In many ways,
Blues Walk marked the culmination of
Lou Donaldson's prime period as a hard-driving, straight-ahead bop saxophonist. Until that point, he had been turning out intense, furious bop workouts -- afterward, as its successor
Light Foot shows, he began to slow down a bit. With
Light Foot,
Donaldson still was pretty firmly grounded in bop, but the tempos began to slow down, and his blues influence came to the forefront; furthermore, the bop tracks are hard bop, not straight bop, which tended to dominate his previous recordings. That diversity makes
Light Foot an interesting listen, but the record suffers from slightly uneven material and performances. His quintet -- featuring pianist
Herman Foster, bassist
Peck Morrison, drummer
Jimmy Wormsworth, and conga player
Ray Barretto -- is usually up to the task at hand, but they tend to play conventionally. And, ultimately, that's what
Light Foot is -- an entertaining but conventional release from an alto saxophonist capable of greatness. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine