Lou Donaldson – Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky from the Blue Note 45

It’s Monday already, and I’m hoping that everyone was able to take in some of the great posts that were a part of the blogswarm in honor of vinyl, and the invention of the phonograph this past weekend. There is yet another recap HERE, complete with the 22 blogs and links to each post. If you have no idea what I’m referring to and are new here, scroll back a few posts and check out my digging story, and hit up a few of the other blogs who participated. You’ll be glad you did, I mean, it’s all about the vinyl here at FMF, every day, not just one day a year. I do celebrate it all the time though. This past weekend was exciting, and as I sift through the huge box of records I purchased on Saturday, I’m pulling out even more great records that I will be sharing with you in the future. I’ll leak a few: Whatnot Band featuring the Whatnots “Dance to the Music” on A & I, Vicki Anderson “Super Good” on King, Donald Austin “Crazy Legs” on Eastbound, Willie Mitchell “20-75” on Hi, and Osibisa “Ana-Bo” on Decca. I only have like 100+ 45s to clean and go through, so we’ll see how it goes. I thought that I’d start off the week with a little Jazz Funk, and a rendition of a song written by Alan Toussaint, but performed by everyone from Lee Dorsey, Don Covay, to this rendition by alto saxophonist Lou Donadlson, on Blue Note Records in 1970. Blue Note artists were some of the first Jazz artists I got into, and Lou Donaldson always made me feel good listening to him. I even heard a live recording of him in Asbury Park (or Newark, I forget)from the 60’s, where he shouts out Johnny Jazz from Johnny’s Jazz Market on the West Side of the town of Red Bank, NJ. I mean this guy runs a bodega, and loves Jazz, and here is Lou Donaldson himself saying: “Try the pork chops from Johnny Jazz!” I have to get an interview with that guy, he’s a wealth of music knowledge. Let’s get into this side, shall we?

Lou Donaldson was born in Badin, North Carolina. He started off by playing the clarinet when he was a child, but eventually switched to the alto saxophone. While doing his military duty in the US Navy, he would play alongside future Jazz greats Clark Terry and Willie Smith. Donaldson was to make his mark after he moved to New York City and started playing with the likes of Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Curly Russell, essentially the Jazz Messengers. They would go on to record the famous “A Night in Birdland”, which if you aren’t familiar with, please get familiar. Even though “Silver Throat” was not an official member of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, he went on to become a successful band leader, formulating his own bop sound that would put him on the Jazz map. He also recorded as a sideman with musicians such as Jimmy Smith, Thelonius Monk, and Milt Jackson, among many others. His style was bluesy, but pure Soul Jazz after his bop days, and throughout the 60’s and early 70’s. He was dismissed by Jazz purists for selling out and not remaining true to the strict Jazz style, although I disagree with the nay sayers. I believe if Donaldson had not drifted off and started to play Soul Jazz, and Jazz Funk, playing his own renditions of this tune and songs like “Who’s Makin’ Love” and “It’s Your Thing”, he would never have known to go back to his true Jazz roots as he has today. He has recorded for Blue Note, Argo, Cadet, Cotillion, and continues to play and record up in the present time.

The song itself starts out with “Silver Throat” stating his case while the band is hooting and hollering. Everything he does is F-U-N-K-Y from start to finish. The lineup on this record needs no introduction, but is as follows: Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Lonnie Smith (organ), Melvin Sparks (guitar), Jimmy Lewis (bass), Idris Muhammad (drums), and of course Donaldson on alto sax. They are tight as tight can be, and put simply, they : smoke this side. They absolutely kill this tune, and even if it was screaming for mercy, the band and Donaldson would probably not stop until it said “FUNKY!” There a bunch of this kinda stuff that was compiled together by Blue Note on compilations like Blue Note Break Beats, and a Rare Groove series on CD if you can not located the vinyl. While some people may frown upon this period of time when Jazz went Soul and Funk, I say embrace it. Without it, these new genres would not have been born, and sampling may have just stayed at James Brown. See you all Wednesday, Keep Diggin’!