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Lou Donaldson obituary
American jazz saxophonist and singer who enjoyed a huge hit with his 1967 anthem Alligator Boogaloo
He began working with the powerful young Dizzy Gillespie trumpet disciples Blue Mitchell and Clifford Brown, the pianist and jazz-funk godfather Horace Silver and the drummers Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones. The drive of the Latin-jazz percussionist Ray Barretto was a key element in the jukebox success of the saxophonist’s 1958 album Blues Walk, and John Patton ’s holy-rolling Hammond organ stoked up the sermonising atmosphere alongside the infectiously funky guitarist Grant Green on the 1963 Donaldson disc Good Gracious! After working with Blue Note luminaries including Donald Byrd and Wayne Shorter, Donaldson quit the label in search of more funk-oriented marketing in the mid-60s, but returned in 1967 to make the repetitive but popular Alligator Boogaloo – with the organist Lonnie Liston Smith and a young rising star, George Benson, on guitar.
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