I saw Lou Donaldson play the other night. Which is crazy, because Lou Donaldson is 86. But he’s still the man. He was joking around and calling out charts. And though his range is kind of impaired at this point, he was using the limitations to be more creative with what he did have. And at the end of the set he busted out some low range that he had been saving.
The last tune was the 1938 standard Cherokee, written by Ray Noble. Donaldson said he’s loved it all these years because even though it was played by a lot of people, it was sort of co-opted by his idol, Charlie Parker. Donaldson lamented that he and Bird never overlapped. He plays a similar interpretation of the chart in this video as he did the other night. Here he’s with longtime collaborator and Hammond B3 organist Lonnie Smith.
