The Joker is a hard bop, post-bop instrumental by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan. It appears on his 1966 Blue Note album Search for the New Land. The tune was composed by Morgan and lasts 5 minutes 4 seconds on the album. The album was recorded on February 15, 1964 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, but was shelved for two years and released in August 1966. The Joker is part of a Morgan led session that features Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, Reggie Workman, and Billy Higgins, with Alfred Lion as producer. The album as a whole is regarded as one of Morgan’s finest, and it charted on Billboard, reaching the Black Albums chart peak of 16.
