| Joy Spring | |
| Artist: | Clifford Brown and Max Roach |
| Album: | Clifford Brown & Max Roach |
| Recorded: | August 1954 |
| Studio: | Capitol, Los Angeles |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Composer: | Clifford Brown |
| Lyricist: | Jon Hendricks |
"Joy Spring" is a 1954 jazz composition by Clifford Brown that became his signature work. The title was his pet name for his wife Larue.
Brown first recorded "Joy Spring" in a studio session led by him on August 6, 1954, at Capitol Recording Studios, in Los Angeles, with Harold Land (tenor sax), Richie Powell (piano), George Morrow (bass), and Max Roach (drums). They did two takes – and .
Six days later (August 12, 1954), at the same studio, Brown, as leader, recorded Jack Montrose's arrangement of it with Stu Williamson (valve trombone), Zoot Sims (tenor sax), Bob Gordon (baritone sax), Russ Freeman (piano), Joe Mondragon (bass), and Shelly Manne (drums). That take has been issued on several albums, including Jazz Messages (Jazztone), Clifford Brown & Max Roach (Pacific Jazz), and Jazz Immortal – Featuring Zoot Sims (1988; Pacific Jazz).
Larue Anderson, before marrying Brown, had been a classical music student at the University of Southern California. Without any knowledge of jazz theory – and, in particular, without any knowledge of bebop articulations, phrasing, and the use of half-step progressions, tritone substitutions, and other musical features of the style – she had begun writing a thesis titled "Classics versus Jazz". Max Roach, her friend who introduced her to Brown, took her aside and said: "Honey, the whole world is not built around tonic / dominant." He convinced her to the point that she became a jazz devotee.
In 1985, Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics to Brown's music and the song was performed and published by Manhattan Transfer on their album Vocalese with the title "Sing Joy Spring".
1988: Let's Get Lost – "Joy Spring"
1999: Guinevere – "Joy Spring"