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Lou Donaldson Band Interview


JSngry

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I find it interesting in the sense that this was really the absolute end of an era for organ groups. After this it was electric piano and then death by DX7...by then Lou had gone straight ahead again and was using Herman Foster again on traditional piano. So this group was Lou's last working organ group.

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Thanks for digging out these old DBs, Jim. I hope you have time to scan more interesting articles. :tup

If there's enough interest, I will.

BTW - have you checked out the Red Holloway Caught In The Act scan I posted in the Jazz In Print forum?

Yes, just didn't post anything in response. I'm reading everything you post - WTF is Leonard Maltin doing reviewing jazz? :g

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Leonard Maltin actually turns up a fair amount in early 70s DBs as record/live show reviewer/and article writer. Who knew?

And not a lot, but a little "feedback" on these things is welcome, just so I know that enough people care to keep doing it. It's not a total pain in the butt, but my setup makes it a little more cumbersome than it probably needs to be, so occasionally knowing that people are digging it is kinda nice, if you know what I mean.

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I kinda think that getting more coverage was a big part of his scene, if you know what I mean. Like the man said, music is his business.

I'm not sure if i agree. Lou was never a "concert" musician in the way Mingus or Ornette, Monk were. He was a working jazz musician playing ghetto clubs (his own description). As we all know, magazines like "Downbeat" look down their nose typically at what's going on at "street level." I think Lou and his band were just vocalizing a reality.

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And not a lot, but a little "feedback" on these things is welcome, just so I know that enough people care to keep doing it. It's not a total pain in the butt, but my setup makes it a little more cumbersome than it probably needs to be, so occasionally knowing that people are digging it is kinda nice, if you know what I mean.

I've really been enjoying checking out your scans. Thanks for doing/posting them! :tup

And feel free to do some more, if you get the urge...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I kinda think that getting more coverage was a big part of his scene, if you know what I mean. Like the man said, music is his business.

I'm not sure if i agree. Lou was never a "concert" musician in the way Mingus or Ornette, Monk were. He was a working jazz musician playing ghetto clubs (his own description). As we all know, magazines like "Downbeat" look down their nose typically at what's going on at "street level." I think Lou and his band were just vocalizing a reality.

I am pretty surprised that DB even THOUGHT about doing a piece like this. I've never subscribed to the view that DB was anything other than an open-minded organisation - but there's a difference between being reactively open-minded and creatively open-minded. (And it's not just the c being in a different place :)) It is pretty creative, it seems to me, actively to seek out a person who is going to criticise and satirise you and everything your organisation stands for, and let them have a free hand to get on with it.

So, mucho credit to DB for doing it. Unfortunately, what Lou and the band said was water off a DB...

MG

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Thanks for tipping me off about this thread, Jim.

Never saw this back in the day - for obvious reasons. But I've almost always subscribed to Lou's views, even though I know he's wrong. I forget which band member said it but, "We carry the truth" was the key sentence in that piece, for me.

It seems to me that the position of jazz in the black community is different to what it is in the white community (a crass generalisation, I know, but the best I can do). Lou's band carried a black truth into Ghetto clubs. Ornette etc carried a different truth into concert halls - not a white truth, but an everyone truth. Seems to me there's room for both truths in the world. Seems to me I need there to be both truths. What I don't like is the purveyors (or others with an interest) of either truth denigrating the other. So, in his way, Lou's as bad as Duck's Back.

MG

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  • 5 years later...

Yes, he made 2 instrumental albums for Eastbound/Westbound

ceasar-frazier-hail-ceasar-2012052902583

Hail Ceasar - Eastbound

ceasar-frazier-20120529030524.jpg

Ceasar Frazier '75 - Westbound

He also mad a vocal album for Westbound

Caesar-Frazier-Another-Life...Plus.jpg

Another life - Westbound

The two instrumental albums are very enjoyable. The vocal... very, very ordinary. (Still, at least his name's spelled correctly :))

MG

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