BLP 4108

Lou Donaldson - The Natural Soul

Released - February 1963

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 9, 1962
Tommy Turrentine, trumpet; Lou Donaldson, alto sax; John Patton, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Ben Dixon, drums.

tk.4 Spaceman Twist
tk.13 That's All
tk.15 Funky Mama
tk.19 Love Walked In
tk.20 Sow Belly Blues
tk.23 Nice 'N' Greasy

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Funky Mama	John Patton	09 May 1962
Love Walked In	George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin	09 May 1962
Spaceman Twist	Lou Donaldson	09 May 1962
Side Two
Sow Belly Blues	Lou Donaldson	09 May 1962
That's All	Alan Brandt, Bob Haymes	09 May 1962
Nice 'n' Greasy	John Adriano Acea	09 May 1962

Liner Notes

WHEN Mr. Kennedy assumed the presidency of the United States, he told the country in his inaugural address, "Ask not what the country can do for you... ask what you can do for your country.” The same question in jazz terms should be posed to the many jazz musicians, critics and jazzophiles in the following terms: "Ask not what is wrong with jazz... what are you doing to keep jazz the happy, swinging sound that makes one tap his foot, snap his finger and respond to its excitement?”

It would not be surprising to hear that only a handful of jazz partisans respond in the affirmative. The others could not possibly offer any evidence of their willingness to keep jazz swinging.

The past ten years has seen the jazz world filled with anxious musicians experimenting with new sounds while peering over their shoulders at the critics, hoping for critical acceptance. Their musical message has been geared to the pseudo critics who have done everything possible to remove jazz from its real roots. And in this craze to make jazz supposedly respectable, jazz was taken from the people. 1962 might well be the year that jazz historians will call the year jazz returned to the people.

What is the people’s jazz? Look over the vast library of Blue Note albums. While the country was immersed in the avalanche of ”hit tunes” that lasted for six weeks and the dubious ”million” sellers, Blue Note has consistently turned out a respectable jazz that swings, has a beat and is filled with happiness. Very few record companies can compare with Blue Note's recording history for swinging, earthy, funky and soulful jazz.

One of Blue Note’s most consistent contributors to happy jazz is Lou Donaldson. In the attempts to categorize his place as an alto saxophonist and musician, Lou has the distinction of being good. And he has been good for a long time.

This may not seem complimentary. But think for a moment at the many performers over the past years who have been labeled "great” and lasted only for the duration of the time the disc jockeys played their records.

In showbiz lexicon, ”great” has become such a loosely applied term that the excellent performer who is consistent in his performance of superb quality has been left in the shadows.

Only recently a major record company produced an album of a youngster they called the ”World’s Greatest Saxophonist”. Incidentally, I have yet to play this album on my daily six hour show. This is my opinion of what they call ”great”. If this untried saxophonist is the ”greatest", where does this leave a veteran jazzman like Lou Donaldson?

Lou Donaldson is known among his jazz brothers as a dedicated artist. He takes his responsibilities seriously. He is the actor who turns out top notch performances each time out. He is the consistent .300 hitter in baseball. He is the steady golf player who always shoots in the low 80’s. He is the good back in football who always has the ability to churn out the necessary yardage for the first down.

As a veteran performer, he knows the difficulties younger musicians face while hoping for a chance to be heard. He has not been selfish. He has brought many of those young musicians to the attention of Al Lion of Blue Note where they receive their first recording dates. Many have become leading recording artists as a result.

And through this long career of being a top flight musician and still not receiving overwhelming accolades, he has not forgotten the people. His music displays that rare feeling of happiness, with the earthiness and feeling of swing.

This present album could not carry a better title, ”The Natural Soul.“ For Lou Donaldson does not believe in gimmicks. There is no gimmickry here.

This album is a beautiful follow-up to Blues Walk and Gravy Train. On those gems, the people patted their feet and snapped their fingers as they heard the records on record players, on radio and on thousands of jukeboxes throughout the country.

They will do the same when they hear John Patton’s Funky Mama.

Once again surrounding himself with young talented jazzmen not ashamed of taking the funky route to soulville, the group projects an intensely warm rollicking feeling of swinging blues. Grant Green’s guitar work stands out in his solo, crystal clear with touches of the down home gut bucket guitar. Tommy Turrentine, an able trumpeter who has been in the shadows too long, emerges brightly with a solid, almost liquid-like tone for his solo. Patton’s organ work remains light, never ponderous. He is in total sympathy at all times with the group and his solo contribution keeps the group moving and shutting right along. Ben Dixon’s back beat is steady all the way.

This is standard forte throughout the album. The group is never afraid to let you, the listener, swing with them. You’ll listen and react with them. You can almost visualize the happy expressions of the musicians as they play.

Lou Donaldson’s love for a beautiful tune is evidenced in all his recordings of ballads. He manifests a tone that is almost incomparable with any alto man today. After Lou establishes the Opening theme of Love Walked In, he offers room for Patton, Turrentine and Green to improvise around the melody without ever losing the essential beat.

Spaceman Twist has Lou once again taking the lead on this original. The group never soars out of sight. They lift you just high enough off the ground to keep you in a happy groove. Turrentine’s solo here again is inventive and clear, and bristles with ideas. Grant sweeps in and continues the spiraling before the musical capsule is set down. However, not before Patton punctuates the air with some smooth organ manipulations.

Sow Belly Blues brings a fullness of sound to the group with a set of breaks that gives it a big band sound. Lou really digs in on this set and never loses his Donaldson sound as he steps aside for Tommy.

That’s All showcases the sympathy and understanding of Lou for a ballad. A ballad need not be sickly saccharine. A ballad can be light and lovely, sweet and pungent. This is what is offered.

Nice ’N Greasy might easily be called "the city boys last night in the country”. The bright lights of the city and the assumed sophistications have not dimmed their appreciation for goin’ home to the roots.

The Natural Soul brings increasing evidence that soul is going to play an even greater part in ion. The people want to respond to music. After all, it was the great Fats Waller said years ago, ”if you don’t feel it, don't mess with it." You'll feel this album.

- DEL SHIELDS
WDAS FM Philadelphia, PA

Cover Photo by RONNIE BRATHWAITE
Cover Design by REID MILES
Model HELENE WHITE (Granassa Models)
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT THE NATURAL SOUL

By all odds, Lou Donaldson should have been one of the pioneers of the organ/saxophone combo. He had the Southern roots (Badin, North Carolina), the unfaked funkiness that this disc’s title describes as natural soul, and a penchant for pleasing audiences that annotator Del Shields refers to as both “people jazz” and “happy jazz.” Donaldson was also the first horn soloist to establish a sustained studio partnership (1957-62) with Hammond B-3 innovator Jimmy Smith.

On his own initial Blue Note recordings, however, Donaldson developed a different sound, one built around a piano trio plus conga drums. Blues Walk, from 1958, was the most commercially successful example of the sound, and helped Donaldson break out beyond the East Coast and become a national touring artist. Economics being what they were, he never carried a conga in his working group, which featured first Herman Foster and then Horace Parlan on piano. Often Donaldson found himself traveling without his own band and picking up local rhythm sections, which did present opportunities to perform live with organists and guitarists. One of these tours brought him to St. Louis, where he met Grant Green. The encounter proved to be momentous for both the guitarist, who was signed to a Blue Note contract on Donaldson’s recommendation, and the saxophonist, who by his own admission in the liner notes to his 1961 album Here ‘Tis, had been looking for “legitimate” funky players who “have all played a lot of rhythm and blues and...know what it’s all about” before embarking on an organ project of his own.

Here ‘Tis was the first Donaldson album to employ an organ. It featured Green and Baby Face Willette, two new voices who fit the leader’s criterion of getting musicians with real r&b backgrounds, plus Donaldson regular Dave Bailey on drums. The present session was Donaldson’s second organ date, with Green returning and the organ and drums chairs held down by John Patton and Ben Dixon, respectively. Both men had spent substantial time touring with the band of vocalist Lloyd Price, and knew all about sustaining a rhythmic atmosphere that made bodies move. It is Dixon’s heavy shuffle beat on “Funky Mama” and “Spaceman Twist” that takes the music away from post-bop jazz conventions and into funkier terrain. The drumming may sound unsubtle in spots, but there is no questioning its authority.

Yet it is a bit fruitless to debate what is real jazz and what is commercial concession on this delightful album. These were five extremely talented musicians capable of playing a range of music well. Green and Patton were hardly inhibited by the meaty chord changes of the standards (including the bonus track “People Will Say We’re In Love”) that Donaldson has always kept in his mix; and on the less funky than its name indicates “Sow Belly Blues,” Patton enters harmonic terrain that might be considered avant-garde, particularly coming from an organist. Then there is the presence of Tommy Turrentine, which provides a trumpet/alto front line that keeps the band tethered to bop as well as soul. Turrentine was well versed in such audience-friendly music from his years with Earl Bostic and others, and turns in some wonderful playing throughout. There is no question but that some trumpet solos are tempered to fit the situation, as when Turrentine drops two choruses of riffs into the middle of his “Spaceman Twist” solo, but he never strays from the personal conception that was heard far too rarely on record.

“Spaceman,” “Sow Belly” and the other notable performances here have tended to be overshadowed by the popularity of Patton’s “Funky Mama,” which is as natural as soul gets. While the bulldozing shuffle beat is sustained throughout, the quintet displays its admirable control of dynamics, especially in one galvanizing ensemble break used to introduce several solos that suggests the New Testament Basie Band at full throttle. And in an album filled with imposing alto playing, Donaldson’s braying entrance on this track is a real show-stopper.

Forty years after The Natural Soul was recorded, Donaldson insists that it should have been an even bigger hit. "‘Funky Mama’ used to upset ‘em when we played it live,” he explained during a recent conversation, “but Blue Note didn’t like that tune at first. The funk hadn’t settled in yet.” It would take five more years, and the tremendous success of Donaldson’s Alligator Bogaloo, before the funk finally settled.

Bob Blumenthal, 2002