Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is a retired American jazz alto saxophonist. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.[1]

Lou Donaldson
Donaldson in 2015
Background information
Born (1926-11-01) November 1, 1926
Badin, North Carolina, U.S.
GenresBebop, hard bop, jazz blues, soul jazz
Occupation(s)Bandleader, composer, saxophonist
InstrumentsAlto saxophone
Years active1952–2016
Associated acts
Websiteloudonaldson.com

Life and career

Donaldson was born in Badin, North Carolina.[2] He attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro[3] in the early 1940s. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was trained at the Great Lakes bases in Chicago where he was introduced to bop music in the lively club scene.

At the war's conclusion, he returned to Greensboro, where he worked club dates with the Rhythm Vets, a combo composed of A and T students who had served in the U.S. Navy. The band recorded the soundtrack to a musical comedy featurette, Pitch a Boogie Woogie, in Greenville, North Carolina, in the summer of 1947. The movie had a limited run at black audience theatres in 1948 but its production company, Lord-Warner Pictures, folded and never made another film. Pitch a Boogie Woogie was restored by the American Film Institute in 1985 and re-premiered on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville the following year. Donaldson and the surviving members of the Vets performed a reunion concert after the film's showing. In the documentary made on Pitch by UNC-TV, Boogie in Black and White,[4] Donaldson and his musical cohorts recall the film's making—he originally believed that he had played clarinet on the soundtrack. A short piece of concert footage from a gig in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is included in the documentary.[5]

Donaldson's first jazz recordings were with the Charlie Singleton Orchestra in 1950 and then with bop emissaries Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk in 1952,[6] and he participated in several small groups with other prominent jazz musicians such as trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer Art Blakey.[1]

In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown, and Philly Joe Jones. He was a member of Art Blakey's Quintet and appeared on some of their best regarded albums, including the two albums recorded at Birdland in February 1954 Night at Birdland.[7]

He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame on October 11, 2012.[8] Also in 2012, he was named a NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.[9]

In 2016, he retired at age 90.

Discography
Main article: Lou Donaldson discography

References
  1. Allmusic Biography
  2. Mathieson, Kenny (1 March 2012). Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954–65: Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954–65. Canongate Books. pp. 210–. ISBN 978-0-85786-616-5. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  3. "NEA Jazz Masters: Tribute to Lou Donaldson | NEA". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  4. Massengale, Susan, Dir. "Boogie in Black and White." Chapel Hill, NC: UNC-TV, 1988.
  5. Albright, Alex. "Boogie Woogie Jams Again," American Film, June 1987: 36-40.
  6. "The Hard Bop Homepage".
  7. Project, Jazz Discography. "Lou Donaldson Discography". www.jazzdisco.org. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  8. "N.C. Music Hall of Fame offers tickets". The Salisbury Post. August 29, 2012. Archived from the original on December 31, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  9. "National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters". Retrieved August 22, 2014.
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