Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Lou Donaldson

Live: Fried Buzzard

1970  ·  Cadet LPS-842  ·  Stereo  ·  US  ·  LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Lou Donaldson - Live: Fried Buzzard: Front Cover
Back Cover Side 1 Label Side 1 Vinyl Side 2 Label Side 2 Vinyl Side 1 Matrix Runout A1 Side 1 Matrix Runout A2 Side 1 Matrix Runout A3 Side 1 Matrix Runout A4 Side 2 Matrix Runout B1 Side 2 Matrix Runout B2 Side 2 Matrix Runout B3 Side 2 Matrix Runout B4

Pressing details

LabelCadet
Catalogue numberLPS-842
Year1970
Mono / StereoStereo
CountryUS
FormatLP
Speed33 1/3 RPM
GenreJazz - Soul Jazz/Hard Bop
ProducerEsmond Edwards
MusiciansLou Donaldson (alto sax, flute), Bill Hardman (trumpet), Billy Gardner (organ), Warren Stephens (guitar), Leo Morris (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  STM-4407-2 T 1 18509-1 LPS-842 SIDE 1
Side B:  STM-4408-2 T 1 18510-1 LPS-842 SIDE 2

Condition

Cover
VG
Vinyl
NM-

Variant chronology

1970 - US Cadet blue-to-white block-letter label, Chess Producing Corp. Chicago address, LPS-842 - only known domestic pressing <- this copy

This Pressing

Sole domestic pressing (stereo, 1970) - Cadet blue-to-white block-letter label, Chess Producing Corp. Chicago address.

The Album

Lou Donaldson had already built a substantial reputation as a bebop-rooted alto saxophonist through his 1950s and early 1960s Blue Note work when this live set was captured over a weekend at the Bon Ton Club in Buffalo, New York, in August 1965. Cadet (the rebranded Argo, Chess Records' jazz imprint) shelved the tapes for several years, finally issuing them in 1970 as Donaldson's soul-jazz sound and reputation for crowd-pleasing, groove-driven playing had grown. The quintet, featuring the underrated trumpeter Bill Hardman, organist Billy Gardner, guitarist Warren Stephens and drummer Leo Morris (later known as Idris Muhammad), plays a mix of Donaldson originals like the title track and blues-drenched standards such as "Summertime" and "The Best Things in Life Are Free." The back cover's own liner notes frame the record as a deliberate rejection of over-produced studio jazz in favor of raw, spontaneous performance, complete with the crowd's reactions and Donaldson's between-song banter left intact. It captures Donaldson at a pivotal midpoint between his hard-bop roots and the funkier, boogaloo-inflected direction he would soon pursue on Blue Note albums like Alligator Bogaloo. While never as celebrated as his studio classics, the album is valued by soul-jazz collectors as an unvarnished document of a working club date and of Hardman's underappreciated horn work alongside Donaldson.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Introduction
2. Fried Buzzard
3. Introduction
4. Summertime
5. Peck Time

Side 2

1. Introduction
2. The Thang
3. Comments
4. The Best Things In Life Are Free
5. We

The Label

The label is the blue-fading-to-white "CADET" block-letter design with the pinwheel/starburst logo at the right and "MFG. BY CHESS PRODUCING CORP. CHICAGO, IL 60616" printed around the bottom rim - the first-era Cadet jazz-series label used from 1965-1970, which per the label's own catalogue run (LPS-758 to LPS-848) covers this LPS-842 issue. No deep groove or alternate address is present, and no later Cadet/Chess Records-era or GRT-era redesign is visible, so this is the standard and, so far as documented, only domestic label variant for this catalogue number. Its placement within that 1965-1970 block-letter window is consistent with the album's 1970 release date printed on the back cover credits.

Fidelity

This is a straightforward late-1960s Cadet (Chess) in-house production, mastered and mixed at Ter Mar Studios in Chicago rather than by an audiophile-grade engineer, and pressed via GRT-era Chess manufacturing; the recording itself is a single-microphone-era club live tape, so surface noise and modest tape hiss are part of the source rather than the pressing. No audiophile reissue (Analogue Productions, Music Matters, Speakers Corner, etc.) of this title exists, so this original Cadet stereo pressing is, by default, the top of its own fidelity hierarchy alongside any later CD reissue, which collectors on the forums generally regard as sonically comparable rather than superior.

Notes

1970 Cadet LPS-842 stereo issue - the only known domestic pressing of this title. The blue-fading-to-white block-letter Cadet label with the Chess Producing Corp. Chicago, IL address matches the label's 1965-1970 jazz-series design used across LPS-758 to LPS-848, consistent with the era printed on the jacket. No alternate label design, mono edition, or reissue has been documented for this catalogue number.

Documenting collections

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