Lyrics It’s Easy to Remember (A Jazz Story Memory) - Kurt Elling

That sweet expression
The smile you gave me
It's easy to remember
Or is it?

A poetic jazz memory

It's March of 1963
In mid-morning New Jersey
Two musicians drive through the snowbound suburban landscape
On their way to a recording session

One, an intensely dedicated musical explorer
Has of late been studying the way singers breathe
And hopes he will hear Frank Sinatra on the radio
So he can consider one more notion, before the session

The other, an experienced song stylist
Wonders whether he'll ever hear his own voice over the airwaves
The two men met only last week and have only played a few pieces together
The singer sitting in, informally at a club in Manhattan

The singer is a little concerned that the band was gonna break into some of the
Wild stuff he's heard them play
But the band leader, a gentle and positive man
Will be going for something altogether different, on this occasion

Something wholely sympathetic to the sound the singer has
The two were joking, smoking and talking about the songs they will record today
They carry no chance and they've made no formal musical arrangements
Or even had a real rehearsal

Everyone at the session will know the tunes already
Each man having performed then in a hundred different contests
No one at the session will need to be told what to do, or what to play
The band is so well-acquainted that any move that needs to be established

Will come naturally
As the cats in the car talk about what is to come
Over the cars radio comes in that pole singing lush life
Though he doesn't know all the words, out of fun, the singer joins in anyway
And the two add one more tune to the set list

When they got to the studio they end up recording it in one take
In fact, they do everything in one take
Almost the entire record except you are too beautiful
Where they do a second take because of a dropped drumstick

In three or four hours they're done, laughter, handshakes, a long drive home
Just a year or so later, John Coltrane will go on to the highest artistic peaks
Leading the same band in the creation of crescent and a love supreme
Arguably the defining works of his career

And among the most beloved and respected in the history of recorded music
Although Johnny Hartman will go on to make some great ballot records after this one
Including some attempting to echo the magic of the one he makes with train
Most go unnoticed upon their release
Broad fame will elude Hartman, until well after his death
But we remember them both

We're jazz people
And for us
It's easy