Patterson played piano from childhood and was heavily influenced by Erroll Garner in his youth. In 1956, he switched to organ after hearing Jimmy Smith play the instrument. In the early 1960s, he began playing regularly with Sonny Stitt, and he began releasing material as a leader on Prestige Records from 1964 (with Pat Martino and Billy James as sidemen). His most commercially successful album was 1964's Holiday Soul, which reached #85 on the Billboard 200 in 1967. Patterson's troubles with drug addiction hobbled his career in the 1970s, during which he occasionally recorded for Muse Records and lived in Gary, Indiana. In the 1980s he moved to Philadelphia and made a small comeback, but his health deteriorated over the course of the decade, and he died there in 1988.
The Best Of Don Patterson & The Jazz Giants (Prestige 7772, 1969)
Dem New York Dues (Prestige, 1995) (combination) of Opus De Don + Oh Happy Day)
Legends Of Acid Jazz: Don Patterson/Booker Ervin (Prestige, 1996) (compilation of The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson + 1 track from Hip Cake Walk, and 1 track from Patterson's People)
Steady Comin' At 'Ya (32 Jazz, 1998) [note: all Muse material]
Legends of Acid Jazz: Sonny Stitt/Don Patterson, Vol. 2 (Prestige, 1999) (combination) of Soul Electricity! + Funk You!)
Legends Of Acid Jazz: Don Patterson/Booker Ervin/Houston Person - Just Friends (Prestige, 1999) (compilation of Hip Cake Walk, Patterson's People, Four Dimensions, + 1 track from Tune Up!)
The Boss Men (Prestige, 2001) (compilation of Night Crawler, The Boss Men + 2 tracks from Patterson's People)
Brothers 4 (Prestige, 2001) (compilation of Brothers-4, Donny Brook + 1 track from Tune Up!)
Legends of Acid Jazz: Low Flame (Prestige 1999) Sonny Stitt with Don Patterson (combination of Low Flame + Shangri La)
As sideman
With Gene Ammons
Legends Of Acid Jazz: Gene Ammons (Prestige, 1997) (compilation of The Black Cat + You Talk That Talk!; also included is the single, "I Can't Stop Loving You" b/w "My Babe", recorded in 1962 by the Gene Ammons/Don Patterson quartet, and originally released on the various artists compilation The Soul Jazz Giants [Prestige 7791] in 1971)
With Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
I Only Have Eyes for You (Prestige, 1962) -with Paul Weeden Trio [note: reissued on Groove Hut (#66720) in 2014]
Trackin' (Prestige, 1962) -with Paul Weeden, George Duvivier, Billy James [note: reissued on Groove Hut (#66720) in 2014]
Boss Tenors in Orbit! (Verve, 1962) -with Gene Ammons
Feelin's... (Roost, 1962) [note: reissued on CD in 2013 by Essential Jazz Classics]
Low Flame (Jazzland, 1962) [note: reissued on CD in 2013 by Essential Jazz Classics]
My Mother's Eyes (Pacific Jazz, 1963) -with Charles Kynard [note: reissued on Groove Hut (#66705) in 2007; this CD reissue has added as a bonus, 4 previously unreleased tracks (the complete session) that Stitt recorded with Patterson on September 11, 1966 in New York]
