Lou Donaldson: Say It Loud [BLUE NOTE/EMI]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series reissue comes on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. Donaldson's organ-and-guitar groove band, with Blue Mitchell, Charles Earland and Idris Muhammad, took it onto Billboard's Top LPs chart.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Lou Donaldson always knew what a crowd wanted, and in 1968 that meant a groove. He went into Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs on November 6 with Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Charles Earland on Hammond B3, Jimmy Ponder on guitar and Idris Muhammad on drums, a band built to keep a room moving. Jimmy Ponder's guitar adds a bluesy bite underneath, and Muhammad keeps it all in the pocket.

The title track takes its cue from James Brown's anthem and turns it into a strutting soul-jazz workout. Donaldson then gives "Summertime" a sultry organ-bar reading, sends Ellington's "Caravan" off at a gallop and closes with the down-home funk of "Snake Bone" and "Brother Soul," with Mitchell's trumpet shining throughout.

Francis Wolff produced it for Blue Note's BST series. Earland's organ is so warm you could probably heat a small flat with it.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 6514970), a reissue of the 1969 album.