Midnight Creeper 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 Blue Note

Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...

 label in 1968 and featuring Donaldson with Blue Mitchell

Blue Mitchell

Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...

, Lonnie Smith

Lonnie Smith (jazz musician)

Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist.-Biography:He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music...

, George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

, and Leo Morris.

The album was awarded 4 stars in an Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine who states "As he delved deeper into commercial soul-jazz and jazz-funk, Lou Donaldson became better at it. While lacking the bite of his hard bop improvisations or the hard-swinging funk of Alligator Bogaloo

Alligator Bogaloo

Alligator Bogaloo is an album by jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded for the Blue Note label in 1967 and featuring Donaldson with Melvin Lastie, Lonnie Smith, George Benson, and Leo Morris....

, Midnight Creeper succeeds where its predecessor, Mr. Shing-A-Ling

Mr. Shing-A-Ling

Mr. Shing-A-Ling is an album by jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded for the Blue Note label in 1967 and featuring Donaldson with Blue Mitchell , Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Ponder, and Leo Morris....

failed: it offers a thoroughly enjoyable set of grooving, funky soul-jazz... Donaldson could frequently sound stilted on his commercial soul-jazz dates, but that's not the case with Midnight Creeper. He rarely was quite as loose on his late-'60s/early-'70s records as he is here, and that's what makes Midnight Creeper a keeper".

Track listing

All compositions by Lou Donaldson except as indicated

1. "Midnight Creeper" - 6:32
2. "Love Power" (Teddy Vann) - 7:46
3. "Elizabeth" - 5:37
4. "Bag of Jewels" (Lonnie Smith) - 9:44
5. "Dapper Dan" (Harold Ousley
   Harold Ousley
   Harold Lomax Ousley is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flautist.Ousley began playing in the late 1940s, and in the 1950s recorded behind vocalists such as Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. He played as a sideman with Gene Ammons in the 1950s and with Jack McDuff and George Benson in the...
   
   ) - 6:30
   • Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ on March 15, 1968.

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...
  
  
• Blue Mitchell
  Blue Mitchell
  Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...
  
   - cornet
  Cornet
  The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
  
  
• Lonnie Smith
  Lonnie Smith (jazz musician)
  Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist.-Biography:He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music...
  
   - organ
• George Benson
  George Benson
  George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
  
   - 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...
  
  
• Leo Morris - 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 ....