Inspiring story of a jazzer-turned-club-owner’s grit and ingenuity, and his uncanny sense of how to create a space both musicians and audiences love. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a room like this in Philly? Beautiful, thoughtfully designed, with a well-maintained piano… Sigh. 

“The only thing I was thinking about was just a little playground for musicians and artists.”
— Joon Lee

Above: Joon Lee fronts a quartet at his Blue Whale jazz club in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood. (Dario Griffin)

(via A Blog Supreme)

C’est Le Printemps (It Might As Well Be Spring)
Music by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein, lyrics by Jean Sablon and Jean Geiringer.

Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard)

Music by Clifford Brown, Lyrics by Jon Hendricks

We sing a spring

(Sing joy spring)

A rare and most mysterious spring

(This most occult thing)

Is buried deep in the soul

(It’s story never has been told)

The joy spring, the fountain of pleasure

Is deep inside you whether you’re diggin’ it or not

Once you’re aware of this spring

You’ll know that it’s the greatest

Treasure you’ve got

And furthermore

The joy spring, the bounteous treasure

Cannot be bartered away and never

Can be sold

Nothing can take it from you

It’s yours and yours alone to have

And to hold

And something more:

It never is lost to fire or theft

It’s always around

When trouble is gone the pleasure

Is left I’ve always found

It’s burglar-proof same as the treasure

Man lays up in heaven worth a

Price no one can measure

that says a lot

So joy spring this fountain of pleasure

That’s deep inside you let me inform

You in all truth *(to Coda second time)

Ponce de Leon sought this

When he was searchin’ for the fountain of youth

Ol’ Ponce de Leon laughed so much he

Never did find the magic fountain

But many people with a well-adjusted

Spirit they could hear it when y’told

‘em it was there tellin’ them was

Like tellin’ it on the mountain

It’s quite a life havin’ the gift of

laughter I’m a man who knows in a

minute I can tell y’just exactly how the story goes

It involves a firm conviction in another

previous life givin’ your mind a chance to fly

Fly aroun’ the universe investigatin’ other

galaxies n’ certain other subtle

types o’life tryin’ t’dig it gettin’

pretty well-acquainted with a lot of

other strife an’ pretty much acquirin’

yourself plenty of education

pretty soon here comes earth birth

‘n then y’ready t’put it all t’work

but soon as you’re finished bein’ born

you start forgettin’ what you knew

‘Cause you’re another kinda you - a

reincarnation manifestation

of spirit in sensation

Y’really got that right

The average person isn’t bright

not so bright that they recall the fatal fall

down here t’ this earth

their minds disguise their death to spirit

life and call it birth

that’s their reason for forgetting and they

find it very upsetting when reminded

tell ‘em they’ve lived before

They’ll show y’ the nearest open door

Gotta have feelin’ while dealin’ with

walkers in their sleep

they can’t imagine somethin’ as deep

Here they come - here they come - there they are

Unimaginative and ignorant of falling from a star

Here they come - there they are - there they go

Life is over in a minute an’ they never dug

it in it or enjoy a minute of it

‘cause they put too much above it

that was gross

somethin’ that was worth a couple bucks

at mos’

So there is the reason that the maker of man

included there in his plan

A certain fountain deep within’

where there was laughter, youth ‘n gold

for human beings t’have ‘n hold

‘n share the memory of where we’ve all been

Brothers called Grimm knew chances were slim’

Anybody would dig that the human soul

was Snow White

and the Seven Dwarfs were seven tempers

in man

whose digging out the gold completes

the plan

An Bacon was hip that Shakespeare

couldn’t read

and so he gave him all the rhymes

that have lasted through the years

and kept eternal truths alive through

several centuries

That’s how we know them now

they lasted ‘cause they’re true

What was it from “MacBeth?”

“Life’s but a walking shadow

a player poor

that struts and frets upon the stage

and’s seen no more

A tale that truly has an idiotic ring

That’s full of lotsa sound and fury

signifying nothing…”

That’s right signifying nothing

I’ll repeat it! Nothing

Don’t forget it - Nothing

And that’s the reason for that spring

of joy

That the Father put inside of every

single girl and boy

Show time! Everyone’s on

let’s hit the stage

It’s show time everyone an’ proceed

to act your age

Whatever you’re frownin’ at is funny

enough f’laughin’

so you’re wastin’ all your humor on a frown

While you’re bringin’ your spirit down

You gotta book yourself a comic in your act

without some laughter life’s a maudlin

farce ‘n that’s a fact

Once you know about the spring you always can smile

It becomes your one expression

and you’re always wearin’ it like the

Buddhas do

Ponce de Leon sought this

When he was searchin’

for the fountain of youth

I say in truth he

sought a magical thing

For he was searchin’

for the joy spring

Joy Spring! April is Jazz Appreciation Month.