. This to me is a perfect example of how a sad jazz ballad should be delivered. The many others on youtube are all done well but too often sound oddly perfect and over rehearsed. If were a gifted singer I would strive to obtain this style with my jazz ballads.
When i first heard this rendition my experience was very remarkable. The subjective experience of being as presented in this artwork is very close to describing experience of those whose lives are lonely. Precious heritage to all humans. Thanks for sharing.
Incomparable version of this song.Johnny Hartman never received the recognition he deserved within his lifetime but this album with`Trane will live on forever.
Thankyou bigsmoove2000, it was so long ago, I´d forgotten about Donald Bird´s contribution. It was one of many LPs my darling niece gave away to Oxfam when I was absent.
dem vocals... What a voice
numan1 2 months ago
Hartman Coltrane Strayhorn, it doesn't get any better than this. Maybe Ellington and Coltrane in " A Sentimental Mood" and Lester Young and Billy Holiday any time they were on a stage together.
mrrapp1 2 months ago
exquisite is the word.
mosilflutil10 3 months ago
BraVO! A great vocal to tenor combination and classic.
mooseydeucy 3 months ago
A true Master. Art for the ears.
vankullstudio 3 months ago
Musician's music! So for those morons who dislike this,stick to redneck music.
MyWillie44 4 months ago
One of the best songs ever recorded. Hartman & Coltrane. Amazing.
mrmacmcgill 5 months ago
You were the best Mr Hartman
magicforesttree 5 months ago 2
Transforming and effortlessly beautiful.
Ingr9821 5 months ago
the truthful black experience for you, me for all man and woman for all time, with roots firmly in the soild of africa for yesterday today and tomorrow and into the future.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the best ever in history, the afro american classical music of jazz, with blues as the grand father. lsiten enjoy learn and respect. for you, this music of you from you and for you and all regardless of whom.
ashrafilm 6 months ago
smooth as a 25 year old scotch....
squarefellow1 6 months ago
8 dislikes???? ARE U SERIOUS????
oneluv72 6 months ago
@bob2714 WTF?????? Why does the "real world" need to know about this person's private life??????? Take that homosexual crap and keep it to yourself!!!!!!!
flatchest32 6 months ago
Lush Life - the ultimate testimony of the love lorn. Coltrane and Hartman go deep on this one.
jediknightrider 7 months ago
Wow, I am learning this song now. Amazing range and words that I lived out for real. Happy to sing this now and look back at what I survived. " I'll live a Lush Life in some small dive." Beautiful music...and amazing vocals. Thanks for posting.
StevesWifeCharlo 7 months ago
Great comments... read them all, even the stupid ones... because that's what great art does, it makes you think, and talk, and argue...
The tune, by the way, as performed here, becomes an "Art Song," what the Germans of the Romantic Period called "Lieder," worthy to stand along side the best work of Schubert and Hugo Wolf.
This is the pinnacle cut from what, IMO, is one of the greatest jazz LP's of all time.
tuxguys 8 months ago 2
love love love it
belabelica 9 months ago
Beeautiful.
CYFilmStudent 9 months ago
I don't see any praise here of Johnny Hartman's fantastic vocal artistry. What a silky voice, what easy delivery... such grace and depth to his expression.
CARLDBIRMAN 10 months ago 18
@CARLDBIRMAN ---His diction and vibrato are impeccable as he tells a story of a broken heart,during a haze of too many through the day...smiling inspite of it. Forgetting the lost love.,.,burning inside his brain., Romance is mush, stifling those who strive...living a lush life in some small dive, I over came this phlight! Thank GOD, Beautiful track, vocals...Coltrane and McCoy Tyner...wow!
StevesWifeCharlo 1 week ago in playlist Favorite videos
Strayhorn was gay... nothing on him... he was amazing... but read some books on him... he clearly states his choice.. but back then... hard as hell to be black... really hard to be black and gay...
tlmcq80 11 months ago 15
@tlmcq80 the word "gay" in the song still meant "happy" then....not saying you are not correct about Strayhorn, but it has long been a wonder to me that so many tunes from this time period included the word "gay" but it meant something different then....same as lyrics to "I feel pretty, oh so so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay"
vaughnhardy666 4 months ago
@vaughnhardy666 Actually, you are both right. Gay meant happy then, but it was also an inside code between men who were in the life. You could be on the bus with your friend and talking about going to a "gay" party tonight and no one around you would think anything of it, even though both of you knew what that really meant. I've always felt Strayhorn really was using double entendre here. And listened to in that light the "loneliness" and despair takes on new meaning.
strangestringsnyc 2 months ago
@strangestringsnyc thank you....upon reflection, I think you're right....good call, and nicely put.
vaughnhardy666 2 months ago
@tlmcq80 Still is.
BizarroCub 4 months ago
@tlmcq80 he wrote this when he was a teenager! no wonder he didnt out himself in the lyrics
moogus8000 3 months ago
@tlmcq80 his proclivities are not important. This man had the chops, and the depth of expression in a heartbreaking song.,.with the hope of some sort of relief of getting over it...forgetting and while they are burning inside his brain! Wow.,.I got out of the Lush Life and grateful not to be rotting with the rest!
StevesWifeCharlo 1 week ago in playlist Favorite videos
sextuality cocktails? :p and gay places sorta means happy
musickk810 11 months ago
This is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. And this is the most beautiful version ever recorded of it.
SourPix 11 months ago 2
this is by far, one of my favorite jazz tunes, kudos to Hartman and Coltrane.
mecca777 1 year ago
Yeah...this was the music that my soul would listen to -- pure piano, voice, upright bass, soothing sax and brushes on high hat. What did I do to be reincarnated into this electronic age of talentless wretched rappers and so-called video singers! I'll say a prayer as I lay down to die this time: take me back or take me forward...just get me to a place where singers actually sing. And no more reality shows please!
kir3txsbcglobalnet 1 year ago
You read my mind.
kiasmus 1 year ago
Love that piano.
McCoy is the best cocktail pianist ever.
Frisbieinstein 1 year ago
@Frisbieinstein I should have known that was my man McCoy Tyner, and with Johnny Hartman.,,this is too much..too muchh talent...God is smiling that he created that.,,,Wow!
shop4sue 11 months ago
@shop4sue I know....this is amazing...listening to Tyner and Coltrane...weaving their way in and out of Johnny Hartmans singing....I feel like I'm floating on air.
shop4sue 11 months ago
Brilliant piece of work. Sad to say but even in the face of such brilliance, there will be some haters.
Chocklad 1 year ago
hartman really captures the sadness in the lyrics. a vocal performance for others to listen to and admire
thereeldeel07 1 year ago
Hartman & Coltrane, what a great combination. A pair of giants.
I can't believe some people below can talk about race or sexual preference in the face of such musical genius.
LittlPussi 1 year ago
@LittlPussi I agree and there is no reference to sexuality in this song as everyone over a certain age would know that the word gay meant a totally different thing at the time.. for those who don't know it meant "one being happy or gay" as the word states. Even though Strayhorn who in fact was "gay" not a word that was used as it is today with regards to being gay as in homosexual at the time he was writing about these women or people being happy before they became lushes. As in lush life.
nicolas4you 11 months ago
Jazz made an early civil and human rights statement. While African American were being brutalized, humiliated, subjugated, discriminated, incarcerated, and mis-educated they managed to create this great American art form. In a beautiful and quite manor, Jazz musician added their voices and horns to help defeat the lies and hate. Think about it, these sounds and feelings never existed on our planet before Jazz. We all have value. America, together we all won the battle, let's not go backward.
omoroomoro 1 year ago
@omoroomoro yes!!!!!!!!!yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yes!!!!!!!!!! truly well said and put across exceptionally truthfully! best ever of all time, best instrumentalists in all categories of african american heritage, be proud! best ever xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ashrafilm 1 year ago
First and best version I've ever heard. This song kept me company while I was suffering the same misery, I swore he wrote it for me. It really gets across what the feeling is. Thanks for the posting of this masterwork.
lunhil12 1 year ago
Written by Billy Strayhorn, the song depicts a lovers loss and longing. The real story however,is much more interesting. The song was originally penned by Strayhorn at the young age of 16. The lover? Strayhorn. The subject of infatuation? Duke Ellington. Strayhorn was one of the few openly gay jazz musicians at that time and he kept his feelings toward Duke a secret. He didn't let anyone hear the song for 15 years til Duke convinced him. Duke never learned of the songs true meaning
hullo222 1 year ago 2
@hullo222 why do all of you homosexuals feel a need to connect your "lifestyle decisions", to all that is great???
flatchest32 1 year ago
@flatchest32
And why do all you heterosexuals keep insisting that what gay people live is a lifestyle? Smarten up.
Jennifer Coffey
jlaskew 1 year ago
@flatchest32
I disagree. That was an interesting background story that only compliments this gorgeous song. Take away the gay aspect and it still would be a great piece of information.
Marixpress2 1 year ago
@hullo222 Blew it with the last sentence.
LR5 1 year ago
@LR5 You blew it with that post, did'nt you. Why is it that people can't keep the stupid parts of their thoughts out of the way of sheer brilliance.
taiyo06 1 year ago
@taiyo06 I don't understand what you're saying. In case it was not clear, my comment was meant to point out that I think Duke knew exactly what was going on in this song.
LR5 11 months ago
12 o'clock tales
Marixpress2 1 year ago
Coltrane,Hartman,Strayhorn-some trio that!As others have said-it never,never dates.
voiceofthenorthable 1 year ago
Over forty years and I still can get enough of this recording.
JazzColeH 1 year ago
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This song sums it all up for me. I first took note of it in the early 60's. The older I have gotten, the more I get out of the simple elements that Trane and Hartman concocted into Sweetpea's coplex chord progressions. So simple, so lush so beautiful
MLBdeals 1 year ago
Talk about beautiful!!!
DAVIDAPPLE 1 year ago
NOW THAT'S HOW YOU PLAY WITH BRUSHES!
Thelookoutslookout 1 year ago 3
..I just cant get enough of this...Johnny Hartman covered this the best out of all of the versions.
1meaka1 1 year ago
@1meaka1 This song sums it all up for me. I first took note of it in the early 60's. The older I have gotten, the more I get out of the simple elements that Trane and Hartman concocted into Sweetpea's coplex chord progressions. So simple, so lush so beautiful
MLBdeals 1 year ago
@MLBdeals -so true..
1meaka1 1 year ago
This song is getting me through some pretty bad heartbreak
PrincessUnicorn69 1 year ago
Perhaps the finest vocal/ensemble Jazz recording of all time.
marchioneguitars 1 year ago 3
Lushlife has been sang and played by some of the graets and will continue to be played and enjoyed by many. love it!!!!!!!!
jazyag 1 year ago
Check out 'Trane's earlier epic version of this on his Lush Life LP. Thirteen mnutes of bliss. Magnificent.
AcridPeter 1 year ago
trane on tenor......!
ebillyboi 1 year ago
heh, he used to visit gay places :D
Peztrumentals 1 year ago
forgot to give some input. Besides da lol moment, i like da song, I enjoy dis kind of genre
Peztrumentals 1 year ago
@Peztrumentals Gay during that time meant "HAPPY", not as it means today, it's meaning had no dealing with an alternative lifestyle.
thareel 1 year ago
@thareel I know, I was just jokin, no harm meant
Peztrumentals 1 year ago
this is so gay i could weep with excitement
i m sttill blushing in my older age (56 now)
jazz still is the perfect homosexuel sound, and Coltrain plays a hell of a Vurvuzela!!
thanks you for poasting
and Warmest Regards!!
Rab Hines
andifyouhadtwocoats 1 year ago
This song pretty much sums up my life."Romance is mush, stifling those who strive"
PrincessUnicorn69 1 year ago 2
@PrincessUnicorn69 I know what you mean....
Guitfiddlejase 1 year ago
@Guitfiddlejase Sucks doesn't it?
PrincessUnicorn69 1 year ago
Johnny Hartman is GOD!!!
danielagreda1974 1 year ago
Super....
CARLDBIRMAN 1 year ago
wow, he really does a good job interpreting this song...
Agoateeman 1 year ago
"Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life, to get the feel of life"
One of the best lyrics ever penned.
2TheDeath 1 year ago 2
You know I have played this song a lot and this the first time I have heard lyrics. Shout out to the writer Mr. Billy Strayhorn! this is great.
pezolaman 1 year ago
Yes.............theee man. Harmonically Intelligent crooning. No equal. Well... Curt Elling would be now.
neomodernbill 1 year ago
great song, great artists-----nothing more need be said. 'TRANE RULES!!
donaldtheother 1 year ago
I tried to stay away from this..after a phase of listening constantly..guess im back at it again..just cant get enough...
1meaka1 1 year ago 2
@1meaka1 yes my friend a true masterpiece sung and play by two of the very best and at their best! If you listen to Johnny singing this song in 1983 the year of his death you will see that he is very sick but yet he tries to get through the song and does.
nicolas4you 1 year ago
I never get enough of this song I listen to it when I'm in the mood or not, the richness of Hartman's voice and Coltrane's unequaled sax. I like it better than my one and only love, it's one of the better written songs of all time.
nicolas4you 1 year ago
Curt Elling's no wanker, you putz. D'you even play? If not, STFU. And don't come back until ya sorry ass can write a chart.
RE the stockings; the visible flaws aren't part of the stockings; they're in the flesh and run deeper than most of y'all will ever know. Of course the tune is brilliant...but you gotta have ears connected to a brain ta hear it. These days brains are hooked up ta computers...ears are unfashionable. Come ta think of it, so is brains...
misterstax 1 year ago
Strayhorn, Hartman, Coltrane, don't get much better than this.
Kurt Elling just recorded a tribute to this album, what a wanker !
slyme1711 1 year ago
I heard this song at Ronnie Scotts tonight for the first time, and I went straightaway to the dj and asked, WHO is this singer? I must confess that I'm not crazy about this song, but Johnny Hartman makes a spiritual, unique rendition that makes me love it!
antoniodcz 1 year ago
it is true billy strayhorn wrote this song but is it true he was 14yrs.old when he did it. Eye see you.
claybornwilliams 1 year ago
Good grief - that's what I call music. Hartman really knew how to push a ballad to exactly the right level. His baritone voice was just a joy to listen to.
KevBaz78 1 year ago
It's hard to tell who makes this song so great, Hartman or Coltrane. The phrasing by both make this one of the greatest renditions of Lush Life. I can listen to it forever.
gymtique 1 year ago 2
I have never found a better version of Lush Life than this one. I have looked for it but as of yet it has not appeared. I do quite like Julie Londons version but it lacks Johnny's expression and the perfect composition this one brings. Sublime sax solo too. Aaaaaaah.. :D
kirstage01 1 year ago
So far, this is my favorite sung version of this tuneon You Tube, Coltrane's instrumental from the album with the same title is my fave over all. There is an awesome documentary, i think on the American Masters series on PBS, about Billy Strayhorn's life and , about how Duke Ellington took credit for a lot of Billy's stuff, and he was gay so that was tough too, but what an utter genius!
lolopoole 1 year ago
Songs like this usually come once every decade. Rarer than a gem.
backpain100 1 year ago
Here's the thing,
Replace this video with "girl friend" which hold like a billion views. Then I'll be happy.
A timeless masterpiece versus a pop song? com'on, life's not fair.
backpain100 1 year ago
a week in Paris will ease the bite of it...
spyrdol 1 year ago
How something so beautiful could simultaneously be riddled with the anguish of loneliness is proof enough to me that music is beyond both our minds and our hearts.
Bill Strayhorn deserves heaven for this composition alone.
JazzWithoutANet 1 year ago 7
reminds me of Paris...
jooks223 1 year ago
Genius. Just pure magic.
maeldune 1 year ago 6
Elvin is the beast...best
nkushani 1 year ago
The Real Voice
LeleMelo78 2 years ago
I don´t get the picture - seems so inappropriate for this song...
yochanan12 2 years ago
@yochanan12 are you sure? Watch closely. Listen to the lyrics...
ABoxofShoes 2 years ago
inappropriate-you mean soooo appropriate. i'll spare everyone the artistic explanation because that explanation should be so utterly apparent.
Benkotter 1 year ago
Sorry, i really don´t get it. An explanation of the utterly apparent would be highly appreciated;-)
yochanan12 1 year ago
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pushingrocksfilms 1 year ago
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@yochanan12
Just showing a glimpse of a women(just her legs in isolation) suggest the glimpses of happiness the people in the song experience in a sea of longing
pushingrocksfilms 1 year ago
I think it's brilliant. The song is sung by a helpless romantic. Someone who longs for love, for happiness. Defeated, he consigns himself to taking comfort in a life of misery. The stockings suggest a sense of class, a yearning for a better life. The rips and misplaced seams tell us she's fallen on harder times...but she hasn't forgotten the dream. She reposes in grief, fantasizing about what might have been. The romantic elegance of anguish=the heart of jazz.
yisacknayrabin 1 year ago 97
What´s puzzling me is that the picture takes "where i rot with the rest" literally why imho it should be taken metaphorically. I´m convinced that the "lyircal I" in this song - especally when sung by Hartman - wouldn`t go to places where people are not impeccably dressed. Know what I mean?
yochanan12 1 year ago 2
But he's already said he would, "..while I rot with the rest of those whose lives are lonely too." Living on a shoe string, utter poverty, but a nice suit or shoes. This is the story of the jazz musician in harlem in the 1930's and 40's. It's not Hartman singing, it's Strayhorn. More class than money could ever buy, but a continued life-long persecution by depression and misery. The fact that he wrote this music and these lyrics at age 16 tells you he wasn't just anybody.
yisacknayrabin 1 year ago 21
@yisacknayrabin i heard strayhorn wrote it for duke ellington because he had a crusn on him, but never told him
DylHsu 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin brilliant,beautiful and insightful
Ricbell753 1 year ago
@Ricbell753 This is one of my favorite songs by Johnny Hartman...and Coltrane on that tenor sax...
shop4sue 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin And I defer to you again. Romantic souls like you and I are a dying breed.
Malcolmlowry2012 10 months ago
@yisacknayrabin cool story, bro.
shoegazer666 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin HOW WELL YOU HAVE DEFINED THE SPIRIT OF THIS SONG.
HOW SAD FOR THOSE WHO ARE LONELY. HOW GLAD FOR THOSE WHO FIND LOVE AT WHATEVER TIME OR PLACE OR AGE. thank you johnny for these beautiful lyrics. roselli 5/19/10
Honey1931 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin I don't know what you're smoking, but put that pipe down before you hurt someone (lmfao). What does the fucking picture have anything to do with this song??
soulrebel68 1 year ago
@soulrebel68 absolutely you're right about romantic elegance of anguish but the picture? haha it's cheesey and stupid. Beautiful song with or without the picture.
YossarianTheMeerkat 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin you understand as much as my boots.
emilram 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin Great way to put it! You just sensed the heart of it! Congrats!
intrepidyo 1 year ago
Johnny Hartman is one of the greatesr jazz baritones of all time. Let us never forget.
shuckinspa 1 year ago
@shuckinspa agreed
musickk810 11 months ago
@yisacknayrabin Oh puh-lease, stfu with your ridiculous pompous You Tube "analysis." Smarter people than you have discussed this song, the world does not need your sad little thoughts, mmkay?
mustangred 1 year ago
@mustangred Wooah....sorry to hear about your spouse leaving you, your losing your job, and everyone on the planet dropping deuce on your head your entire life. I can't think of any other circumstances that would make someone so bitter and pathetic toward a total stranger who just commented on a video. It's a new year, maybe things will get better for you?
yisacknayrabin 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin Yes, distingue melancholia at it's highest level. The most beautiful team of musicians here.
taildragger53 1 year ago
@yisacknayrabin I love your comment.
mariyamtselalu 11 months ago
@yisacknayrabin shut the fuck up.
shoegazer666 11 months ago
@yisacknayrabin well said.
JadeTomZ 11 months ago
@yisacknayrabin Wow.. Who wrote this critique? [It's lovely].
You clearly understand the [mind of melancholia],Man. I have always been drawn to B.Strayhorn's piece about that indescribable loneliness of things remembered and forgotten that so many writers+poets have attempted to express. Mr.Strayhorn did a bloody good job with his description. And you my man, made a righteous+emotional+loving connection with this song.
Bless+U.
Malcolmlowry2012 10 months ago
I drove 15 hours to Atl...Johnny Hartman CD got me there
MATERIALMOMNY 2 years ago 4
@MATERIALMOMNY interesting.
1meaka1 2 years ago
Utterly stunning, the song, the singer, the musicians...
DylanGirl63 2 years ago 3
This and Mal Waldron's Soul eyes are my 2 fav melodies.
stilltrue2day 2 years ago 2
Aguillera, Timberlake, Scooter, Rihanna should all quit or be forced to quit or shot just because a song like this exists!... It's such un unfair world...
aeryaluai 2 years ago 5
You CAN find great pop arrangers these days, but the last great arranger in pop was Stevie Wonder. Writers in pop, alas, are long dead, having done little to merit the name in 40 years. Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, they were the last to write anything that would have been considered a "standard" by anybody.
cjwynes 2 years ago
@aeryaluai I still have hopes for Christina Aguilera because she does have a great voice - just tends to oversing everything. Maybe as she gets older she'll become more sophisticated about her style.
jimraw1 1 year ago
this is deep as the ocean
aaronamccoy 2 years ago 6
and as high as the sky...
wizardofwaste 1 year ago 2
I play the saxophone for four years now and when I hear this I wish I was born 50 years ago.
pure heaven!
janjoop1 2 years ago
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JesusOnlyourPoontang 2 years ago
Una pietra miliare, inutile dire altro
microph1 2 years ago
Props to the writer Billy Strayhorn. Like Johnny Hartman he wasn't as well known as Trane and his band, but in my opinion the best standard ever written. Just so much soul in the lyrics. Beautiful haunting melody and chords. Too me, this tune paints the picture of the highs and lows of life of a guy like Coltrane. Just living for your art and the inner turmoil that comes with it.
escribirconcorazon 2 years ago 3
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escribirconcorazon 2 years ago
I'm so ashamed to say I don't know Johnny Hartman... but I feel so blessed to have discovered him here. Perfectly sublime.
divaenvy 2 years ago 3
This is really special. I love it. No matter how many times I listen to this record, though, I always think Coltrane is gonna bust out a blistering 'Pursuance'-esque riff!
PeartLifesonLee 2 years ago
The perfect combination of maybe the saddest song ever written and one of the most brilliant balladeers to ever read a lyric.
street133 2 years ago 3
Coltrane+Hartman=Magic!
savadent 2 years ago
One of the reason I miss the old days.
williewiskers 2 years ago 2
God I love this, always makes me well up every time I hear it!
oxford172 2 years ago 5
If there's a God, then that's his voice...What a masterpiece...
diowanderer 2 years ago 3
wonderful voice and diction that puts so many modern singers to shame. This is the song of my marriage and divorce. I even went to Paris. A great, moving song. sensitive accompanyment by Trane and Tyner,
thermosoverfil 2 years ago 4
stupenda..........!!!
vingari 2 years ago
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Greendayhudalt 2 years ago
Brilliant!
CaptZaky 2 years ago 3
I have listened to this song too many times today,while siting in my office working away.I just can't get enough.
1meaka1 2 years ago 3
@1meaka1 Hello my friend you must be a helpless romantic like me LOL this song is filled with so much about life and it is also sung so well that it makes you feel, and I believe that's what a song like this is suppose to do.
nicolas4you 1 year ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
I used to not feel Hartman's voice, but today I just got it.
His style is quite personal
mahoose6 2 years ago
Hartmans performance is clear, even and perfectly sung as a blues/jazz ballad. The feeling is a sad story but not so sad that the listener is swept under the bus by a depression. Music should never conjour pain, only the possibility of it. This to me is a perfect example of how a sad jazz ballad should be delivered. The many others on youtube are all done well but too often sound oddly perfect and over rehearsed. If were a gifted singer I would strive to obtain this style with my jazz ballads.
oldpython 2 years ago 6
This song reminds me of the time me and cute little honey were eating collard greens, and she said I am horny.
beckybigbones 2 years ago
a brilliant stunning song written by a 16 year old black man only to have it more or less high jacked from him by others of higher reknown,
A pity and a masterpiece.
Charliebear65 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
I've listened hundreds of times in the last almost 50 years, and when Trane comes in at 3:10 it takes my head off. Every time.
princeminski47 2 years ago 6
Me too!
akindad 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
This is...wow...no words can describe it!
oxford172 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
Coltrane, Hartman, Strayhorn, all geniuses of the highest caliber.
Bluesmen88 2 years ago 3
Good song.
ss90ss444 2 years ago
One of the most underrated voices ever. Most people don't know him by name, but boy are they missing out-out-outtt..
macflyfilm 2 years ago
Hauntingly sad...
Lyrics and melody of superb intelligence
As close to film noire as a jazz ballad could be.
Beautifully rendered by Hartman and Coltrane
Worthy of a time capsule.
skipapa123 2 years ago 3
put, this CD in plate the pasta and watch as her dress falls off, only if they're older than 25, younger women just don't get it
undapar1 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
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1meaka1 2 years ago
When i first heard this rendition my experience was very remarkable. The subjective experience of being as presented in this artwork is very close to describing experience of those whose lives are lonely. Precious heritage to all humans. Thanks for sharing.
amithra77 2 years ago 2
Yes this song definitely makes you feel and I believe that this is what songs are suppose to do. A true masterpiece.
nicolas4you 2 years ago 23
Incomparable version of this song.Johnny Hartman never received the recognition he deserved within his lifetime but this album with`Trane will live on forever.
lasdrof7 2 years ago
One of my favorite albums of all time.
gene921 2 years ago
This Album is absolutely one of the Greatest albums ever created!
Ramondbronco68 2 years ago 5
Thankyou bigsmoove2000, it was so long ago, I´d forgotten about Donald Bird´s contribution. It was one of many LPs my darling niece gave away to Oxfam when I was absent.
1gwynaled 2 years ago
I once owned a LP of Coltrane playing Lush Life with only drums and bass: "The piano player didn´t show", he said on the sleave, beautiful.
1gwynaled 2 years ago