Cashbox : 01/24/1959

Donaldson, who has had an alto sax say in seven Blue Note issues, mixes tempos up nicely under a quintet format here. Digging into a program of six numbers (two the standards Autumn Nocturne and The Masquerade Is Over), the jazzist turns his performing dial from blue to brisk and in between with style. Though its Donaldson’s show most of the way, there’s fine invention from pianist Herman Foster, drummer Dave Bailey, bassist “Peck” Morrison and conga artist Ray Barretto. Sturdy jazz performances.

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Audio
Charles A. Robertson : October, 1959

Reviews stereo versions of Hal Singer – Blue Stompin’ along with Blues Walk. I’ve cut the Blue Stompin’ section.

Lou Donaldson follows the blues side of Charlie Parker, where his main competitor on alto sax is Julian Adderley. Although apt to be less florid and more selective as to style, he also likes to paraphrase popular standards. In selecting a line to define the album title, he almost upsets the theory that Blue Note is indifferent to such events as the opening of a film called Porgy and Bess. His choice results in what is undoubtedly the most basic performance, among the attendant flow of releases, of A Women Is A Sometimes Thing . And if you need convincing that these borrowing even out in the end, listen to Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines in their duet on Weather Bird, recorded long before Gershwin decided it should be called Summertime.

Ray Barretto, a congo player who concentrates on jazz rhythms rather than Latin American effects, complements the regular drummer, Dave Bailey, throughout the session. Their teamwork is a feature of Donaldson’s other blues, and stereo defines the varied tonality of their exchanges clearly in opposing channels. The leader’s ballad style is given strong support by pianist Herman Foster on The Masquerade Is Over, and Autumn Nocturne. His aptitude for swift passages meets the test of Denzil Best’s Move, before bassist Peck Morrison paces everyone through a closing theme which proves to be a new guise for Honeysuckle Rose.

Although both companies instituted a program of taping sessions in stereo a good two years ago, a hesitancy to get in the swim was finally overcome when a distributor demand began to develop early this year. Rudy Van Gelder, who soon will be sending along the product of a brand new studio, engineered the dates and cut the masters. A comparison with the Coleman Hawkins on World Wide, perhaps the best of the releases issued last summer when Van Gelder introduced the Fairchild stereo cutterhead, finds the recording standing up fairly well. A greater playing time is achieved today, but a glance back to a year ago prompts the general observation that some of the boons of stereo are unpublicized.

They are especially noticeable in the jazz and popular field, where often a monophonic version is tailored to fit the limitations of cheap consoles, or car and table-model radios. When relieved of this obligation, an engineer can do a job that will entice those skeptical cars still unattracted by the more obvious stereo charms. No company is going to proclaim this factor and admit that some of its product is less than perfect, but it weighs heavily on the stereo side of the balance.[/spoiler]

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 03/01/1959

Donaldson is an exciting altoist, a hard swinging Parker follower. I found the LP easy to listen to, sometimes the rhythm was compelling and the beat persuasive but the soloists never gripped my mind for more than a bar or two.

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Down Beat : 04/02/1959
Martin Williams : 3 stars

In some respects this is the most interesting Donaldson recital I have heard; I hope that in those same respects it is significant.

Of all the “followers” (i.e., imitators) of Bird, Donaldson has seemed the most academic, not only in his approach to Parker, but in his way of playing. He seemed to have only the notes and the runs down.

Parker’s inflections of tone, his slurs, his dynamics – indeed his very way of playing a note – were intrinsically a part of his expressive equipment. Many who have attempted to capture these things in their imitations of him have ended up turning the beautiful into the grotesque, but Lou Donaldson sometimes did not attempt them at all.

That is the Donaldson to be heard here on Callin’, a man who seems to have just stepped out of a practice room in a music school. A man who has technical competence, good time, but who plays Parker’s style as if he had never heard Parker (or, for that matter, much jazz.) but had learned it all from transcribed notation and could play it back in his own sequence.

But another Donaldson seems to be emerging on the other tracks.

The Walk seems a rather odd concoction at first. Some eastern labels have used the gimmick of throwing a bunch of jazz players and R&B players together on records. Here Donaldson’s solo even includes some of the little tricks that seem to have entered current R&R playing via that odd solo on Yackety Yack. These choruses do seem a little forced and deliberate, but by the time he has begun more complex improvising, Donaldson seems much less afraid of the “illegitimate” devices in tone and attack of jazz playing and seems to use them with some individuality and with little contrivance. His solo on Move has, in briefer form, the same advantage of structurally passing from expressive R&Bish simplicity to jazz complexity.

In almost every solo, Herman Foster soon falls into block chords. It seems to me that if one is going to use them, he should make these chords sing: if one wants to play very percussive piano, there are other styles that work better. Foster’s rapid pounding of these chords reaches almost a kind of parody on the up tempos of Callin’ and Move, but his tremolo modifications of them on Walk makes sense.

These are times when the presence of a conga drum in a jazz group does make sense. If the drummer does well and steady enough with the basic pulse so that the bass player feels free to shade and slightly displace his time now and then, the effect can be exciting. It seems to me that Morrison felt that kind of freedom here from time to time and in his exchange of fours with Barretto on Callin’ (with Foster and Dave Bailey sympathetically behind) climaxes things excellently.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

In closing the notes for Lou Donaldson‘s next to last album, Swing And Soul BLP 1566, I stated, “Lou has reached a new level of performance; it’s a high one.” Metronome magazine obviously thought so too; they made it an album of the month.

In Blues Walk, utilizing the same personnel that swung with soul in BLP 1566, Lou has maintained that excellent level. The Donaldson horn represents a musician who has matured in his chosen field past the point of mere competence. Lou just plays jazz in a straightforward manner without resorting to gimmicks. The jazz “fans” of Timex TV and Broadway show tune ilk like their cup of jazz tea with saccharine and some seven layer, whipped cream cake on the side. Our new jazz audience is being brought up without any background in the basic brand of music which has represented jazz from the beginning. Perhaps a reason for the relative small amount of talk about Lou is that he never toured extensively with his group but has preferred to play in the east.

This is the third liner I have written concerning the music of Lou Donaldson. Add to this the times I have listened to him on other recordings and in person. I believe I’m qualified as at least a minor expert on L.D. Certainly, I am conversant with his manner of playing.

When a musician solos it is akin to someone speaking. Just as you recognize people by the timbre of their voices, their inflections and the verbal expressions peculiar to them, so can you identify different musicians after you have become familiar with their playing “voices” and styles. Lou, like any other jazz musician, has some characteristic turns of phrase (I’m referring specifically to the little “turns” he uses) that are like the ands, buts, ofs and whims of conversation. He also likes to insert quotes from other songs; a sort of musical punning which, in some ways, is an extension of his mordant wit. Some that he has employed are excerpts from Swinging On A Star (later incorporated into a completely new blues, Peck Time, which he played in Swing And Soul), Sabre Dance, The Continental, etc. Although he is descendant, in the main, from Charlie Parker, Donaldson has his own things to say in this style.

As I mentioned earlier, the same personnel which has accompanied Lou before, both on record and in person, is present here.

Herman Foster, the 30 year old, blind pianist who was born in Philadelphia but now makes his home in New York. Herman is a good accompanist and in his solos, divided between single lines and block chords, suggests some of his favorite pianists; Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner.

The conga player is Ray Barretto who prefers to play jazz rather than work with Latin bands. Ray shows, as he did in Swing And Soul, the way to make the conga valid in a jazz context. He knows how to complement the regular jazz drummer and also plays intelligent solos. Ray was born in New York in 1929 and actually played with jazz groups before 1954, the year he began working with Tito Puente et al.

Bassist “Peck” Morrison is a native Pennsylvanian (Lancaster, 1919) who studied music while attending high school in New York’s Westchester county. He has played with Tiny Bradshaw, Jay & Kai, Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Smith, in addition to Donaldson. He is a valuable rhythmic supporter.

Dave Bailey, not to be confused with Jimmy Smith‘s Donald Bailey, has done more of his playing, since 1955, with Gerry Mulligan. Born in Portsmouth, VA in 1926, he studied drums und the GI bill at the New York Music Center Conservatory in the early fifties. Dave, who has also appeared in person with Al Sears, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Mingus, lists his favorite drummers as Blakey, Roach, Philly Joe Jones, Art Taylor, Ed Thigpen, Elvin Jones and Ron Jefferson.

The title tune, Blues Walk, a Donaldson minor blues line, starts everything rocking. Morrison, Bailey and Barretto really lay that beat down with Ray strong on two and four. While this is going on, Donaldson is soaring, singing and wailing. Foster follows with typical single line and tremulant chordal attacks. After Bailey and Barretto exchange ideas, Lou returns.

Denzel Best’s Move is taken at its word as Lou flys first; then effectively strolls after Herman’s mixture.

Donaldson swings The Masquerade Is Over away from its usual ballad tempo in a lilting manner. As in Move, he comes back for a stroll after Foster’s portion. The tune really lends itself to a superior performance by Lou.

Side two opens on Play Ray, a Donaldson blues whose melody is stated by Barretto playing a three-note melodic figure on his conga and Lou answering him. Foster solos first followed by Lou. A walking two choruses by Morrison precede breaks by the two drummers.

Autumn Nocturne is a tender, sweet but never sticky ballad rendition by Donaldson. If some of the so-called “jazz” vocalists who have cropped up in increasing numbers in years, could learn anything from Lou here, they might improve themselves. Foster has a Garnerized bit separating Lou’s two statements.

Donaldson’s cooking riffer, Callin’ All Cats, is a fine finisher to a well-paced set. Lou and Herman have the first solos; then the leader strolls. Peck and Ray exchange four bar thoughts for a chorus followed by Lou and Dave in the same format for another one. Bailey also handles the bridge in the final melody statement as all cats are counted and accounted for.

The most successful type of major league baseball team can usually point to a strong farm system as one of the main reasons for prolonged success. The parent team is constantly stocked with players developed within its own organization. It takes good scouts (“ivory hunters”) they are called in baseball circles) to find this talent. Blue Note has got a good scout (and manager) in Alfred Lion, as witness the parade of home-grown talent on the Blue Note roster. Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan and, the man in motion on this album, Lou Donaldson are all good examples. These players were first introduced on the Blue Note label and have developed into major leaguers here.