You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - In Memory Of Lou Donaldson

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Lou Donaldson, November 1, 1926 – November 9, 2024We honor the late, great Lou Donaldson who created new pathways for generations of Jazz musicians to come. Everything I Play Gonna Be Funky (From Now On) Christian McBride/NPR's Jazz Night in America “Let’s Cool One” from Thelonius Monk’s "Genius of Modern Music, vol. 2"“A Night at Birdland” (Blue Note Feb. 21, 1954) - Night in Tunisia Interview @ Live at Birdland Blues WalkAlligator BugalooMidnight Creeper - Lou DonaldsonEthan Iverson's "Transitional Technology"Unlock your FREE Open Studio trial to become a better player today.Looking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no furtherhttps://youllhearit.com/Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey Adam, Peter Martin, check it out. Hey, man. Yeah. What's that? You remember my funky mama? Yeah. That's one of my best recordings, baby. Alligator, Bougaloo.

Yeah, yeah. Midnight creeper. Yeah, yeah. I don't play nothing but funky music, baby. Bunkin'i music is in. You know why I do that? Why? Because everything I play going to be funky.

I'm Adam Anas. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Music Explored. Explored. Brought to you today by Open Studio, go to Open StudioJadown.com for, oh, your jazz lesson needs. Peter, we are starting the day off right. We are starting off right.

We are celebrating the life, the legacy of the great, the master, Mr. Lou Donaldson. He's only going to play stuff as funky. That's all he played. The best. Yeah. The greatest. It's a joyous day and it's a sad day. I mean, we've lost just a few days ago, Mr. Lou Donaldson's sweet Papa Lou, but his music lives on, as you can hear right here.

And we're just going to sort of celebrate this giant of the music in a number of different ways. He was 98. He turned 98 last week. Yeah. You know, so he was doing all right in terms of years. But his legacy and what he contributed to the music is really epic. So I'm excited today. I'm saddened that he's, it doesn't even, he's such. a larger than life figure and I got to hang with him some and be in his in his sunlight and his

orb a few times and he was a real conscious for the music he was a mentor to many and you know we're going to miss him dearly but I think of all the musicians that we've lost just because of how long he was with us he's his his light is going to shine for a long time for sure yeah one of our absolute favorites he was a staple here in st. Louis for the last part of his life here he was here at least once a year playing at Jazz St. Louis, and it was just always a joy to hear him play, and then to hang at all. If you got any chance to hang with Lou Donaldson,

it was a joy to hang, and could be quite fun. I think the last time he was here was 2019. It might have been 2018, but I remember seeing him and going up and paying my respects after the gig, and in 2018, he officially retired. Right. And then I remember, yeah, I think it was 2019, because I said, oh, you know, Papa Lou, you're back.

And he said, yeah, this is just, I'm just doing a little victory laugh, which is very, very Lou Donaldson. Just full, just that, I love that you chose that intro too, because it captures what I think, when I think of Lou Donaldson, I think of joy with the music, like a real joy for playing and for the music and that clip you just played, it captures it perfectly. Yeah. And the funkiness, too, obviously. Everything I play is funky, which, you know, for a lot of people, that would be a cocky thing

to say, but that was pretty much Lou Donaldson's thing. But it was really interesting. I got to delve into a little bit of his history, some of which I knew, some of which I didn't. Of course, he's from North Carolina, which he used to talk, Bade in North Carolina, kind of between Greensboro and Charlotte,

where actually a lot of my family was from my father. A lot of funky people from North Carolina. You know what you're saying? Yeah, yeah. I mean, North Carolina, John Coltrane, the lonerous monk, Lou Donaldson, that's just off the top of my head right there, sir. But even though, like, I'm thinking, like, yeah,

it's endless, but yeah, great state for music. So he was born, check this out. November 1, 1926. 19. You remember that? No. I mean, that's not that far out of World War I, right? Just a few years, most World War I. Lou's father was an AME minister.

His mother was a music teacher, piano teacher, and first grade teacher. And I know he talked about it different times, really hearing a lot of the piano students and exercises and not really wanting to play music, but not necessarily piano, but he kind of absorbed a lot of that stuff. That's shame. He would have been a bad piano player.

Yeah, yeah. He really would have. For sure. He attended North Carolina A&T, legendary school, HBCU. And I didn't realize this. He enrolled when he was 15 years old. I don't know how that came apart. Smarty pants, some kind of a, yeah, smarty pants. And he originally went in pre-law and was playing clarinet and got into the band on clarinet.

He also during those first years was playing semi-pro baseball somehow at the same time, which was big. He looks like a shortstop or second baseman. Like he looks like he'd be quick on the infield. Yeah, yeah. He was just a talented dude. And then he ended up finishing his degree in 47, but he was drafted into the Navy in 1945. And then he ended up getting into one of the top Navy bands auditioned in

and was close to Chicago station and got a chance to hear Charlie Parker there. He's talked about this in many different interviews and stuff. Actually, I've got one here. Let's hear the words of Mr. Donaldson talking, see if I can kind of pull this up here. I would direct folks if you want to just sort of bask in some, some Lou Donaldson

Ness here. So, of course, like many musicians, especially saxophonists, re-players at that time, hugely influenced if and when they heard Charlie Parker. And that was certainly the case. But let's hear Lou talk about this. This is from an interview and a feature from Jazz Night in America with Christian

McBride from 2019. We'll have a link to this blood. This is a fantastic audio on this. So let's check this out in the words of Lou Donaldson. The biggest inspiration, Charlie Parker. The first time I heard Charlie Parker, it was like, it was something different. Nobody played like that but him.

Yeah, yeah. I was in the Navy in 1945. I bought this record by Jay McShan, Jumping the Blues. Right, right. And on the other side, Cipion Bounce. I was a crayonet player, and I took that crayonet, threw it away. I said, I'm going to play like this guy right here. Yeah.

if I continue to be a musician, that's the way I'm going to play. That's the interview highly recommended. It's just great stuff in there. But it really just, it's fun when you, we delve into the history of these great musicians into their very early years,

and there's these like pivot points. There's these things that just, like, what if he hadn't happened to hear Charlie Parker in Chicago? It's amazing. You can say that probably about 50 people as well. What if they hadn't happened to heard Charlie Parker? Right, right. And shout out to Christian McBride, too,

for that's an awesome show, the Jazz Night in America show. So good, so good. So then, yeah, so he goes back to North Carolina, finishes his degree, actually writes this thesis that's still being used there about, like, the pivot from

the swing era to to Bebop. Is this what Ethan Iverson references in his blog about Lou? Yeah, and we'll link to that to that. Yeah, everybody should read that too. Great piece from Ethan on Lou Donaldson. Yep. And then

1949, Lou Donaldson moves to New York, is living in Harlem deep into the you know, Minton's playhouse scene playing kind of with everybody and then by 1952

he signed to Blue Note Records Alfred Lyon, one of the co-founders of course, a Blue Note was looking, talk about Charlie Parker again, looking for someone with that kind of Charlie Parker sound for Blue Note.

And Lou Donaldson was along those lines and so it was interesting because I didn't realize this. I knew he recorded with Monk and with Milt Jackson and what would become the MJQ, you know, really early on. But he also became kind of a talent scout for Blue Note.

Like, he's the one that brought the Blue Note folks. I've heard this before. That you could say even, too, then later even into the late 50s, early 60s. Like, he helped shape that sound. Yeah, Grant Green. He's the one that hip him in Grant Green. George Benson, a young George Benson, him and Lonnie Smith. Pretty incredible.

Yeah, so he had this whole career as an amazing musician, hitmaker, bebop player later on, groovy stuff, of course. bluesy, but then also, you know, as kind of a conscience for the music, we'll talk about that, a mentor to many young musicians, and just like a stalwart of the New York scene. I mean, I remember playing at the Village Vanguard, Lou Donaldson, Betty Carter, Cecil Taylor at different times, would be sitting there in like the 90s with kind of a mescal, maybe a little bit of smile for you if you did the right thing, but I mean, he was really that guy for sure. But he recorded, so 1952 was kind of his first recordings. Check this.

Stop. This is a Polonious Monk. Genius of Modern Music, Volume 2. Kenny Clark. I think that's a big part. Let's Cool One. I'm just going to skip ahead to lose solo because you really get some great early. We're going to listen to some later stuff too, but here we go. Let's Cool One Thelonious Monk, 1952, Genius of Modern Music. Amazing. Yeah. That's a nice sound, right? One of my favorite all-time records.

One of the best, one of the most overlooked, even though I know it's heralded, but people don't go back to that early monk enough. feel like those, that genius modern music record is amazing. Yes. Especially for some early versions of those monk tunes. Yes. Like that's cool one. They're great.

I mean, it's like the reference recordings of it. For sure. And Lou is on pretty much all of the volume two one just to send you that way. Then we get to 1954. And so like this record, I think for a lot of people myself included, was really the one, the first time I heard Lou Donaldson and was kind of aware of him. And it's a very iconic, we're not going to play the, the, the, uh, Pee We, was it Pee-wee

the announcer, I forget his name. I was going to say Pee-Wee-Wy-Herman. It's definitely not Pee-Wi-Rusel, isn't it? Is it Pee-Wi-Rusel? Yeah, who does the announcement, the iconic, you know, Blue Note Records. Like, some people consider this. I'm sure it wasn't, but it was the first known,

like, planned live jazz record. It's such a good record, too. We've talked about this record before on the podcast. Yeah, a night at Birdland. Art Blakey Quintet is how it was built, but Lou Donaldson, we're actually going to listen to an interview where he talks about this. but this is a night in Tunisia.

Yeah. Clifford Brown. Horace Silver, Lou Don. Oh, Horstilver's another one that Lou Broughts Blue Note. Art Blakey, Curley Russell on bass, Clipper Brown. So much life in the music. Yeah. And shamefully, when I heard this record first, I thought that was Charlie Parker.

I just, I don't know why. I was like, oh, that's Clifford and Charlie Parker. A long time I thought this break coming up was Charlie Parker. Bad boy, badgeeter, he's up in the mix. I mean, that's why we all love jazz right there. Exactly. That's why we're all addicted.

Oh, the exuberance, like the live feel. I mean, the whole thing is just, it's amazing. So that was always like my entry point, well, once I realized it was Lou Donaldson and not Charlie Parker, then I was even more impressed. I was like, damn, you know. And so like, you know, Lou was always on my way, and I think for like a lot of folks,

because this record was just so important, not only in terms of, you know, Blakey and Horsel, I mean, everything. But the thing about it was this was originally billed as like, well, I think, do I have the interview for this? Maybe let me see. He says, he's talking about, yeah, here we go. Can we get the video up on this, Caleb? Ooh, boom, there we go. Okay, so this was like, this.

He was the owner. And we told him, well, don't you have a night of Flunos at first? And he liked it. He said, oh, yeah. So we got a band together. No heartbreaking. We had Art Taylor.

And we had Gene Remen on bass. And Art Blaker was in California in jail. And he couldn't get out. So we heard about the date and he got some money. and came all the way to New York driving in a car. And when he got to New York, Alfred Lyon said, we're gonna put Art Blakey on the date instead of Art Taylor. That's how Hard Blakey got the date.

And as you notice, his first album, Pee Wee-Marquette, the Blue Guy. He said, it's the Blue Note All. Blakey gave him 50 cent or a dollar and said, and say, put my name up there, Art Blanky and the blues. And he started calling the band, Art Blinky and the Blue don't get him to have too much to do with it. I love that. Like, so you get, this is from like a year or two ago.

This was like Lou Donald said it, like 97 years old. Like, he was so sharp. He was so, this is, I mean, he's been in Florida for the last kind of since his retirement. This is his place in Florida. But, you know, to me, this just, the story is. funny, but like, hearing the humanity of his music, and then we're going to listen to some other stuff, and I encourage everybody, you know, if you haven't listened to a lot of Lou, you're really in for a treat. But the depth, the breadth, the width of like what he contributed, especially

like, you know, in this day and age of where we talk about, like, you know, this person's this and this group of people and this politics or whatever, the amount of humanity and culture that this gentleman connected and gave to the world, like to me, that's what we're celebrating. with his life. With him passing now, like let's talk about somebody that had a hugely outsized thumb on the scales of American culture.

Not just with, you know, alligator boogaloo, of course, which people love and some of his groovy stuff, this early thing, but like with him bringing Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Grant Green, St. Louis's own, like connecting this,

inspiring, you know, our whole generation of musicians when we went up to New York with him being like, come on, you got to, that don't sound like the blues to me, like a real conscious of,

the music. I mean, I think when you talk about Art Blakey, when you talk about Miles Davis, like Lou Donaldson is right up there, right up there with the giants of this music. Like he's, what do we call it? What are the kids calling? S-tier? S-tier, for sure. He is S-tier as like, and not just for jazz music, black American music, but just American culture. Like, this is one of our greatest resources was and we'll continue to be. Let's straighten out our pee-wees real quick. There's three pee-wees in play. So there's Pee-Wea Marquette, who was the announcer, Master of Ceremonies at Birdland in New York City. Right.

There was, and he was under four feet tall. Really? Yep. And there was Pee-Wee-Russell, who was a clarinetist born in Maplewood, Missouri. I've just found out. Maplewood, interesting. Yeah, there you go. Clarinettist, who passed away in 1969.

And then there's Pee-Wee-Herman, aka Paul Rubens, who passed away just a couple years ago, comedian and actor. Totally. the only pee-wee totally unrelated to this discussion. Exactly. But now we have our peewees lines in a row. That's right, right. Yes. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about, and you saw there in that interview, we'll have links to all these resources.

And, you know, take a little time off from work. We know you're out there remote working anyway, right? Take a little time off from your remote work day. Nobody's remote working anymore, Peter. Oh, they're not? No. That's not a thing anymore? Well, kind of.

Well, take some time and go work remotely and just delve in, take a half a day. Peter and Adam have authorized. We've given you what you'll hear it authorization to go just delve into the world of Lou Donaldson interviews, music, influences. Just listen to a bunch of his music. Start there.

It's going to warm your heart. It's going to put a smile on your face. What else got here? This is on a journey here. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so that was Night of Burland, hugely important record. I wanted to play next, like,

just because a lot of people look at this. This is probably his most famous composition that people play, blues walk outside of like, like in terms of a jazz standard I would say. And this record on Blue Note was hugely influential. What year is this one?

This is 1958, I believe. Yeah. So let's listen to a little bit of blues walk. Space. Look at all the space where he's not playing anything and nothing's happening, right? I mean, he obviously wasn't the only one or the first one to play jazz, blues.

and jazz in a very deeply rooted jazz and blues tradition that was very accessible. But I would say he was sort of the master of that. Like he was the one that consolidated that whole and still was playing a bunch of stuff. But just the way he plays that melody, the sparseness with it, you know, the sound of it, you know, his intonation, like the things that he doesn't play. Well, the rhythm of it, like to put the kunga in there for the dancers, essentially, to keep that group. I wonder this might be a good time to put up that Nicholas Payton quote, because that reminded me of Nicholas Payton's tribute on Instagram.

A brief paragraph here. Yeah. Papa Lou, you were hilarious, yet harshly critical of the way most people played, especially young cats. So it meant a lot to have had your respect. That album you made with Blakey and Brownie at Birdland was very foundational for me, as well as how you helped steer our music back to an unapologetically black aesthetic after it kind of lost its way. Hope you're having a peaceful journey home. Baba, thank you for the laughs and the music. Yeah, that's a, I mean, we couldn't say it better. Nicholas really nailed it there, kind of woven some of the history, both of him as a player and stylistically how he, how he

led the music. Totally. Yeah. Totally. And that example you just gave, as well as the Birdland with Blakey and Brownie, I think, demonstrate his point exactly of just like that aesthetic is why we go to Lou Donaldson, what his contribution to the music was, is steering that ship. Yes. You know? Yeah, I mean, I think that there's certain... All the way to the end of his life, too, steering young cats and, like, oh, absolutely. You know, bringing,

like, making sure that the blues is a part of the music, like, insisting. Yes. On it. Absolutely, the blues. The, um, I remember he came down and heard us one of the first times, uh, we played as a group, Chris McBrideon, Inside Street, at the Village Vanguard, and came back and we were all were talking and, like, you

I had met him a couple times before, but I was the first time I really got to, you know, hang and just be around and mostly listen. And Christian was really like, you know, kind of prodding him to give a critique on what we were playing because we want, I mean, we wanted feedback. Like, this is a chance to get from a map in a way. And I remember him saying, yeah, Lou, what did you think of the set?

And Lou was like, well, I got there a little late. And he said, oh, did you hear us, you know, Christian said some tune. And he said something blues. And Lou was like, oh, that was a blues. I wasn't sure at first. I had to listen to a couple of courses. But to your point about always a reminder of that blues tradition and stuff. And I think, you know,

Lou Donaldson sat at that place that certainly Miles Davis did and many other really giants that had a lot of success where they were able to craft the music in a way that was very accessible to the GP general public, right, in a way that's, you know, the kind of thing that Kelly Martin would say, I like that kind of jazz. That's the kind of like, to generations of that kind of aesthetic,

you know, as Nicholas and you have said. But also, I mean, he had beyond the street cred with the musicians going back to even before stuff that we would have known about coming out of the Charlie Parker tradition. But always continued that, and we're going to get into a little bit later. And then he had a lot of different directions

that he went with the music. So cool. All right. So then, you know, he worked with Jimmy Smith. I mean, he became associated with some great organizations. Jimmy Smith, and of course, Dr. Lonnie Smith, long-time collaborator. And that was already Jimmy Smith, like 1956, 1957. They had a great record, Jimmy Smith Trio Plus LD on Blue Nut.

I highly recommend that one. And then we get, you know, I don't want to jump too much, but we're going to go up to a classic here. And this is Alligator Bugaloo. And so this was very, like, this was influential in a lot of different ways. It wasn't the first kind of Lou Donaldson, groovy, boogaloo-y kind of hit that he had or influenced,

but it definitely was a hit. And it was one that for some reason it's like seen as sort of the touchpoint of this style for his. Wouldn't you say? Yeah. Okay. Oh, you're looking to be like, maybe not.

So this is all the way to 1967, though. I was thinking of this as earlier, Alligator Bugaloo, Lou Donaldson. We got to shout out. The drummer, Adrease Mohamed here as well. Oh, yeah. Just the economy of what everybody's playing. I mean, Dries definitely sets that up.

It's so good. But you hear that rhythm that Lonnie Smith, that syncopation, every time, which, I mean, it enables Idris. Okay, so that little... Is George Benson on this record? I don't think he's...

Not on this one? No, but he played, he may be... I know he started playing with him right around this time with Lou and Lonnie Smith. It could be. Is this George Benson? Boom, boom, boom. Yes, it is George Benson.

Absolutely. Oh, and another thing with this, okay, first though, I just want to, I just want to just revel in and bathe in the beauty of this like kind of solo break and drum break at the same time. This is one of those like, I wouldn't say like it was a lucky or a coincidence at all because like something great was going to happen then, but it was lucky and coincidental in that like, I can guarantee you they had no idea how this was going to go down. It's like one of those things where it's like, you know, maybe you got out of a date with someone and you don't know where you're going to go. can happen, but it just has that feel. Something good is going to happen, right? Yeah. And that's what this break is. Going into a loose solo. Because you know Adrease is going to play a killer break.

He's already hinting at it. Check it out. Oh, man. Man, and just the simplicity of what, Lou Freak. With the little detail. Lonnie's just, I mean, I can't tell you, too, like, when the rhythm section is that locked in, how much pressure there is and how hard is to play simple like this, actually?

Like, you'd think it'd be easy, but it's not. Yeah, what do most people do? Tighten up. Exactly. Straight a swing. This is dance music, right? I'm dancing right now, man. Chairs rock in here.

And what is Lou using? Almost exclusively, right? And the cool thing about those Idris breaks are like, Lou knows they're coming. He doesn't know what they're going to be. And all he has to do is just float with something beautiful and simple on top of it. It's great.

Okay, so that's all... So cool to hear, too, in the context, like when you were playing the monk stuff from 51, 52? 52, yeah. ...compared to this. Right. Where he ends up, where he lands through the 50s and 60s is pretty remarkable.

Right. And then, you know, he did a number of different records, a number of different tracks and cuts that, like, a lot of people think are allegation. Bougaloo. Like, this is Midnight Creeper. I just, I just a couple years later. I just want to just, again, highlight that point of, like,

this happens, you can hear this to so many artists over the course of their career where they just, they just start in a place of maximum, maximum. Right. And they just spend the rest of their lives sort of shaving things off that aren't. Ah, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah. That's, that's a, I like that. It seems like kind of the, like, you just start in your early, late teens, early 20s,

just by, like, building the biggest pile of stuff you can have. And then the rest of your life, just shaving off the stuff that doesn't matter. Yeah, that's great. So this is Midnight Creeper. But I think with like a lot of this stuff, you know, because he found something that worked, that people liked, and that could be replicated, not necessarily, well, a lot of people copied his stuff,

but could be replicated by him, like when he could go out and play this stuff, right? And people would recognize that they dance, they groove to it. So I think he definitely got some backlash from some folks that, Like, what would you say the snobometer is on Midnight Creeper or Alligator? Very low. Right. Although, Alan. Although, Ethan Iverson.

No, snobs love this shit too. Exactly. That's the thing. It's like, it's kind of universal. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay. Now, I would be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about the huge influence that, if not,

well, definitely Lou Donaldson, because they were on his watch and his tracks. But the early hip-hop, I mean, early mid and even up to nowadays, like the influence that addresses, drum breaks, but samples from Lou Donaldson's. I don't think there's been anybody, I mean, there's certainly been other things that have been sampled more. But in terms of like the diversity of kinds of artists, hip-hop, R&B, and pop stuff, a lot of this stuff has been sampled a lot.

Probably the most famous one, I would say, is this. Do I have this up here? Can we play it? Are we going to be allowed to play this? I think so. This might be the first kind of. Kanye West being played on this channel. This is course Jesus walks from college dropout.

Listen to the drum. Here. Okay, check that out and then check out Ode Billy Joe. Lou Donaldson right here. Adrease Muhammad, of course. Sound familiar? Yeah. Tempo. Sam... Sam?

That's swampy. Swampy. That's what the studio felt like when we walked in today. Blend it. A little press roll. Is that a press roll? Caleb.

Is that a press roll, sir? It says press roll. So anyway, so there's one. This one, that's thick in it. Okay, ever heard of this band called, you want me to play the original first or the sample second? I mean first.

I think sample, or sorry, the version that has the sample in it and then the original. Okay, so here's Run DMC. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you can hear it right there. Yeah, you can hear this one.

And then here's Donkey Walk, Lou Donaldson. It's faster, of course, but... But these are just... The groove samples are interesting because they really, like, propel and infuse, like, the Run... Yeah. Without that...

Yeah, interesting stuff. I got two more for you. You want one more or two more? Two more. Okay. So this is... I can do this all day. There's some really great websites

for finding samples, too. Oh. Yeah. Where you can see them side by side. Is that where you're on right now? Yes, it's probably where I am. Whosampled.com? Yeah. Awesome.

So this is somebody that I listened to from way back in the 90s, especially when you traveling. I remember in France with Roy Haram. We actually opened for this guy, and he was huge at the time, MC Solar, big hip-hop, OG on the French language. But he did some very, very, well you're here, this is MC Solar. That's basically the track, right? Yeah.

And then we're going to go to Lou Donaldson. This is one cylinder. There was a whole genre of hip-hop sampling Blue Note records. You know what I mean? There's a whole genre of it. I don't know why this one is so much quieter, but you hear it. Yeah, so that one's just exact, you know. Yeah.

And then we've got a little bit of Mary J. Blige from her debut record, Don't Go. It's another direct. And then here's The Long Goodbye by Lou Donaldson. Oh, but a whole step up. That makes me happy. This is getting into a whole other period for Lou. It kind of smooth jazz, you know, George Butler Bluno produced era,

which was really interesting as well. So there's a bunch more. This is fun stuff to kind of just geek out on. But again, like such an influence, such a tastemaker for like grooves, groves, groovy stuff. And Adrease, shout out. For real.

I mean, Adrease Mohammed, New Orleans own, The Legend. I actually got a chance to play with him one time. And it was one of the most, like, I mean, I felt like I was on this just cloud of groove, you know? Yeah. But I'm telling you, it's like not as easy as you would,

like, you think, oh, you're just going to get locked in, but it's like, it's like sitting and having a conversation with someone about, like, physics or something, and they're like this world-renowned physicist. It's great if you can kind of find a way to sort of keep up, but you're also like, you better be on your stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you just do slightly the correct thing with it, it's just, like, going to wrap it all up in this beautiful rhythmic groove. Amazing. Just amazing, man. Well, what a gift this episode has been, Peter. Thanks for the journey through the amazing life

and career of Lou Donaldson, definitely someone whose presence was felt, you know, everywhere he was and someone who will be missed, that presence will be missed in all of the music. Yeah, and I think it's something when we talk about, you know, the music lives on, the spirit of the artist, Lou Donaldson, lives on, certainly for the musicians, they got a chance to know him or hear the stories that he would tell all the great jokes. I mean, you know, the classic vanguard. I've heard it from him closely, but other people, of her different versions. They're always pretty much the same, but different elaborations about how

he went down to hear a young saxophonist in the vanguard and Lorraine, proprietorist of the vanguard, said, you've got to hear this young guy, you're really going to like him, Lou. And he's like, well, we'll see. You know, he was very skeptical. And then somebody asked him, well, Lou, how, how'd you like him? And he said, well, I'll put it this way. I told Lorraine, you know, you charge him money for people to come down and listen, you should let them in for free, lock the door, charge him to get out. Once they hear and play, they're going to be running out of that place. You know, that was very

much a, you know, a looter. I screwed that one up. That was not nearly as good as he would tell it, but he's not with us anymore. Amazing. And I'll just, can I just share one more story before we fade out on, what are we going to listen to? Yeah, we got some good stuff. Yeah.

We'll get some good stuff. Not some of that bad stuff. It's kind of, it's not hard to. But I had Mark Whitfield. Shout out Mark Whitfield, amazing guitarist from Long Island, my dear friend for many, many years, a legend of our generation on the guitar coming out of George, talking about George Benson and that tradition, you know, play with Jimmy Smith, his own groups and everything.

But Mark and I have always had this shared love, along with a number of musicians of Lou Donaldson. But for years, we've done, we go into using Lou Donaldson's voice as an homage to him. It's such a distinct voice. It's such a distinct. Yeah. And we even take it up to 11, of course. when we're together, having fun hanging out.

But there was a time we were on 7th Avenue, South, in New York. And we were, somebody was playing at the vanguard, and we kind of went over it. And, like, their set had already started. And we said, we're going to come back for the second set. And so we went across the street to a place that's not there, a sushi place. And when we came in for some reason, we were thinking about Lou Donaldson and telling stories about him.

And we said, like, yeah, see if we can get in the sushi joint. It looks like there's a line and a matra D. I hope she doesn't say matre don't. You know, coming up with, you know, our version of it. Doing bits on Lodon. We're doing bits on Luda. And then we get in there. All of a sudden,

can we get a table for two? You know, we're stuck. We're stuck in it. Sushi Samba maybe? Sushi Samba, exactly. 7,000. So we're in there. People are looking at us like,

what are these weirdos? And we're like, don't worry about it. You don't know. It's Midnight Creeper. Back off, you know. And so we're doing our Louvo voice. We're drinking, we're eating. We're having a good time.

And then we said, well, let's get over to the Vanguard and see what's happening over there. They're probably not playing no blues. So we're really. the vanguard and we're about to go down the stairs and there used to be that pizza place in there, not the one they have now, which is the upscale. It was just a dollar pizza joint, whatever. And we look over it. We like, just look in the door. Lou Donaldson's there himself, the man,

you know, and we kind of looked over. We're like, oh, hello, Mr. Dad. And he looks at us. And we had just spent like two hours just bathing in the garage. It would have been hilarious. He would have been like, how's it going, guys? Yeah. No, he looks at us and he said, hey, looks like a couple big money musicians right there. And we're like, oh, I'm just, you know. But it was so, like, I still just remember him and just, like, you know, because he was a legend.

Like, you know, you hear him on the recordings and then even after you meet him, it was just somebody that I was, but he would just put you at ease, but he would never pander anything, just, he was just great. So thank you. Okay, how about if we go out on a little bit of blues walk? That's about that early.

That would be good. Popaloo, we missed you. Thank you, Lou Donaldson. Thank you, Lou Donaldson. For the music, the culture, the humanity, the jokes, the mentorship, everything. R.I.P.