LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT you never can tell
RATING
Saxophonist Lou Donaldson had a recording career that began in the '50s which then lasted nearly 50 years although, like many jazz artists of his generation, the '80s and '90s were not all that productive. His best known period is his soul jazz work of the '60s and that is the period mined for the 'Best of' compilation that i found this on.
Who's Making Love is a not bad piece of soul jazz, no surprise given that it Idris Muhammad on drums and Charles Earland on organ. It is also a cover, this time of Stax singer Johnnie Taylor's biggest hit.
Covers where something of the staple diet of soul jazz albums and the veered wildly between genius and heinous. Even a line up as good as this one is by no means a guarantee of a good cover. A fine quality of playing one could expect, but sometimes on the covers they just fell on their faces and this applies to pretty much all soul jazz.
However, back to this track. The good players play as good as one could hope and both Donaldson and Earland's solos are just the right combination of fire and bounce for this type of track. Idris Muhammad does, of course, no wrong (indeed, he also never shares the blame in the poor covers department). The track is also marked out by some slightly amateur singing of the chorus, a device that Donaldson used on more than one occasion. Depending on mood this can either be fun or irritating. Personally, i can't help but feel that picking out those lines with a horn may have been more in keeping but i can live with the singing.
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