Lou Donaldson was an alto saxophonist and jazz great best known for his Blue Note albums of the 1950s and prominence for the decades that followed.
- Died: November 9, 2024 (Who else died on November 9?)
- Details of death: Died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 98.
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Lou Donaldson’s legacy
Donaldson’s 1950s bop records for Blue Note were heavily inspired by jazz legend Charlie Parker – no surprise, as Parker inspired much of the jazz from that era – but they became classics in their own right, performed with legends like Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Clifford Brown.
The alto sax player was first introduced to jazz bop when he enlisted with the U.S. Navy during World War II. Coming to love the genre while training in Chicago, he pursued his musical muse after the war ended, playing with a band of Navy veterans in North Carolina, and even recording the soundtrack for an obscure 1947 musical-comedy short film, “Pitch a Boogie Woogie.” The featurette was almost lost, but prints were found in 1975, and it was restored in 1985, screening a year later at East Carolina University, the first time the picture had been shown in nearly 40 years.
Donaldson moved away from bop in the 1960s, playing the blues, soul jazz, and other genres. Recordings like “The Natural Soul” and “Alligator Boogaloo” helped define this portion of his career.
After decades performing, including hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, Donaldson retired in 2018. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, was named a NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, and is in the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, among other honors. He also wrote an autobiography, “A Wonderful Life,” sharing details about his life.
Tributes to Lou Donaldson
Full obituary: Reuters
