Possum Head is an album by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 saxophonist Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...

 recorded for the Argo

Argo Records

Argo Records was started in December of 1955 to accommodate some of the rapidly growing recording activity at Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Argo.Initially, Argo offered a...

 label in 1964 and performed by Donaldson with Bill Hardman

Bill Hardman

William Franklin Hardman, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop.-Biography:...

, Big John Patton, Ray Crawford, Ben Dixon, and Cleopas Morris.

The album was awarded 4 stars in an Allmusic review by Jason Ankeny who states "Patton's sublimely funky grooves effectively sand away Donaldson's wooden edges to create rolling melodic contours... Donaldson circles around the hard-driving soul-jazz sensibilities of his later records but never quite commits, instead favoring lyrical solos well-matched to standards... An engaging and underrated record".

Track listing

All compositions by Lou Donaldson except as indicated

1. "Possum Head" - 3:15
2. "Laura
   Laura (1945 song)
   "Laura" is a 1945 popular song composed by David Raksin, with lyrics written by Johnny Mercer from the 1944 movie starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. It has since become a jazz standard with over four hundred known recordings.Some of the best known versions are by Billy Eckstine, Charlie...
   
   " (David Raksin
   David Raksin
   David Raksin was an American composer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With over 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit, he became known as the "Grandfather of Film Music." One of his earliest film assignments was as assistant to Charlie Chaplin in the composition of the score...
   
   ) - 4:42
3. "Midnight Soul" - 4:57
4. "Bye Bye Blackbird
   Bye Bye Blackbird
   "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" is a song published in 1926 by the American composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon. It is considered a popular standard and was first recorded by Gene Austin in 1926.- Song information :...
   
   " (Mort Dixon
   Mort Dixon
   -Biography:Born in New York, Dixon began writing songs in the early 1920s, and was active into the 1930s. He achieved success with his first published effort, 1923's "That Old Gang of Mine". His chief composer collaborators were Ray Henderson, Harry Warren, Harry M...
   
   , Ray Henderson
   Ray Henderson
   Ray Henderson , was an American songwriter.Born Raymond Brost in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley...
   
   ) - 6:28
5. "Persimmon Tree" - 5:35
6. "Frenesí" (Alberto Dominguez, Leonard Whitcup) - 6:15
7. "Man with a Horn" (Eddie DeLange
   Eddie DeLange
   Eddie DeLange was an American bandleader and lyricist. Famous artists who recorded some of DeLange's songs include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman.-Biography:...
   
   , Jack Jenny, Bonnie Lake) - 5:04
8. "Secret Love" (Sammy Fain
   Sammy Fain
   Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to...
   
   , Paul Francis Webster
   Paul Francis Webster
   Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
   
   ) - 5:43
   • Recorded in NYC on January 28, 1964.

Personnel

• Lou Donaldson
  Lou Donaldson
  Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
  
   - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Bill Hardman
  Bill Hardman
  William Franklin Hardman, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop.-Biography:...
  
   - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• Ray Crawford - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Big John Patton - organ
• Ben Dixon - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Cleopas Morris - percussion