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Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson is an NEA Jazz Master

Lou Donaldson, alto saxophonist, recording star and entertainer extraordinaire was born in Badin, North Carolina on November 1, 1926. He is the child of parents, Lucy Wallace Donaldson, mother, and Louis Andrew Donaldson, Sr., father. His mother was a first grade teacher at Badin High School, Musical Director at the school, and a concert pianist who was a graduate of Cheney University. His father was a graduate of Livingstone College, an AME Zion minister, and insurance agent. Lou is the second of 4 children, between older sister Margaret and younger sister Elizabeth and brother William, all of whom ended up involved with music. Lou never studied piano because his mother had a switch that she would crack across the fingers when students missed a note. That turned him completely away from being a pianist. When he was about 9 years old, she heard him singing or humming all of the piano etudes that the students played and she took him aside and told him that he had more musical talent than anyone in the family and that he needed to play some type of instrument. She got a clarinet from the Band Director, Leo Gabriel, at the Alcoa Aluminum Plant Band. Although she knew nothing about the clarinet, she taught him basic music and they used the clarinet book to learn the fingerings and how to play the clarinet. Lou mastered the instrument and this ignited his pursuit of a career in music.

At age 15, Lou matriculated to North Carolina A& T College where he received a Bachelor's of Science degree and joined the marching band playing clarinet. After being drafted into the US Navy in 1945, he played in the Great Lakes Navy Band where, when playing for dances, he would also play the alto saxophone. After going into Chicago several times, he heard of Charlie Parker and, after checking him out, he decided that this was the style of playing he would make his own. Previously he had played like Johnny Hodges, or Tab Smith, or another saxophonist named Pete Brown. Returning from the military back to North Carolina A& T College, he played in the dance band led by Billy Tolles, who was a great saxophonist who played with several groups and with the Sabby Lewis Band during the summer months in Boston. Touring bands, such as Count Basie, Erskine Hawkins, Buddy Johnson, and Andy Kirk—all dance bands, used to come through Greensboro, North Carolina periodically four or five times a year. The students from the school would go down sometimes and sit in with the bands, all of which prompted the musicians in the band to tell them to come to New York. Lou never did go to New York then because he was also playing baseball which he loved dearly. But Illinois Jacquet came through with a tremendous band and Lou sat in with this band. The drummer was Poppa Joe Jones who, without any reservations, told Lou to come to New York and checked him in his hotel behind the Apollo Theater. Also, there was an Army band stationed in Greensboro that had several musicians of note: James Moody, Dave Burns, Joe Gale, and Walter Fuller and they insisted that Lou go to New York to establish himself as a musician. They assured him he would be welcomed and that he would be able to “cut the mustard”. Taking this advice, Lou went to New York in 1950 or late 49. Being a GI and a Veteran he enrolled in the Darrow Institute of Music, which was a GI school, and was paid a monthly stipend so that he could survive. While at the school, he played many small clubs in Harlem where he lived at 127th Street and 8th Avenue with his new wife, Maker. Maker was his longtime sweetheart from North Carolina and remained his wife and business partner for 56 years until her death in 2006. Together they raised two children—Lydia, deceased, who was a nurse and educational recruiter, and Dr. E. Carol Webster, clinical psychologist and author who resides in Fort Lauderdale and who, along with husband Charles, founded the African American Success Foundation that Lou very happily supports each year by doing a Jazz Benefit.

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Catching Up With

Soul Survivor: Lou Donaldson Keeps the Bop Flame Alive

Read "Soul Survivor: Lou Donaldson Keeps the Bop Flame Alive" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


This article was first published at All About Jazz on November 2001. Now in his 75th year, Lou Donaldson counts among the few remaining jazz luminaries of the bebop era still active on the international scene. When I recently sat down to talk with him by phone from his home in Florida, Donaldson had just returned from tours in England, Italy and Greece. The ebullient alto man was then set to fly to New York the following Monday ...

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Liner Notes

Lou Donaldson: Say It Loud

Read "Lou Donaldson: Say It Loud" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the sound of jazz could be heard lingering in the smoky corners of neighborhood bars in every major city from New York to Los Angeles. These ghetto hangouts were on what was often called the 'chitlin' circuit,' a network of predominantly black operated venues that presented organ combos as the norm. Be it at The Smiling Dog Saloon in Cleveland or The Front Room in Newark, jazz and more ...

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Play This!

Lou Donaldson: Alligator Bogaloo

Read "Lou Donaldson: Alligator Bogaloo" reviewed by Joseph Vella


Who doesn't love the playing of Lou Donaldson? This late-'60s gem is one of those recordings where everything hits right. It is not only brilliant (and wonderfully dated) but it's also the type of record even your non-jazz friends can snap and tap to. The combo of hard bop and soul jazz is infectious. Right from the opening title track, Lou and Co. set a groove and take us on a compelling sonic hang. George Benson's guitar and the tasty ...

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Radio & Podcasts

50th Anniversary Blue Notes for June

Read "50th Anniversary Blue Notes for June" reviewed by Marc Cohn


Blue Note 50th anniversaries from June 1970, just two though: Horace Silver (That Healin' Feelin') and Lou Donaldson (Pretty Things). There was also a Reuben Wilson session, but it was never released, and only the 'vault gods' know if it was any good. But you know there's more (don't you?). 21st century music from the Posi-Tone Swingtet, Poncho Sanchez, Akiko Tsuruga, Sebastien Amman's Color Wheel, Randy Brecker, Gregory Porter and Tony Dagradi. Also another R&B compare and contrast with Ruth ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Blue Note 50th Anniversaries: November 1968 & More

Read "Blue Note 50th Anniversaries: November 1968 & More" reviewed by Marc Cohn


We celebrate the 50th anniversary of Blue Note sessions recorded in November, 1968 from Lou Donaldson (with Charles Earland, Blue Mitchell, Jimmy Ponder and Idris Muhammad), Bobby Hutcherson (with Stanley Cowell and Harold Land) and McCoy Tyner. Bien sur, there's more, including 78 rpm recordings of The Port Of Harlem Jazz Men from 1939--the first ensemble recorded by Alfred Lion--on Blue Note number 3, and even a track from some of the first material listed in the Erroll ...

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My Blue Note Obsession

The Best of Lou Donaldson, Volume 1 – 1957-1967

Read "The Best of Lou Donaldson, Volume 1 – 1957-1967" reviewed by Marc Davis


I'm not a huge fan of Best Of albums. Artists make albums of music--some with themes, some without--and you go with it. One album generally equals one mood, so why mix them up? But then... Lou Donaldson is an alto saxophonist who spent virtually his entire career at one label: Blue Note. Bigger names have recorded on Blue Note--Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins--but none so extensively, from the 1950s to '70s. Trouble is, ...

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My Blue Note Obsession

Lou Donaldson: Blues Walk – 1958

Read "Lou Donaldson: Blues Walk – 1958" reviewed by Marc Davis


There's a tendency among some jazz purists to poo-poo Lou Donaldson. Not flashy enough, they say. Not groundbreaking. Too bluesy, too simple. Predictable. Derivative. A notch below the best Blue Note saxmen. A craftsman, not an artist. Aw phooey! I like Lou Donaldson and I don't mind anyone knowing. It has always been a mystery to me why certain jazz artists get tagged as simplistic and not quite jazzy enough. Dave Brubeck got that a lot. ...

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Video / DVD

Lou Donaldson: 2000

Lou Donaldson: 2000

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers


Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Lou Donaldson, Alarm Will Sound, Three Tenors of St. Louis, David Grisman, ST. Louis Stompers, and More

Jazz This Week: Lou Donaldson, Alarm Will Sound, Three Tenors of St. Louis, David Grisman, ST. Louis Stompers, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Though Cardinal baseball may be preoccupying large segments of the populace in St. Louis, the fall jazz and creative music presenting season nevertheless continues this week with a full slate of performances in a wide variety of styles. Music fans who care to venture forth into clubs and concert halls over the next few days will find everything from traditional New Orleans jazz  to bluesy, bop-inflected saxophone from an old-school jazz master to top touring groups showcasing recombinant genres rooted ...

Video / DVD

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Return of Lou Donaldson

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Return of Lou Donaldson

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Once upon a time, just about every major city in the USA had at least a couple of guys who played in a similar style, if not with the same amount of skill, as alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who's coming back to St. Louis next week to perform Wednesday, October 9 through Saturday, October 12 at Jazz at the Bistro. Fronting a trio of organ, guitar and drums, Donaldson offers a mix of bebop, blues and ballads that evokes the ...

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Interview

Jazzwax List: Lou's Organists

Jazzwax List: Lou's Organists

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Lou Donaldson was one of the first alto saxophonists to perform and record consistently with a Hammond B3 behind him. He used the sound extensively on the road in the '50s while touring across the country and developed a new jazz-funk approach in the '60s. Here's a list of the groovy organists who have recorded with him over the years. Dates signify their first recording session:

Jimmy Smith (1957) Baby Face Willette (1961) Brother Jack McDuff (1961) Big John Patton ...

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Event

NPR Music Presents Lou Donaldson Quartet At The Village Vanguard

Source: Amy Schriefer

By the time he starts his next weeklong run at the Village Vanguard, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson will be 84. He's been based in New York for 60-odd years, during which time he's become a jazz legend—the kind who made albums that are still remembered today, who recorded lines memorable enough to be sampled years later, who toured the country's back rooms back when a jazz musician could post up for two weeks at a time in, say, Dayton, Ohio. ...

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Interview

Lou Donaldson in the WSJ

Lou Donaldson in the WSJ

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

I typically do not post on Saturdays, but I wanted to let you know that my profile of Lou Donaldson appears today in the “Greater New York" section of the Wall Street Journal. If you have access to WSJ.com, you'll find my article here. The first three paragraphs... Few musicians today can claim to have changed the direction of jazz. Lou Donaldson did so twice—once in 1953 with Clifford Brown and again in 1957 with Jimmy Smith. From Tuesday through ...

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Recording

One Track Mind: Lou Donaldson "Peepin'" (1967)

One Track Mind: Lou Donaldson "Peepin'" (1967)

Source: Something Else!

By PicoOne of my favorite funk-jazz albums of all time isn't by a crossover act like the Crusaders or Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, but by a living giant of a jazz alto sax blower. I'm talking about Lou Donaldson. Starting out as a very good Charlie Parker disciple leading bebop sessions on par with his most logical contemporary Jackie McLean, Donaldson always had a blues-based soulful and funky core that lead him to naturally down the path ...

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Interview

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 3)

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Between mid-1955 and the start of 1957, Lou Donaldson did not record for reasons he outlines below. Instead, he booked a long string of urban clubs across the country and toured them back and forth while fronting a quintet that included organist Big John Patton. Along the way, Lou became creatively comfortable with the sax-organ sound, in which he borrowed elements from r&b and bebop. When he returned to Blue Note in 1957, Lou recorded with organist JImmy Smith in ...

172

Interview

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 2)

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Jazz writers aren't in complete agreement about the first hard-bop recording. Many point to Miles Davis' Walkin', recorded in April 1954. Others choose recordings from slightly later. I'd have to say that the first hard-bop date--where the trumpet and saxophone operate in unison with an r&b feel, backed by big steady, swinging beat--would have to be a Blue Note session of June 9, 1953. On this date, Lou Donaldson co-led a group that featured Clifford Brown, pianist Elmo Hope, bassist ...

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Interview

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 1)

Interview: Lou Donaldson (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Lou Donaldson helped invent two major jazz movements. In 1952, he led a Blue Note recording that became one of the earliest hard bop sessions. The date included Blue Mitchell, Horace Silver, Percy Heath and Art Blakey. Seven months later he recorded with trumpeter Clifford Brown. Then in 1957, Lou began recording a series of albums with organist Jimmy Smith that popularized the sax and organ trio sound. Throughout the 1960s, Lou's merging of the hard bop feel and r&b ...

Laurent Doumont
saxophone
Pureum Jin
saxophone, alto
Aaron Johnson
saxophone, alto

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Eight Classic Albums

Matchless Recordings
2012

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Cool Blues

Groove Hut Records
2012

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Lou Takes Off

Blue Note Records
2009

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Lush Life

Blue Note Records
2008

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Here 'Tis

Blue Note Records
2008

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Videos

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