Thursday 27/05/04 Lou Donaldson, The New Mastersounds @ The Hi-Fi Club, Leeds

Imagine how Oasis would feel if John Lennon came back from the dead and asked them to be his backing band on a ‘Greatest Hits’ show at Maine Road. The same feelings must be going through the minds of The New Mastersounds as they take to the stage in a hometown venue to support one of their heroes, Lou Donaldson, except that Oasis would be crapping themselves, but the Mastersounds look relaxed, assured, confident.

In jazz-soul-funk terms, Donaldson is a world leader. In fact, that’s not nearly respectful enough: Mr. Donaldson is a deity. Diminutive in stature but huge in presence, his saxophone sound was one of the cornerstones of the 60's Blue Note sound which is the starting point for so many of today’s soul-funkers, from the Sugarman 3 to David Holmes’s Free Association. With his pencil moustache and beat-up black suit, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Cab Calloway’s character in The Blues Brothers. He leads the Mastersounds through a set incorporating all his Blue Note hits, many of which have been covered in their set for years. 'Turtle Walk', 'Who’s Making Love'and 'Reverend Moses' sound as fresh as ever. Throughout, Mr. Donaldson and the Mastersounds look and sound laidback in the extreme, effortlessly trading funky solos in democratic fashion. The audience response is ecstatic, this despite the fact Mr. Donaldson has instigated a club-wide ban on smoking for the duration of his performance. Nobody’s arguing with an elderly dude who exhibits more cool with every arthritic finger-click than a whole battalion of mulleted nu-rock’n’rollers could muster between them.

There’s even a couple of vocal numbers in which Mr. Donaldson shows off his heroically limited vocal range. The songs are chilled, humorous blues reminiscent of Mose Allison, and there’s even a sly dig at George W. Bush and his missing weapons of mass destruction, which never goes amiss. Finally, Mr. Donaldson does the traditional band introduction, except he clearly doesn’t know their names, so just shouts, "Guitar!", and watches the audience erupt.

Do the Mastersounds care? Do they ****. They just played a gig with Lou Donaldson.