Lou Donaldson

Louis Andrew Donaldson Jr. (November 1, 1926 – November 9, 2024) was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was heavily influenced by Charlie Parker, as were many during the bebop era.<ref name=ALLMUSIC>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Donaldson was born in Badin, North Carolina, on November 1, 1926.<ref name="Mathieson2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=ALLMUSIC /> He attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.

Career

Lou Donaldson at VIS club, Divisadero Street, San Francisco in June 1984

Donaldson in Buffalo, New York

At the war's conclusion, Donaldson 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,<ref>Massengale, Susan, Dir. "Boogie in Black and White." Chapel Hill, NC: UNC-TV, 1988.</ref> 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.<ref>Albright, Alex. "Boogie Woogie Jams Again," American Film, June 1987: 36-40.</ref>

Donaldson's first jazz recordings were with bop musicians Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk in 1952,<ref>Template:Cite Grove</ref> and he participated in several small groups with other prominent jazz musicians such as trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer Art Blakey.<ref name="ALLMUSIC" /> In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpeter Clifford Brown, and with Philly Joe Jones. He was a member of Art Blakey's Quintet for the hard bop recording sessions at Birdland on February 21, 1954, which would yield the A Night at Birdland albums for Blue Note Records.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame on October 11, 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also in 2012, he was named a NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Retirement and death

In 2018, Donaldson 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 in Manhattan, New York City. He appeared at his 96th and 97th birthday tribute shows in 2022 and 2023, but opted not to travel to New York City for his 98th birthday celebration, due to a bout of pneumonia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shortly afterward, he died from pneumonia at a hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida, on November 9, 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

• Official site
• Template:IMDb name
• NEA Jazz Master Lou Donaldson
• All About Jazz
• Template:Discogs artist

Signature tunes

• Template:YouTube
• Template:YouTube
• Template:YouTube