Make Everybody Happy ~ MJT + 3 | By Eddie Carter

Submitted for your approval from my library this morning is one of the tightest, most underrated hard bop groups to emerge out of Chicago, Illinois, at the beginning of the sixties. MJT+3 (short for Modern Jazz Two + Three) was co-founded by drummer Walter Perkins and bassist Bob Cranshaw, who solidified the lineup by recruiting three young Memphis musicians: trumpeter Willie Thomas, alto saxophonist Frank Strozier and pianist Harold Mabern. “Make Everybody Happy” (Vee-Jay VJLP 3008/VJSR 3008) was the second of…