Lou Donaldson: Mr. Shing-A-Ling (Tone Poet series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This is the Tone Poet edition, supervised by Joe Harley and pressed on 180g vinyl in stereo. Donaldson leads a cracking quintet with Blue Mitchell, Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Ponder and Idris Muhammad through five grooves built for dancing.

This edition

• Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Stereo

About the album

By the late 1960s the alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson had worked out that jazz could be cool and still get people off their chairs. He cut Mr. Shing-A-Ling in a single day, October 27, 1967, and Blue Note put it out the following January, right in the middle of his run of organ-soaked soul-jazz hits.

The band is a who's who of the groove. Lonnie Smith (not yet Dr. Lonnie Smith) works the Hammond, Jimmy Ponder adds clean, bluesy guitar, Blue Mitchell brings bright trumpet, and the drummer billed as Leo Morris is the man the world would soon know as Idris Muhammad. Donaldson turns Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe" into a slow-burning strut, "The Humpback" rolls along on Muhammad's backbeat, and "The Shadow Of Your Smile" gets a warm, unhurried reading before "Peepin'" and "The Kid" bring the tempo back up.

It's a record for Saturday afternoons with the windows open. The shing-a-ling itself was a dance craze of the day, and we're told nobody has been injured attempting it in our shop yet, though we keep the aisles clear just in case.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0029677-01), a reissue of the 1968 album.