In 1963, Coltrane recorded an album of ballads with singer Johnny Hartman with what is now understood as his classic quartet: McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums.
This piece, Lush Life, had been composed by Billy Strayhorn between 1933 and 1936, but it was first performed in 1948, by Duke Ellington's band with which Strayhorn has composed and arranged many classic tunes for almost all of his life.
It starts with Hartman singing only accompanied by piano; the lyrics are full of unfilled promises and both Tyner and Hartman play it with both tension and sensitivity.
Life is lonely again
And only last year everything seemed so sure
Now life is awful again
A troughful of hearts could only be a bore
and Garrison and Jones enter while Coltrane simply responds after some phrases of Hartman.
And there I'll be
While I rot with the rest
Of those whose lives are lonely, too.
The lyrics could almost end there, and Coltrane starts his own rendition of the song, staying very close to the melody. The sound of the quartet is immediately more dense, with a double time feel; Jones, on brushes, adds a lot of musicality to the interpretation. When the riveted ride cymbal ends the final bar of the melody, Hartman comes back and sings the last verse once more, slows the tempo to the end.
https://youtu.be/q_xbjOCPgkU
