Lou Donaldson has been around for decades and crafted a career that has gone from bebop to funk and back again. He’s 83 years of age, tells humorous tales, cracks himself up, sings with a sly sense of pacing and plays his alto saxophone with a subtle clarity. If his instrument could talk, it would do so with perfect diction and a salty vocabulary.

The roll-call of Donaldson’s accompanists during his career is truly impressive. The organ lineups included such luminaries as John Patton, Charles Earland and Dr. Lonnie Smith, while drummers Art Taylor, Idris Muhammad and Bernard Purdie provided the pulse, as guitarists Grant Green, George Benson and Melvin Sparks picked and rolled around the rhythm.

His current lineup is also a strong one. Organist Akiko Tsuruga is the most recent addition to Donaldson’s group, first playing with the leader in 2007. But she has already proven herself to be a great addition, playing with a beguiling blend of passion and precision.

Drummer Fukushi Tainaka, who counts master percussionists Philly Joe Jones and Louis Hayes amongst his mentors, has played with Donaldson off and on since 1986, while guitarist Randy Johnston’s Grant Green style of playing has been a frequent feature of the group in the past few years.

Saturday night’s concert in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery found Donaldson and his group performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

They vigorously applauded “Blues Walk,” Donaldson’s theme song, and chortled as he promised that the rest of the evening would contain “no fusion, no confusion,” just straight-ahead bebop-inflected jazz.

True to his word, Donaldson played a lot of material that was semi-fresh when he first came up in the 1950s and has since morphed into standards territory. Songs like “Whee,” crafted by Donaldson’s idol, Charlie Parker, led into “What a Wonderful World,” which he dedicated to “the world’s greatest jazz musician,” Louis Armstrong.

Then came “Fast and Freaky,” a drum showpiece for Tainaka, and the bluesy “Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman,” during which Donaldson sang and joked between bouts of alto playing. Later in the evening, sonic jumps between decades somehow managed to flow together with ease.

“Alligator Boogaloo,” his first big hit in the funk era of the late 1960s, was followed by “Autumn in New York,” a chestnut from the 1930s, while the Mercer Ellington classic “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” from 1942, sounded perfectly natural next to the ’50s era “Secret Love,” the one tune in the set during which Donaldson sat out, letting the trio display its talents.

Concert Review

Lou Donaldson Quartet

Part of the “Art of Jazz” series, Saturday evening in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.