Expansions

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Smith recorded ‘Astral Traveling’ with his own band, the Cosmic Echoes, for Flying Dutchman. With its dreamy keyboard passages it’s a key song in Smith’s repertoire and reflects his interest in gaining knowledge and wisdom by exploring religion, philosophy and spirituality. He was heavily influenced by Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders in that respect and although he desired to articulate a similar spiritual message in his music his sound was much more accessible than that made by those two musicians. “I was trying to keep it all enlightening,” reflected Smith. “I was trying to make people think but at the same time because people love rhythm I wanted to make music they could dance to. I put the two combinations together and it made sense.”

Note: some of these links confuse Lonnie Smith's work with Lonnie Liston Smith's, and should be used with caution Before going solo in the mid-70s, Smith’s CV as a sideman was impressive – he had played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and had productive stints with Miles Davis (he contributed to Miles’ controversial 1972 album “On The Corner”), Gato Barbieri and most significantly of all, Pharoah Sanders. It was playing with Sanders that Smith discovered the electric piano, an instrument that became a crucial component in establishing his trademark sound. These days, books have been supplanted by a phone screen when it comes to Smith’s new sources of discovery. “I’m on TikTok and I’m uncovering so much music,” he says. “I don’t put up any videos but I watch what other people are doing. It’s like what Miles and Pharoah taught me – you have to keep growing and searching for what is new, you can’t just stay in what was. As long as the music comes from your heart, that is what is important.” Expand your mind! To understand! We all must leave… In Peace today! Extend your hand! To help the plan! Of Love to all… Mankind on Earth!” The Creator Has a Master Plan”, “Summum, Bukmun, Umyun”, and “Jewels of Thought” were essential to the band’s sound. Argentinean, saxophonist, Gato Barbieri, heard Lonnie performing with Pharaoh and asked Lonnie to record with him and Lonnie recorded the following CDs with Gato:Lonnie was born in Richmond, Virginia into a musical family. His father was a member of the Gospel Group, “The Harmonizing Four”. In 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt invited “The Harmonizing Four” to sing at the White House following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lonnie remembers such gospel groups as “The Dixie Humming Birds” and “The Soul Stirrers” with Sam Cooke, being frequent visitors at his family’s home. Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) [1] is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion, smooth jazz and acid jazz genres. The story of how Smith came to join Bob Thiele at Thiele's new label is told on the LP cover notes to Dreams of Tomorrow (1983) by Leonard Feather. Clearly Smith was at a crossroads. The reuniting with Thiele brought Smith full circle for Thiele was partly responsible for supporting Smith's early work. Thiele's new record label 'Doctor Jazz' (distributed through PRT in the UK) provided the perfect platform for Smith to showcase his new and critically acclaimed work of the early to mid 1980s. For Dreams of Tomorrow, Smith enlisted the vocal talents of his younger brother Donald Smith for the album's opener A Lonely Way to Be and side two's stunning opening Never Too Late. A major musician on the album was Marcus Miller on bass guitar. David Hubbard plays a series of saxophones and flutes on the album, with Yogi Horton, Buddy Williams and Steve Thornton leading on drums and percussion. The album relaunched Smith and the 'Doctor Jazz' albums are now considered amongst Smith's finest work. The Dreams of Tomorrow sessions were produced by Marcus Miller. In 1974, Producer, Bob Thiele, signed Lonnie to a solo recording contract. “Astral Traveling” and “Cosmic Funk” were Lonnie’s first 2 CDs. However, it was his album (CD) , “Expansions” that broke Lonnie into the major leagues as a worldwide leader. The CD was a breath of fresh air in 1975 as it combined solid Jazz playing with creative crossover elements that did not dilute the music. While many of Lonnie’s contemporaries were making records that were artistically bankrupt, (fusion music at this time had become big business), his CDs retained warmth and fire. He recorded several more albums in this vein, including “Visions of a New World” and “Renaissance” before he was approached by CBS. Lonnie continued to make good records for them as well, “Loveland”, “Exotic Mysteries”, “Song for the Children” and “Love Is The Answer”. In October 1986, he moved closer to his musical roots with Make Someone Happy (Doctor Jazz, 1986), an acoustic session that included new recordings of several jazz standards by the trio of Smith, Cecil McBee and Al Foster, produced by Bob Thiele. However, despite critical acclaim for this work, Smith found himself without a recording contract until the turn of the decade, when the small Startrak label released Love Goddess (Startrak, 1990) and Magic Lady (Startrak, 1991). [1] "I had a lot of idealistic concepts about music, and about the spiritual message I was trying to get across. But most record companies only care about demographics and bottom line sales." [ citation needed] Both of the Startrak albums marked an about turn to the smooth jazz mode of the Cosmic Echoes period, Love Goddess featuring vocalist Phyllis Hyman and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.

Fast-forwarding to 2012 and Lonnie Liston Smith’s music still sounds fresh, vibrant and above all, relevant. The fact that many of the songs on this collection have been plundered for samples in the hip-hop era – by Jay-Z, Stetsasonic, Mary J Blige and others – affirms the enduring appeal of his cosmic sounds.

Tracklist

Why was the 1970s such a pivotal time? “Everyone was experimenting. There was a bookstore in New York called Wisner’s that you would walk into and see John Coltrane or Sun Ra studying texts on religions and philosophies,” Smith says. “I wrote Expansions because I was studying spirituality and I realised that everyone wants the same thing: peace, love and harmony. I wanted to put that into the feel of the music itself.” Lonnie’s next 3 jobs were perhaps the most important stepping stones in his career. He got the call from Pharaoh Sanders in 1968 and made his mark in one of the most visible ensembles of the day. The following year Smith's brother, Donald, joined the Cosmic Echoes as vocalist for Cosmic Funk (Flying Dutchman, 1974). [1] Although he remained close to his earlier roots with featured versions of Wayne Shorter's " Footprints" and John Coltrane's " Naima" on this album, by now Smith was heading into the smooth jazz funk/fusion style that would dominate his output from here on, with dreamy vocals and long, spacy instrumental passages underlaid by strong funky bass-lines and a distinctive use of light percussion, with a message of peace and tranquillity in both the lyrics and song titles. "I was trying to expand the consciousness of humanity" explained Smith in an interview in 2009. [7] After graduating from Armstrong High School, Lonnie entered Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he majored in music education and earned his B.S. degree. While attending Morgan State University, Lonnie became a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and also a member of the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.