Lou Donaldson is one of the true living masters of the alto saxophone and one of the last living disciples of Charlie Parker. Lou built his unique style based on Bird's concepts. This album is untypical of Lou's output as it is essentially a jam session type blowing date and it was even unusual for Blue Note to produce these types of dates but this one is exceptional! There are only four tunes here and they all give room for everyone to "stretch out". Lou is heard of course on alto saxophone and Donald Byrd, one of the great clear toned lyric voices is heard on trumpet. Curtis Fuller is masterful on trombone here and the legendary Sonny Clark is on piano. Jamil Nasser (aka George Joyner) is a barrel of strength on bass and Arthur Taylor shows us why he was one of the most oft-recorded drummers during this period. The date was done on December 15,1957 and typifies New York Jazz at it's best. Lou Takes Off!

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