Dorothy Donegan - September Song (2020)

Dorothy Donegan was a virtuoso pianist who the legendary Art Tatum liked to spring on unsuspecting fellow players during impromptu meetings. This early recording, made for Jubilee in 1955 with an unidentified rhythm section, is a typical Donegan session, showing off her technique while abruptly switching to other songs with frequent doses of playfulness. Her romp through "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" keeps detouring into "Laura," while hinting at the style of Erroll Garner. "September Song" incorporates a schoolyard chant, and wraps up with a half-serious pseudo-classical finale. Donegan shows off her stride chops in her jaunt through "Up a Lazy River." Although she introduces the fifth track with the theme of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," she immediately segues into a fast boogie-woogie with the trio that borrows heavily from Meade "Lux" Lewis' "Honky Tonk Train Blues," while barely hinting at the piece she started with. Her upbeat treatment of "Lullaby of Birdland" is also full of sudden twists. The only downside to this Fresh Sound CD reissue is that it sounds like it was dubbed from a copy of the original record rather than the master tapes, as there is an audible wow and surface noise in spots.