Billboard : 04/18/1960

Lou Donaldson on alto, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Horace Parlan on piano, Laymon Jackson on bass, Dave Bailey on conga for the combo that makes up this listenable album. Donaldson gets chance to show off his horn, and he blows neatly here. The tunes include both originals and standards, ranging form Lou’s Blues and Crosstown Shuffle to Be My Love and Tangerine. Good wax here.

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Cashbox : 05/07/1960

Donaldson’s excellent rhythmic feel is the factor, as heard in the opening chorus of Lou’s Blues. With Ray Barreto, Dave Bailey, Laymon Jackson and Horace Parlan laying down the infectious rhythm base, Lou and Blue Mitchell are able to romp easily across Idaho, The Nearness Of You and Tangerine. The two hornmen complement each other’s warmth and expressiveness, and both are individualistic soloists. This is a very pleasant swing session.

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Kansas City Call (Kansas City, MO)
Albert Anderson : 06/10/1960

Among the current crop of young jazz artists are to be found several imitators and experimenters. Mostly of the modern or progressive jazz stripe, some of these artists are even willing (consciously or not) to sacrifice melody in order to affect a new pattern.

Lou Donaldson, the talented young alto saxist who records for the Blue Note label, belongs to neither of these groups. For while Lou’s music is progressive in character, he is one who firmly believes that melody must at all cost be preserved if jazz is to maintain both its shape and effectiveness as the only American art form.

NEW DISC IS EXAMPLE

On his new disc, The Time Is Right, (Blue Note) Lou gives a classic example of his ability to affect a style that is distinctively progressive yet rich in melody. Playing eight tunes, including standard swingers and new ballads, in the Donaldson’s style, Lou teams with five jazz. associates to provide music that is not only high in listening value, but also very danceable. The sidemen are Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Horace Parlan, piano; Layman Jackson, bass: Dave Bailey, drums, and Ray Barretto, congo.

The LP opens with a Donaldson orig called Lou’s Blues and closes with the swinging standard, Tangerine, both of which receive yeoman treatment from the group. However, the most significant of the tunes, from our standpoint, is The Nearness of You, the ever-popular romantic ballad. Lou plays it artfully but yet with such richness that he virtually speaks through his horn. Muted trumpet playing by Mitchell also adds to the melody. No one with feeling can listen to this number, as played by the group without feeling sentimental, or, as the moderns would phrase it, “Without getting the message.”

There is no attempt here to describe the fare in its entirety as the most ambitious ever presented on record. Mack the Knife, the great juke box favorite, for example may suffer from being too badly overworked to be inserted here, and the contrast between such standards as Idaho and Crosstown, one of the newies, might be too marked, but the sextet plays ’em all delightfully, and that is the point emphasized here.

Yes, we’ll go along with the statement that the time is always right for the type of music played by he Donaldson group on this record.

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Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Russ Wilson : 08/28/1960

Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, a dedicated jazz musician, finally is beginning to collect on his “dues.”

Currently he is making his first visit to the West Coast as leader of a quintet that is in the beginning of a three- week stand at the Jazz Workshop.

Born in North Carolina 33 years ago, Donaldson says he became aware of jazz by listening to recordings of Don
Redman, Jimmy Dorsey, Johnny Hodges. Benny Carter, Willie Smith, and Louis Jordan. Although he studied clarinet in high school, he started in alto only when he entered the Navy in 1945. At about the same time he – like hundreds of other musicians – began listening to Charlie Parker.

Following his discharge, Donaldson had some formal training at Darrow Institute, jobbed with local groups in Greensboro, and then made the move to New York. From 1951 to ’53 he found work only with rhythm and blues bands, hardly the setting an aspiring jazz musician would choose yet one “in which you can learn a lot that you could never pick up in school-and also keep eating.”

For the next several years Donaldson scuffled in New York, working with such as Horace Silver, Art Blakey, the late Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd and Blue Mitchell (with whom he made the first of his many recordings for Blue Note).

“There were some lean times,” Donaldson wryly recalls.

About two years ago Donaldson formed his own quintet and shortly thereafter began getting jobs. They’ve continued at a quite steady pace since, which is gratifying not only to the Donaldsons and their two young daughters, but to the other members of the combo. These include pianist Horace Parlan and drummer Al Harewood plus two more recent additions to the group: bassist George Tucker and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine.

The group works well together. Parlan, who is unable to use two polio-crippled fingers on his right hand, moves between a chordal and single line attack that is effective as well as remarkable. Turrentine plays with a big sound and interesting conception. Donaldson’s style, while out of Parker, has been modified by his earlier influences and emerges as & distinctive sound and an ap proach that never is far from the basic simplicity of great jazz.

As for the future, Donaldson says:

“I just want to keep on playing jazz and keep trying to get across to the people.”

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Down Beat : 06/09/1960
Barbara J. Gardner : 2.5 stars

The hangup to reviewing a Blue Note album is that the liner notes are usually written by a capable critic who loudly lauds the obvious virtues of the album or cops out magnificently for the flagrant flaws. Let’s admit the handicap and use this disadvantage to best advantage.

There is nothing really “wrong” with this album if you omit Mack the Knife, When Ira Gitler mentions “the cutting edge of the lilting Mack the Knife,” musically that resolves to “they butchered that up pretty good.” Other than this, the notes and tempos are there. The musicians play adequately but little happens.

The album is worth its price for the performance of Blue Mitchell. His brief solo on Nearness is one of the most sincerely plaintive treatments the tune has received in some time.

Donaldson is a great altoist who should not be dismissed on the basis of this album; the material with which he works is a major handicap. Even the tunes that sail under the banner of “originals” bear strong resemblances to well-known themes.

All in all, this is a hasty-sounding date. The Lou Donaldson of the Birdland Series still exists and should be heard. Maybe next time. Right now, Blue Mitchell fans will be pleased with the showing their hero makes.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Over seven years ago Lou Donaldson and Blue Mitchell recorded together. The results can still be heard on Blue Note 1537. Blue was then working with Earl Bostic and was well known only in Miami and certain musicians’ circles in the East. Lou, on the other hand, was scuffing away in New York, trying to carve out a place in the jazz world for himself. Although he had been recorded by Blue Note before, he too was forced to play r&b-r&r for a living.

Now after some years of dues-paying, Lou and Blue aro reunited: Lou, the leader of his own quintet at jazz clubs like the Half Note, Five Spot, Play House and Count Basie’s; Blue, a featured soloist with the Horace Silver group. As their fortunes have changed, so have elements in their playing.

I remember hearing If I Love Again, a number from the original Donaldson-Mitchell session, on the radio shortly after its release. Trumpeter Mitchell, unbilled by the dj, had several of us thinking he was Miles Davis by some of the typical Milesian licks (of that time) he incorporated into his solo. Today he doesn’t sound like Miles, old or new, nor does he show an overwhelming debt to Clifford Brown, a later influence. To top this off, Blue manages a Navarroan flow without copying Fats. Here, as in his recent Blue Note recordings with Silver, he offers distinct individuality within his precise attack and warm sound.

Donaldson, although he too has matured, has not changed his basic style at all but rather has deepened and broadened its channel. Lou always played his own version of the Charlie Parker idiom with wry comments and personal sound setting him apart from those who were trying to duplicate Bird exactly. Now his tone is even sweeter and more mellifluous than is associated with this style and yet does not take on aspects of Benny Carter or Johnny Hodges. He is also more en rapport with his instrument in other ways. Lou’s articulation has become extremely polished; his well-constructed phrases emanate in an easy manner but are never slick.

The individual rhythmic conception of each soloist and supporting player is excellent. This is evident from the opening bars of the infectiously swinging Lou’s Blues (dig Lou’s strolling choruses here that begin his solo). In jazz parlance the quality they possess is referred to as good “time” , hence The Time Is Right or one of the several meanings this title has. The “time” is also “right” because congero Ray Barretto is a “jazz” player who works along with the regular drummer (in this case, Dave Bailey), enhancing the pulse behind the soloists rather than setting up Latin counter rhythms. Ray, who played with jazz groups before he ever worked in a Latin band, is pleasantly present on two previous Donaldson LPs (Swing And Soul, Blue Note 1566; Blues Walk, Blue Note 1593). In The Time Is Right, he takes time out from fleshing out the rhythm section to finger some intelligent “fours” on Idaho and Tangerine.

Horace Parlan’s playing has revealed an admiration for another Horace in the past. You can hear that he still digs Silver but his personalized chordal approach which alternates with his single-line attack points up the fact that Parlan parle in his own way. Heard importantly with Charlie Mingus in the late ’50s, he has been with Donaldson for the past year. His longest time in the solo spotlight here is on Be My Love which he shares with Lou as Blue rests. On Crosstown Shufle, another of Lou’s blues, he weaves in a portion of Every Day in a warming manner at the end of his solo. When bassist Laymon Jackson begins his bit by quoting from The Hymn, we have a miniature blues anthology before us in quick review.

Jackson, from Atlanta, Ga., who has also been heard playing an eloquent tuba in jazz performances, is a strong and sure rhythm player and achieves a perfect blend with Parlan, Bailey and Barretto.

Drummer Bailey, known widely for his work in the Gerry Mulligan quartet, was until recently a member of the Jazztet (Art Farmer – Benny Golson). He is no stranger to Blue Note listeners, having been heard on the two Donaldson LPs referred to in the paragraph concerning Barretto.

Unlike many albums whose title is also the name of one of the songs contained within, The Time Is Right does not appear on any of the numbers. However, as an encompassing subtitle, it applies to all of them: the blues; the swinging standards like Tangerine, Be My Love and Idaho; the ballad, Nearness of You, where Blue is muted and Lou literally sings through his horn; the benevolent cutting edge of the lilting Mack The Knife.

You’ve heard it said of various jazz LPs, “This is great to wake up to” or “I dig this one in the late evening – early morning hours.” With Lou Donaldson and his watch-men in charge of the clock, anytime you play this one the time will be right.