Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is an American retired jazz

alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B teno ...

. 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 Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

era, heavily influenced by

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

Life and career

Donaldson was born in

Badin, North Carolina Badin is a town located in Stanly County, North Carolina, United States. At the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 1,974. History The Badin Historic District, Doerschuk Site, Hardaway Site, Narrows Dam and Power Plant Complex, and ...

, United States. He attended

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

in Greensboro in the early 1940s. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

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 The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

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'', 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. Donaldson's first jazz recordings were with the Charlie Singleton Orchestra in 1950 and then with bop emissaries

Milt Jackson Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging so ...

and

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

in 1952, and he participated in several small groups with other prominent jazz musicians such as trumpeter

Blue Mitchell Richard Allen "Blue" Mitchell (March 13, 1930 – May 21, 1979) was an American trumpeter and composer who worked in jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and funk. He recorded albums as leader and sideman for Riverside, Mainstream Records, and ...

, pianist

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...

, and drummer

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the ...

. In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpet virtuoso

Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", an ...

, and

Philly Joe Jones Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Early career As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio station WIP. He wa ...

. 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''. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame on October 11, 2012. Also in 2012, he was named a NEA Jazz Master by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. In 2018, he declared himself retired, having performed his final shows in 2017. On November 2, 2021, he made a public appearance at a 95th birthday tribute show at Dizzy’s Club.

Discography

References

External links

Official site

NEA Jazz Master Lou Donaldson

All About Jazz

Signature tunes

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, Lou 1926 births Living people Jazz musicians from North Carolina People from Stanly County, North Carolina 21st-century American saxophonists African-American saxophonists American jazz alto saxophonists American male saxophonists Argo Records artists Bebop saxophonists Blue Note Records artists Milestone Records artists Muse Records artists Hard bop saxophonists Jazz alto saxophonists Soul-jazz saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American musicians