Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson, alto saxophonist, recording star andentertainer extraordinaire was born in Badin, North Carolinaon November 1, 1926. He is the child of parents, LucyWallace Donaldson, mother, and Louis Andrew Donaldson,Sr., father. His mother was a first grade teacher at BadinHigh School, Musical Director at the school, and a concertpianist who was a graduate of Cheney University. His fatherwas a graduate of Livingstone College, an AME Zionminister, and insurance agent. Lou is the second of 4children, between older sister Margaret and younger sisterElizabeth and brother William, all of whom ended up involvedwith music. Lou never studied piano because his mother hada switch that she would crack across the fingers whenstudents missed a note. That turned him completely awayfrom being a pianist. When he was about 9 years old, sheheard him singing or humming all of the piano etudes that thestudents played and she took him aside and told him that hehad more musical talent than anyone in the family and that heneeded to play some type of instrument. She got a clarinetfrom the Band Director, Leo Gabriel, at the Alcoa AluminumPlant Band. Although she knew nothing about the clarinet,she taught him basic music and they used the clarinet bookto learn the fingerings and how to play the clarinet. Loumastered the instrument and this ignited his pursuit of acareer in music.

At age 15, Lou matriculated to North Carolina A& T Collegewhere he received a Bachelor's of Science degree andjoined the marching band playing clarinet. After being draftedinto the US Navy in 1945, he played in the Great Lakes NavyBand where, when playing for dances, he would also play thealto saxophone. After going into Chicago several times, heheard of Charlie Parker and, after checking him out, hedecided that this was the style of playing he would make hisown. Previously he had played like Johnny Hodges, or TabSmith, or another saxophonist named Pete Brown. Returningfrom the military back to North Carolina A& T College, heplayed in the dance band led by Billy Tolles, who was a greatsaxophonist who played with several groups and with theSabby 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 tocome through Greensboro, North Carolina periodically four orfive times a year. The students from the school would godown sometimes and sit in with the bands, all of whichprompted the musicians in the band to tell them to come toNew York. Lou never did go to New York then because hewas also playing baseball which he loved dearly. But IllinoisJacquet came through with a tremendous band and Lou satin with this band. The drummer was Poppa Joe Jones who,without any reservations, told Lou to come to New York andchecked him in his hotel behind the Apollo Theater. Also,there was an Army band stationed in Greensboro that hadseveral musicians of note: James Moody, Dave Burns, JoeGale, and Walter Fuller and they insisted that Lou go to NewYork to establish himself as a musician. They assured him hewould be welcomed and that he would be able to “cut themustard”. Taking this advice, Lou went to New York in 1950or late 49. Being a GI and a Veteran he enrolled in theDarrow Institute of Music, which was a GI school, and waspaid a monthly stipend so that he could survive. While at theschool, he played many small clubs in Harlem where he livedat 127th Street and 8th Avenue with his new wife, Maker.Maker was his longtime sweetheart from North Carolina andremained his wife and business partner for 56 years until herdeath in 2006. Together they raised two children—Lydia,deceased, who was a nurse and educational recruiter, andDr. E. Carol Webster, clinical psychologist and author whoresides in Fort Lauderdale and who, along with husbandCharles, founded the African American Success Foundationthat Lou very happily supports each year by doing a JazzBenefit.

Once he moved to New York, Lou worked weekends inJersey with Dud Bascomb's band. One night while working atMinton's Playhouse—the famous jazz club, he wasapproached by Alfred Lyons of Blue Note Records to make arecording and he suggested that Lou make a Charlie Parker-type recording which he did with the Milt Jackson Quartet. Atthat time, it was Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, John Lewis, andKenny Clark. Later on this group would be called the ModernJazz Quartet. The record was successful and the companyasked him to make a record on his own and this is why he'smost proud of his time at Blue Note Records— because thisdate started a career for him that actually made him bringseveral musicians to Blue Note Records and today he's veryproud to have been the first to record these musicians—Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Grant Green, John Patton,Blue Mitchell, Donald Byrd, Horace Parlan, TommyTurrentine, Al Harewood, George Tucker, Jameel Nasser,and Curtis Fuller—with his group at Blue Note Records. Loubrought Gene Harris and the 3 Sounds from Washington DCto New York to record with him on the famous album calledLD Plus 3 which was a big hit. His most famous group wasHerman Foster on piano, Ray Baretto on conga, PeckMorrison on bass, and Dave Bailey on drums, which was thebest move he made during his tenure on the label. This grouprecorded the famous record which is still selling today, BluesWalk—and on the back side, The Masquerade is Over. Thissolo is dearly considered by many disc jockeys as one of thetop alto solos of all times and, along with Blues Walk, wasused by many as a theme song. Another album Lou is veryproud of is Lush Life, recorded for Blue Note with DukePearson as arranger and producer, that had severalmusicians who later become famous ?” Freddy Hubbard, ontrumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Pepper Adamson baritone saxophone, Al Harewood on drums, McCoyTyner on piano, Jerry Dodgin on alto saxophone, GarnetBrown on trombone, and Ron Carter on bass.

After this recording, there was a big demand for Lou inEurope and he started to tour through the Wim Wigt Agencyout of Wageningen, Holland in the Netherlands with hisgroup—Herman Foster, piano, Nat Yarborough, drums, JeffFuller, bass, and Lou on alto saxophone —very successfullyfor years. Many dates and many records in between, hefinally met the great Jimmy Smith and was prominent on therecord, The Sermon. He often told Jimmy that his solo on thatrecord made Jimmy famous. The organ sound was sopowerful and commercial that he started making organrecords. In 1968 he recorded, Alligator Boogaloo with Dr.Lonnie Smith on the organ, George Benson on guitar, MelvinLasky on trumpet, Idris Mohammed (Leo Morris) on drumswhich was a hit record. It stayed on the Best Selling Billboardchart for 52 weeks, and put Lou into a good positionmusically and financially. He then continued to make thesetype of records with the great Charles Earland, the greatLeon Spencer, Jr. Billy Gardner and Baby Face Willette.Then Lou began to sing blues and luckily came up with a bighit called Whiskey Drinkin' Woman, recorded on Wim Wigt'slabel, Timeless Records, that is still in great demand everytime he plays a set.

In the mid 60's, Lou furthered his success as a musician andbusinessman. He set up his own tour of clubs—which was noeasy feat in those days. Beginning in Rochester, NY, then toBuffalo, NY, and on to Pittsburgh, Pa.—where he worked twogreat clubs: Birdie's and Crawford Grill, then would head toCleveland. All of these clubs were like two week stands andthey weren't too far for Lou to drive because at that time hewould have to carry an organ which he put on a U-Haul trailer.These places he booked and he would call ahead and keepbooking so thathe could get more work and stay on the road.After Cleveland he would go to Columbus, right on thecampus of Ohio State where one of his best friends, WarrenStephens, had a club—the Sacred Mushroom. Stephens alsowas an agent with the Ruth Bowen Agency and helped Louget some gigs. Then Lou would move on to Dayton, Ohio toanother club called Jilly's. Then onto Cincinnati, a few milesaway from Dayton he would play two clubs—Babe Baker'sand the Modern Jazz Room. From Cincinnati was anothershort jump to Louisville, Kentucky to the big club the IdleHour. From there Lou would take old US 50 to Old St. Louisto the Riviera Club, the Gaslight Square Club, and a veryfamous club called Georgie's. Then he would head 7 milesaway across the river to East St. Louis to the Blue Note Clubowned by Leo Gooden, a good friend of his, where he metOliver Nelson and recorded a great album that Oliverarranged for him called Rough House Blues.

After St Louis, Lou would drive a couple of hundred moremiles to Kansas City where he worked the Blue Room on18th and Vine—the very famous street in Kansas City, andseveral clubs for well known club owner Jimmy Willis. Thenhe would head into Wichita to Bill Reeves' Steakhouse whereall the food was free so the band had a nice stay for twoweeks. Then from there, Lou was on to Tulsa, Oklahoma tothe Twilight club, which was on a mountain overlooking Tulsa,for good friend Lloyd Williams, and then on to Dallas wherethe band worked 3 or 4 clubs, such as Lark Club owned byChuck Banks. But the most prominent one was Magruder's.Then Lou would work a nice club in Fort Worth, the BlueFlamingo, which was about 40 to 50 miles from there, andthen would put a long set together and go all the way to LosAngeles, California and work the It Club, run by a famouspromoter named John T McClain. Lou also worked the ZebraLounge on that famous avenue that a lot of people don't liketo talk about anymore, Central Avenue. Then the band wentup to San Francisco and Oakland to play a club namedMister Major's. After the band had a chance to rest, Loustarted the long trip back to New York by stopping inColorado at Basin Street West and also another club inDenver called the KC Lounge. Coming back over the top, theband dropped into Chicago where most of the time Louworked for a good friend, Joe Segal who had a club namedthe Jazz Showcase which Lou worked for many years, whichis still there. He also worked two very good clubs— McKee'sLounge and had some one nighters at the Persian Ballroomon 63rd and Cottage Grove. Then Lou would take the nexttrip coming back toward New York to Detroit where he'd workBaker's Lounge, a very famous club still there, and also theBlue Note Club which was owned by a good friend, ClarenceEddings. After Detroit, the band typically deadheadedstraight across to play Cleveland one more time in anotherplace called Leo's Casino which was at 55th and Central inCleveland, and also Corner Tavern, then owned by Don King.The band would come back and play another place inPittsburgh and then come across the Pennsylvania Turnpiketo Philly to play the Blue Note on Ridge Avenue, Club Harlem,and a few more. Then Lou would drive the 90 miles back toNew York.

Lou is most proud of this tour because several other bandswould call him during these years and he would give them thescheme of the clubs so they could also book them and playthere. Sometimes he would be called by big promoters andpeople booking other groups to put their bands in these clubsbecause they didn't even know where these clubs were. JackWhittemore, Miles Davis' manager, was famous for callingLou to try to get Miles into some of these clubs even thoughthey were so-called “ghetto clubs” because they were inpoorer neighborhoods and Lou didn't know whether the greatfans who frequented these clubs would relate to the groupsthat Miles, John Coltrane, and these types of musicians had.But Lou told them anyway and some got work in these clubsbecause of his help. Lou also remembers getting JohnColtrane one of his first gigs in a place called Vernon's whichwas in New Orleans, Louisiana—and was also on LouisianaAvenue—and the manager was not too happy with the group.Also the Judge's Chamber in East St. Louis, Illinois whereLou had to talk the guy into paying Coltrane enough money toget him back to New York because he was unsatisfied withthe group and was not going to pay up the money. Thesewere the types of things even the great musicians had toface, but Lou eventually convinced the club to do the rightthing and this got Coltrane back to New York.

During these memorable years, Lou had four distinct groupsthat he would use for the organ sound: one group was JohnPatton on organ, Bill Hardman on trumpet, Grant Green onguitar, and Ben Dixon on drums. Another group was LonnieSmith on organ, Billy Kaye on drums, Mark Elf on guitar—andsometimes Melvin Sparks on guitar, and Joe Dukes ondrums—the greatest organ drummer of all times. Later he hadanother group with Caesar Frazier on organ, Eric Johnson onguitar, and Billy Kaye on drums with Sweet Lou on alto.Another of Lou's groups had Charles Earland on organ,Jimmy Ponder on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, and IdrisMuhammad on drums. These groups played mostly the so-called “ghetto clubs” where the fans really got into their musicand sometimes they were booked even for dancing. It was avery successful set up and several other people like HankCrawford, Jack McDuff, Groove Holmes, Sonny Stitt, andeven Dizzy found out about these clubs and had a good runfollowing this idea. Later in the ‘80's, Lou began to go toEurope again touring most of the countries playing jazzfestivals and one nighters and even today remains indemand for these types of jobs when he's able to do them.He has continued to play in between commercial and jazzmusic—sort of modified in places where the avante garde orwhat is called ultra modern—might run into some problemswith the audience. Using this system, he has survived andcontinues to work as much as he possibly can at his age.This octogenarian has to space his appearances to suit hishealth and availability. He works locally in New York, hishome town, twice a year at the Village Vanguard and twice ayear and the Birdland Club, as well as many jazz festivals,concerts, and one nighters throughout the country and aroundthe world. He is very proud of his current group that boaststhe musical excellence of Randy Johnston on guitar, AkikoTsuruga on organ, Fukushi Tainaka on drums along with Louon alto sax.

Lou was awarded the honorary Doctorate of Letters by NorthCarolina A& T University and a scholarship was establishedin his name that is awarded to the most gifted jazz musicianat North Carolina A&T University each year. He was inductedinto the International Jazz Hall of Fame and is the recipient ofcountless other honors and awards for his outstandingcontributions to jazz.

Photo Credit
Courtesy of Dimitris Mentis

Awards

NEA Jazz Master – Nation’s Highest Honor In Jazz Recipient of North Carolina Fine Arts Award – State’s Highest Honor Bestowed Upon Civilians Recipient of North Carolina Music Hall of Fame Yale School of Music Ellington Medal Harper’s Ferry Don Redman Award International Jazz Hall of Fame Honoree