Revinylization

Years ago, at one of the milestone NYC anniversary parties for Blue Note Records, a piercing voice burst out above the clinking glasses and chattering tongues, loudly declaiming (quoted here with several profanities omitted), "Blue Note never gave me a dime!"

A lot of people turned to see who dared profane the label within earshot of beloved Blue Note president Bruce Lundvall and his staff, including the late Tom Evered. A gasp of recognition followed when it was discovered that those words had come from Lou Donaldson, one of the few original Blue Note bebop stars still out partying and playing music in the 21st century.

When the altoist died in Florida last November, one of the longest surviving early-bebop personages, he'd amassed a robust and influential recording legacy, now available via streaming, CD, and original and reissue vinyl, the last of which I'll survey here.

Although his career began in his home state of North Carolina, Donaldson adjourned for Gotham early. Like virtually every other alto player of his generation, he was influenced by Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges. Donaldson's first recordings were issued as New Faces – New Sounds, a 10" mono album tracked in the studios of NYC's WOR when he was 27. It featured Donaldson in a quintet with pianist Elmo Hope, bassist Percy Heath, drummer Joseph "Philly Joe" Jones, and the masterful, soon-to-be-lost trumpeter Clifford Brown.

On tunes like the opener, a cover of Sonny Rollins and Elmo Hope's upbeat "Carvin' the Rock," or his own brisk number, "Cookin'," Donaldson revealed himself to be a nimble soloist who leans toward the bluesy end of the stylistic spectrum, with ideas that are fluid if not always wholly original. This enduring session later became half of the Clifford Brown Memorial Album, released after the trumpeter's tragic death in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956. Along with Brown, Donaldson also played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers on one of the foundational bop recordings, the live A Night at Birdland with its classic introduction by MC Pee Wee Marquette.

Donaldson's affinity for the blues, and his growth away from Parker's style, began on 1958's smoky, sensual Blues Walk on Blue Note, the one album nearly all Donaldson fans agree is a masterpiece. Along with the swingin', serpentine title track, his composition "Autumn Nocturne" is evidence of his genuine growth as a writer. The 2007 Classic Records, the 2009 45rpm cut from Analogue Productions, and the 2019 Music Matters (the last two with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray) are the definitive Blues Walk vinyl reissues.

By the mid-1960s, Donaldson had slid almost entirely into a bluesy, funky groove that most would label soul jazz. One early effort in that direction is the 1961 Blue Note session Here 'Tis . Opening with a loose, groovy take of George Gershwin's "A Foggy Day," this five-track collection, like all his albums for Blue Note, was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The record highlights not only Donaldson's alto but also the playing of the seldom-recorded Chicago organist Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette.

The version here of Charlie Parker's "Cool Blues" combines both the attack of Donaldson's bebop days with the pervasive funkiness of the entire session. Grant Green adds an incisive solo as Willette comps along. A beautifully rendered 2009 45rpm Analogue Productions reissue, mastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman with lacquers cut by Gray, is the vinyl reissue of Here 'Tis worth seeking out.

Donaldson's catalog veered off into unexpected and often very listenable directions after his mid-1960s peak. 1963's Good Gracious! is another BN soul jazz classic, though, oddly, it has never received a high-quality LP reissue. True to its title, 1967's Blue Note session Alligator Bogaloo, with a young George Benson on guitar, is downright funky. A 2019 180gm BN reissue is as close as that recording has come to a quality reissue. Lush Life, the other Blue Note record, released that same year, showcases a nonet with Wayne Shorter on tenor and pianist McCoy Tyner. In a complete departure from Donaldson's usual bop or soul jazz modes of expression, this likable session is full of slow, romantic ballads including an inventive rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust." A 1986 DMM Blue Note LP reissue is still the highest quality vinyl reissue of Donaldson's Lush Life.

The tumultuous year 1968 saw the release of perhaps Donaldson's most underrated record, Midnight Creeper. Soul jazz and other approaches to fashioning funky jazz often go awry when the musicians are too lax, too repetitive, or simply can't deliver on the funk promise. Several Donaldson records fit that description. But on Creeper, he is obviously in the mood, if not the groove, from the title-track opener. Organist Lonnie Smith, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and Benson again provide loose-limbed, effective support. A welcome 2024 Blue Note Tone Poet release, supervised by Joe Harley and mastered and cut by Kevin Gray, is a significant sonic upgrade to this sinuous example of Donaldson playing in the mode that this bebop icon turned soul jazz innovator will always be best loved and known for.