Blue Moon (BMCD 1637) Joe Carroll. Man With a Happy Sound featuring Grant Green Joe Carroll; Grant Green 1 LP + Bonus tracks STEREO 24 BIT DIGITALLY REMASTERED Joe Carroll Legendary bebop singer Joe Carroll had not recorded for most of the late Fifties, but when he finally returned in the early Sixties he did so with a solid pulse and a happy feeling on these two sessions for the Charlie Parker label, recently launched by Doris Parker, Bird s widow and owner of his estate. On the resulting album, Man with a Happy Sound (1962), he was backed by an exuberant trio led by organist Specs Williams, with Connie Lester, tenor sax, Lee Ainsley, drums, and featuring the young guitarist Grant Green on five of the tracks. The album includes some of the tunes that the singer made famous while he was with Dizzy Gillespie during the late Forties and early Fifties, as well as some fine new material. A year before this album was released though, Joe Carroll had recorded two sides for the same label Anthropology and Hi-Fly backed by such notables as Duke Jordan, Clark Terry and Cecil Payne, and featuring some duets with Payne. For Joe, the release of this single was his chance to do a thing with some good cats and let everybody stretch out a little and this single eventually led him to put together the selections and musicians that make up Man with a Happy Sound.
