Lou Donaldson: Alligator Bogaloo [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This 180g reissue was pressed in the EU. The album gave Donaldson his first Billboard chart entry in four years, an eleven-week run that peaked at No. 141, and AllMusic gave it four stars.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Some hits are carefully planned. The title track of Alligator Bogaloo was not: the session came up three minutes short, Donaldson was told to play anything to fill the time, so he made up a riff on the spot and the band fell in behind him. That riff became the record's calling card and the reason it found its way onto the pop charts in October 1967.

Donaldson's alto leads a tight, greasy quintet: Melvin Lastie on cornet, Lonnie Smith on organ, George Benson on guitar and Leo Morris on drums. Smith wrote the bluesy "Aw Shucks!", Freddie McCoy supplied the driving "One Cylinder," and Donaldson's own "The Thang" and "Rev. Moses" keep the boogaloo bubbling. "I Want A Little Girl" closes things with a relaxed nod to the old standard. AllMusic heard it as a model example of Donaldson's knack for blending hard bop with soul-jazz.

Benson and Smith went on to big careers of their own, and Leo Morris later became better known as Idris Muhammad. Few bands in history have been this overqualified for filling three minutes.

Also at Kops: more Lou Donaldson on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 7759668), a reissue of the 1967 album.