1 week Ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Donaldson, a celebrated jazz saxophonist with a warm, fluid style who performed with everyone from Thelonius Monk to George Benson and was sampled by Nas, De La Soul and other hip-hop artists, has died. He was 98. Donaldson died Saturday, according to a statement on his website.
Additional details were not immediately available. A native of Badin, North Carolina and a World War II veteran, Donaldson was part of the bop scene that emerged after the war and early in his career recorded with Monk, Milt Jackson and others. Donaldson also helped launch the career of Clifford Brown, the gifted trumpeter who was just 25 when he was killed in a 1956 road accident.
Donaldson also was on hand for some of pianist Horace Silver’s earliest sessions. Over more than half a century, he would blend soul, blues and pop and achieve some mainstream recognition with his 1967 cover of one of the biggest hits of the time, “Ode to Billy Joe,” featuring a young Benson on guitar. His notable albums included “Alligator Bogaloo,” “Lou Donaldson at His Best” and “Wailing With Lou.
” Donaldson would open his shows with a cool, jazzy jam from 1958, “Blues Walk.” Other news outlets have retreated behind paywalls. At HuffPost, we believe journalism should be free for everyone.
Would you help us provide essential information to our readers during this critical time? We can't do it without you. Can't afford to contribute? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again .
We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you. Whether you give once or many more times, we appreciate your contribution to keeping our journalism free for all. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again .
We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you. Whether you give just one more time or sign up again to contribute regularly, we appreciate you playing a part in keeping our journalism free for all. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“That’s my theme song. Gotta good groove, a good groove to it,” he said in a 2013 interview with the National Endowment for the Arts, which named him a Jazz Master. Nine years later, his hometown renamed one of its roads Lou Donaldson Boulevard.
Related From Our Partner.
