Lou Donaldson's earlier records get dismissed as Charlie Parker imitation by some harsher critics, but fuck those chalkies, Blues Walk is about as perfect as a hard bop album can get. Lou walks in and immediately starts swinging, the vibe is smokey, seedy, vaguely sinister. Over the course of the album Lou takes you through jumping numbers and a ballad, and then packs up that well-worn case shown on the cover, and heads out. Lou was just cool like that.
Great album, and another case of you posting an album that I already own... but wouldn't if you hadn't gotten me into hard bop in the first place with earlier posts. Great job, sir.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post -- and for posting underappreciated hard bop records.
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