Sassy Soul Strut pairs
Lou Donaldson with arranger George Butler to create a smooth, unabashedly commercial session some distance removed from the saxophonist's classic soul-jazz efforts. Emphasizing electric instruments and radio-friendly rhythms, the album nevertheless plays to
Donaldson's strengths, focusing more on mood and texture and less on funk. Opening with a gutbucket rendition of
Quincy Jones immortal "The Streetbeater" (far better known as the theme to television's Sanford and Son),
Sassy Soul Strut quickly settles comfortably into a light, accessible mode too lively to dismiss as smooth jazz but too mellow to pass as anything else. Butler's arrangements haven't dated particularly well, but the record's too innocuous and good-natured to qualify as an outright failure. It's simply forgettable, nothing more and nothing less. ~ Jason Ankeny