Lou Donaldson - The Complete Albums Collection: 1959 - 1963 (2017)

THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION: 1959-1963 With a rich, soulful, blues-tinted sound and a catalogue of work that boasts a plethora of highly-regarded albums in his roles as both bandleader and sideman, the alto saxophonist known to many as Sweet Poppa Lou Donaldson - so called because his tone became increasingly that way - remains one of the finest purveyors of his instrument to have performed in the jazz idiom. Although Donaldson often worked as sideman to organist Jimmy Smith throughout this period, appearing on no fewer than seven of Smith s albums between 1957 and 1963, his main focus was working as leader. This four disc collection contains eight complete, original albums from this dynamic and transitional period of Lou Donaldson s career. Containing over five hours of music, remastered in superb quality, this compilation demonstrates splendidly the manner in which Donaldson adopted his own sense of style, favouring subtlety, emotion and soul over some of the more challenging aspects present in the work of his contemporaries. Listeners old and new will surely delight in the rich tones and seductive grooves provided here, which provided the roots of the coming mainstream adoption of jazz into soul - and, God forbid, disco which became so popular in the decades that followed.