1963 · Album
The Natural Soul
Recorded 1962 · Blue Note · Personnel: [Lou Donaldson] saxophone, [Grant Green] guitar, [Tommy Turrentine] trumpet, [Big John Patton] organ, [Ben Dixon] drums
When Lou Found His Groove
The Natural Soul is where Donaldson commits fully to soul-jazz, abandoning hard bop formality for funk.
By 1962, Lou Donaldson had already made his name in hard bop — solid, swinging, professional. The Natural Soul marks the moment he stopped playing it safe. This isn't a debut or a late-career left turn; it's a sharp pivot toward something he'd been circling. Where his earlier work kept one foot in bop tradition, here he plants both feet in the blues and funk, with Grant Green on guitar, Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, Big John Patton on organ, and Ben Dixon on drums. The original compositions are deliberately simple — blues vamps, soul grooves, the kind of thing that could sound thin in the wrong hands. Instead, the combo uses them as scaffolding for something greasy and immediate. Donaldson's alto sax rides over Green's funky lines and Patton's churning organ work; there's no pretense here, just players finding pocket together. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four stars and noted the album "maintains the high standards Donaldson established with his first soul-jazz foray" and ranks among "his best records in that genre." If you know Donaldson only from his hardbop sides, this will feel like a different musician entirely — and that's the point. He wasn't abandoning skill; he was redirecting it toward a different kind of pleasure. For anyone interested in how jazz musicians remake themselves mid-career, or in soul-jazz that actually grooves rather than merely gestures, this is the record to hear.
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