Sunny Side Up is closer to hard bop than the straight-ahead bop that characterized Lou Donaldson's '50s Blue Note records.
There's a bit more soul to the songs here, which pianist Horace Parlan helps emphasize with his lightly swinging grooves.
The pair help lead the group -- which also features trumpeter Bill Hardman, drummer Al Harewood and bassist Sam Jones (Laymon Jackson plays bass on two of the eight songs) -- through a mellow set of standards and bluesy originals from Donaldson and Parlan.
Even the uptempo numbers sound relaxed, never fiery.
Despite the general smoothness of the session, Donaldson stumbles a little -- the quotation of "Flight of the Bumblebee" on "Blues for J.P." is awkward, as is the snippet of "Pop Goes the Weasel" on "Politely," and "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" sounds lazy -- but there's enough solid material to make Sunny Side Up a worthwhile listen for fans of Donaldson and early-'60s hard bop.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blues For J.P. | Lou Donaldson | Play | 05:39 | 12 MB | 37 MB |
| 2 | The Man I Love | Lou Donaldson | Play | 05:15 | 12 MB | 34 MB |
| 3 | Politely | Lou Donaldson | Play | 05:53 | 13 MB | 39 MB |
| 4 | It's You or No One | Lou Donaldson | Play | 03:56 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 5 | Softly As In a Morning Sunrise | Lou Donaldson | Play | 06:32 | 14 MB | 33 MB |
| 6 | Way Down Upon the Swanee River | Lou Donaldson | Play | 05:39 | 12 MB | 39 MB |
| 32 mins | 75 MB | |||||
| 32 mins | 211 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lou Donaldson | Primary Artist, Sax (Alto) |
| 2 | Kevin Gray | Mastering |
| 3 | Bill Hardman | Trumpet |
| 4 | Al Harewood | Drums |
| 5 | Nat Hentoff | Liner Notes |
| 6 | Steve Hoffman | Mastering |
| 7 | Laymon Jackson | Bass |
| 8 | Sam Jones | Bass, Guest Artist |
| 9 | Reid Miles | Cover Design |
| 10 | Horace Parlan | Guest Artist, Piano |
| 11 | Gus Skinas | Authoring |
| 12 | Rudy Van Gelder | Engineer |
| 13 | Francis Wolff | Cover Photo |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |