Lou Donaldson: Sunny Side Up (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, 180g) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Gray cut this Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series edition from the original master tapes, all-analog on 180g vinyl. It's Lou Donaldson's 1960 session with Bill Hardman and Horace Parlan, a little more soulful than his '50s records, as AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine points out.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• All-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes
• 180g vinyl

About the album

Lou Donaldson cut Sunny Side Up across two February days in 1960, with Bill Hardman on trumpet, Horace Parlan on piano, Al Harewood on drums and Sam Jones or Laymon Jackson on bass. It sits right where his career was turning, from the straight-ahead bop of his '50s Blue Notes toward the soul-jazz grooves of the years that followed.

Parlan's "Blues For J.P." opens it with a strut, Donaldson takes "The Man I Love" and "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise" at an easy lope, and Hardman's "Politely" and Donaldson's own "Goose Grease" keep the blues close to the surface. Even the quick numbers sound relaxed. Alfred Lion produced, Rudy Van Gelder engineered, and the result is a record best enjoyed with eggs, as the title more or less instructs.

Tracklist

Listen

Out October 16, 2026 on Blue Note (cat# ST-84036), a reissue of the 1960 album.