Biography
Joe Carroll went by the nickname "Bebop." Legend maintains that at the peak of that jazz style’s popularity he functioned as the key contact, above all when seekers hoped to track down elusive figures such as Charlie Parker. To certain listeners, however, Carroll registers as an outcast rather than a deliverer. Although counted among the earliest vocalists to preserve jazz vocalese—a refined label for scat—on record, devotees of the form seldom place him among their most admired performers. He did issue several albums under his own name beginning in the 1950s, yet the sides that secured his reputation were those cut with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s expanded group between 1949 and 1953. Newcomers to bebop frequently recoil at first hearing these tracks, which depart sharply from the serious harmonic exploration that defines the idiom.
While Gillespie occupies a place beside Parker in the founding narrative of bebop, the vocal comedy and novelty material that spotlighted Carroll recalled the repertoire of one of Gillespie’s earlier employers, Cab Calloway—only without matching wit. Calloway himself loathed bebop and dismissed it as “Chinese music.” Carroll supplied some of his own pieces, posing questions such as “Got a Penny, Benny?” Later jazz singers, among them Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks, have named Carroll an important influence; Hendricks recounted phoning him immediately after stepping off the Greyhound bus in New York City simply to ask “Where is Bird?”
Carroll marks a decisive change in the standing of jazz vocalists, who once remained on the margins and supplied interludes of broad humor, open sentiment, or physical appeal; by contrast, artists such as Murphy and Hendricks led their own groups and sustained entire concerts on their own. Carroll drew inspiration from Leo Watson, one of the foremost novelty jazz singers. Even an advocate might decline to request a full evening of his work, yet five minutes of his singing carries enough buoyant spirit to ease everyday difficulties, at least for a while. The title of his 1962 album on the Charlie Parker label, The Man with a Happy Sound, conveys that quality most directly.
While Gillespie occupies a place beside Parker in the founding narrative of bebop, the vocal comedy and novelty material that spotlighted Carroll recalled the repertoire of one of Gillespie’s earlier employers, Cab Calloway—only without matching wit. Calloway himself loathed bebop and dismissed it as “Chinese music.” Carroll supplied some of his own pieces, posing questions such as “Got a Penny, Benny?” Later jazz singers, among them Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks, have named Carroll an important influence; Hendricks recounted phoning him immediately after stepping off the Greyhound bus in New York City simply to ask “Where is Bird?”
Carroll marks a decisive change in the standing of jazz vocalists, who once remained on the margins and supplied interludes of broad humor, open sentiment, or physical appeal; by contrast, artists such as Murphy and Hendricks led their own groups and sustained entire concerts on their own. Carroll drew inspiration from Leo Watson, one of the foremost novelty jazz singers. Even an advocate might decline to request a full evening of his work, yet five minutes of his singing carries enough buoyant spirit to ease everyday difficulties, at least for a while. The title of his 1962 album on the Charlie Parker label, The Man with a Happy Sound, conveys that quality most directly.
Albums
