Lou Donaldson, Alto Saxophonist Who Led The “Hard Bop” Revolution, Dead At 98

Lou Donaldson, the alto saxophonist best known for as a “leading voice” of “hard bop,” has died on Saturday (Nov. 9) at age 98 in Daytona Beach, Florida. His death was confirmed by his family in a statement.

“The Family of Sweet Poppa Lou Donaldson sadly confirms his death on November 9, 2024. A private service will be held. Thank you for your support of Lou and his music throughout his career. Because of you, his legendary contributions to Jazz will live on forever,” the statement read.

His daughter, E. Carol Webster, told The Washington Post that Donaldson recently battled pneumonia.

Born Louis Andrew Donaldson Jr. on Nov. 1, 1926, in Badin, N.C. to an A.M.E. Zion minister father and a mother who was an amateur musician and a first-grade teacher. Despite battling severe asthma as a child, he learned to play the clarinet from his mother.

At just 15, he attended college at North Carolina A&T College in 1942 and joined the band while majoring in pre-law. He drafted into the Navy three years later and discovered Charlie Parker one night while exploring the jazz scene in Chicago. It was then that he also discovered his love of saxophone.

In his unpublished memoir, A Wonderful Life, Donaldson wrote, “Some guy was laying back in the corner asleep. I thought he was a bum or something. Then somebody came in and said, ‘Man, get Bird to play one.’ So they woke him up, gave him this horn — he didn’t have a horn. Man, such saxophone I never heard in my life. I said, ‘I’m giving up the clarinet! From now on I’m going to play saxophone just like this guy, if I can,’ because his tone was so sharp it just cut right through your heart.”

Donaldson was medically discharged from the Army in February 1946, and returned to North Carolina A&T to complete his studies. He moved to New York City in 1949 after some convincing from saxophonist Illinois Jacquet and the drummer Jo Jones.

While playing at Minton’s Playhouse, Donaldson was approached by Alfred Lion to record for Blue Note because they were seeking someone who played like Charlie Parker. Donaldson became Parker’s bebop protégé and by the early 1950s, he led the hard bop movement, which was an extension of bebop.

Per The New York Times, Donaldson participated in one of the first live jazz recordings in history on Feb. 21, 1954. “A Night at Birdland” was recorded for Blue Note at the Birdland in Midtown Manhattan and featured Donaldson, Lion, Clifford Brown, Curly Russell, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and master sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder.

Donaldson also popularized “soul jazz,” a sound that became his signature. “Donaldson was second to no alto when it came to a straight balance of bebop and soul,” said critic Bob Blumenthal in the liner notes for a 2002 collection of the musician’s early recordings.

He recorded for Blue Note on and off until 1980. The National Endowment for the Arts named Donaldson a Jazz Master in 2012. Donaldson formally retired from performing in 2018, but did resurface to “take a bow” at Dizzy’s on both his 96th and 97th birthdays.

Donaldson married Maker Neal Turner in Sept. 1950 and remained together for 56 years until her death in 2006. They had two daughters, Webster and Lydia Tutt-Jones — who preceded them in death in 1994.

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