Sing Joy Spring

Spring arrives today, Tuesday, 20 March 2018, at 12:15 p.m., east coast daylight time. The vernal equinox. In the Northern Hemisphere.

We sing a spring

Sing joy spring.

A rare and most mysterious spring,

This most occult thing

Is buried deep in the soul.

Its 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,

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.

JOYSPRING
Music: Clifford Brown
Lyrics: Jon Hendricks
Performance: Manhattan Transfer

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Jon Hendricks, born in 1921, died in late 2017, at age 96. He was a master of 'vocalese,' a genre of jazz singing in which lyrics are sung note for note to melodies that were originally created by a soloist's improvisation. Joyspring is an example of that, in which Jon Hendricks wrote and sang lyrics to a solo that trumpeter Clifford Brown had improvised during a recorded performance of the composition. A magnificent trumpeter, Brown died prematurely in 1956 at the age of 26. In the YouTube clip above, the group Manhattan Transfer sings Hendricks' lyrics.

Photo of hosta, originally on Flickr: here.

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