This reissue of the second Vee-Jay release from the most successful
MJT + 3 lineup presents a restrained brand of hard bop that is short on the high-energy delivery typically associated with the genre. Led by drummer
Walter Perkins, the band is best on pieces that are most firmly in the hard bop camp: the
Horace Silver tribute "Sweet Silver" by
Booker Little and "Richie's Dilemma" by
MJT + 3 pianist
Harold Mabern. The long, tightly harmonized arrangement of the "Trolley Song" also works well. On the other hand, the band is bland and overly polite in its handling of the standards "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "Love Letters." "My Buddy" fares slightly better. The standout performer here is altoist
Frank Strozier, who has some of the urgency of
Jackie McLean and the tart elegance of
Art Pepper. His gifts, however, would be better served in a less fettered setting. Strozier's partner in the front line, trumpet player
Willie Thomas, contributes a competent, journeyman's performance. Mabern, who is generally regarded as an archetypal, hard bop pianist, is frequently tense and wooden on
Make Everybody Happy -- the one exception being his fluid, imaginative work on "Richie's Dilemma." While this 1960 session succeeds as a lounge-style hybrid of hard bop, listeners who wish a little more fire and passion will want to seek out some of its contemporaries, say
Art Blakey's A Night in Tunisia or
Jackie McLean's New Soil. ~ Jim Todd