BLP 4053

Lou Donaldson - Light-Foot

Released - June 1961

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, December 14, 1958
Lou Donaldson, alto sax; Herman Foster, piano; Peck Morrison, bass; Jimmy Wormworth, drums; Ray Barretto, congas.

tk.1 Walkin' By The River
tk.6 Green Eyes
tk.7 Light-Foot
tk.9 Hog Maw
tk.12 Mary Ann
tk.13 Day Dreams
tk.14 Stella By Starlight

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Light-Foot	Lou Donaldson	14/12/1958
Hog Maw	Lou Donaldson	14/12/1958
Mary Ann	Ray Charles	14/12/1958
Side Two
Green Eyes	Nilo Menendez, Adolfo Utrera	14/12/1958
Walking by the River	Una Mae Carlisle, Robert Sour	14/12/1958
Day Dreams	Herman Foster	14/12/1958
Stella by Starlight	Ned Washington, Victor Young	14/12/1958

Liner Notes

ALTHOUGH Light-foot is the title of only one of the selections in this album, it can be well applied to the general demeanor of Lou Donaldson's playing. The mellow substance of his sound and the nimble way he travels around his alto saxophone imparts a definite dancing quality.

Not incongruously, the music that Donaldson's groups play is usually excellent for dancing as well as listening. The beat is always well-defined and presented as an integral part of the overall performance.

In my notes to Blues Walk (Blue Note BLP 1593) I brought out Lou's relative lack of popularity in parts of the country other than the East, and blamed it on the fact that he had never toured extensively with his own group. In 1960 he remedied this by taking a quintet on the road for 14 weeks. They hot-footed and light-footed it through Chicago, St. Louis. Kansas City and Los Angeles, much to the delight of the people who turned out in healthy numbers. Donaldson's traveling group was a quintet much like the one that can be heard in Sunny Side Up (Blue Note BLP 4036), except that Tommy Turrentine was the trumpeter instead of Bill Hardman.

The quintet heard in Light-Foot has no trumpet but it does have the added rhythmic dimension of Roy Barretto's conga drum. It is almost identical to the group that recorded Swing And Soul (Blue Note BLP 1566 and Blues Walk. The sole difference is that Jimmy Wormworth is at the drums instead of Dave Bailey.

It is always interesting to trace the growth and development of a musician. Lou Donaldson has done 99% of his recording for Blue Note and the documentation of his career is there for all to hear. While writing these notes, I heard a selection on the radio from A Night At Birdland (Blue Note BLP 1521 and BLP 1522) featuring Lou with Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Curly Russell and the thought struck me how much he has matured since then. Donaldson was a volatile, Charlie Parker-oriented player in 1954, but now his personality is much more his own. This is reflected in his sound as well as his attack. In the process of becoming a more rounded performer, he has lost none of his puckish wit.

Since the men in this set have played and recorded with Donaldson many times before, the close-knit feeling is not surprising.

Ray Barretto consistently proves that he is a jazz conga player, not a Latin conga player. How many times have you heard a jazz concert, jam session, record date or club performance (take your choice) ruined by an unwitting character, with a conga or a set of bongos, who would be fine at the Palladium but...? Barretto not only doesn't detract from the proceedings but rather enhances them tangibly.

Herman Foster, now with the accompanying trio which backs singer Gloria Lynne, has been getting more and more recognition since his last Blue Note appearances with Donaldson. He has even done his own trio album "on another network" as they used to say in radio. Foster is an exciting pianist whose dynamic, organ-like chording in his solos surges onward like a tidal wave of sound.

Bassist Peck Morrison was often seen and heard at New York's Five Spot Cafe in the late '50s with the groups of Randy Weston and Mal Waldron. He is one of those veteran rhythm players who, because his good job is done in an unspectacular manner, is often taken for granted. So raise a cheer for Peck who, in his own way, is as important to jazz as the star soloists.

The newcomer to the Donaldson circle, for this recording, is Jimmy Wormworth, who has been drumming in the Ike Isaacs trio, the supporting group for Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, since October, 1959. Wormworth, born in Utica, N Y. in 1937, previously played with Nellie Lutcher, Phineas Newborn and Mal Waldron in addition to Donaldson. Described in Leonard Feather A New Encyclopedia of Jazz (Horizon Press 1960) as "One of the most promising drummers on the New York scene", Jimmy has been making that implied forecast ring true.

Donaldson's Light-Foot starts things off in a swinging, minor key with Lou quoting from Song Of The Volga Boatmen and Toy Trumpet. Foster has a solo and the leader exchanges "fours" with Wormworth.

You get to do a eavesdropping on Hog Maw. A false start brings Lou's high-pitched voice in to preside over a good-humored hassel among the group concerning correct entrances. Even engineer Rudy Van Gelder chimes in some gibberish before eventually announcing "take 9". The complete version is a down home blues in which Lou shows remarkable control in a clarinet-like but, more importantly, an overall sincerity of feeling. He communicates directly no matter what he is playing but even more so on the blues. Foster builds from single-line into his chordal style. The walking bit by Peck is more to "show you where it is than a real solo flight.

Mary Ann's calypso beat melts into 4/4 when the solos commence but Donaldson preserves some of the island dancing quality in his solo. nevertheless. A nice duet between Morrison and Barretto leads into Ray's solo.

Green Eyes was a Latin number when Jimmy Dorsey popularized it years ago. The mambo wasn't around then but it is here until it is solo time. Foster leads off and almost immediately puts some blue into the green with his single-line. The block-chord section of his solo is provided with four-bar answers by Barretto. Then Donaldson makes good use of the pretty changes.

Peck is strolling behind as Lou goes Walking By The River. As they get to the bridge, everyone joins the promenade. This is another example of how Donaldson finds and plays tunes that no one else thinks of doing. Foster solos first then drops out during Lou's first chorus. The time that the rhythm section lays down on this one is about as relaxed as grooves get, a perfect dance tempo of its kind.

Herman Foster's Day Dreams has no connection with the Billy Strayhorn Day Dream that Johnny Hodges made with Ellington. It is a pretty saxophone solo by Donaldson, however in an extremely mellow, wistful mood.

Victor Young's Stella by Starlight is one song that seems never to lose freshness and inherent beauty. Lou treats it at medium tempo, replete with double-time runs, but leaves its dignity intact while adding the dimension of his own interpretation.

1960 saw Lou Donaldson score a success on the road. 1961 should see him continue that success wherever he plays, be it town or city.

Lou simply plays good music in a warm, unpretentious manner, without either lying on his back or blowing a gingerbread saxophone with a persimmon mouthpiece and a lemon-peel reed.

As Confucius say, "Light-Foot leave you with light heart."

- IRA GITLER

Cover Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER