Lonnie Liston Smith
Encyclopedia
Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. (born December 28, 1940 in Richmond, Virginia
) is an American
jazz
, soul
, and funk
musician
who played with important free jazz
artists such 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
/ Quiet Storm
/ smooth jazz
and acid jazz
genres.
, and Lonnie remembers groups such as the Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers (then featuring a young Sam Cooke
) as regular visitors to the house when he was a child. He learned piano, tuba and trumpet in High School and College, graduating from Morgan State University
, Baltimore with a Bachelor of Science degree in music education. He has since cited Charlie Parker
, John Coltrane
and Miles Davis
as major influences on his youth. While still a teenager at College, Lonnie became well known locally as a backing vocalist as well as pianist, and played in the Baltimore area with a number of his contemporaries, including Gary Bartz
(alto), Grachan Moncur
(trombone), and Mickey Bass (bass). He also backed a number of jazz singers such as Betty Carter
and Ethel Ennis
when, soon after graduating, he began playing live with the house band at the Royal Theater, Baltimore.
In 1963 he moved to New York, and played piano in Betty Carter's band for a year. Early in 1965 Lonnie began playing with Rahsaan Roland Kirk
(then known as Roland Kirk), first recording with his band on "Here Comes The Whistleman
" (Atlantic, 1965), an album recorded live in NYC, March 14, 1965. A further track from that gig, "Dream" appeared later the same year on Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler's live album "A Meeting Of The Times
" (Atlantic, 1965).
Late in 1965 Lonnie joined Art Blakey
's sextet, the Jazz Messengers, sharing the piano position with Mike Nock
and Keith Jarrett
. The Jazz Messengers, together with Miles Davis' group, were one of the main proving grounds for young up-and-coming jazz musicians, experimentally edgy and musically stretching, and both were an ever-revolving door of young modern jazz musicians as modes and moods rapidly changed during a fresh period of experimentation. Beginning with a live session at The Five Spot, New York City, November 9, 1965, Lonnie's time as a Jazz Messenger was fairly short-term, only lasting until a 3-gig engagement at The Village Vanguard 26–28 April 1966; by May 1966 his position was filled by Chick Corea
. Unfortunately no recordings exist of this period.
In May 1967 Lonnie returned to working with Roland Kirk for the album sessions for "Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith
" (Verve,1967) before continuing his career as pianist for a year with drummer Max Roach (although once again no recordings were made of this lineup).
Following this stint, Lonnie moved to Pharaoh Sanders ensemble early in 1968, a group Sanders had set up on the death of John Coltrane the previous year. Fiercely improvisational, Sanders pushed the band to the creatively boundaries of free jazz, recording two of Sanders finest recordings "Karma
" (Impulse, 1969), and "Thembi
" (Impulse, 1971), together with 1969 recording sessions not released until 1973 as "Izipho Zam" (Strata East
, 1973). It is at this point that Lonnie began experimenting with electric keyboards - “On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to set up his drums, Pharoah had to unpack all of his horns. Everybody had something to do, but the piano was just sitting there waiting. I saw this instrument sitting in the corner and I asked the engineer, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘That’s a Fender Rhodes electric piano.’ I didn’t have anything to do, so I started messing with it, checking some of the buttons to see what I could do with different sounds. All of a sudden I started writing a song and everybody ran over and said, ‘What is that?’ “And I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m just messing around.’ Pharoah said, ‘Man, we gotta record that. Whatcha gonna call it?’ “I’d been studying astral projections and it sounded like we were floating through space so I said let’s call it ‘Astral Traveling.’ That’s how I got introduced to the electric piano.”. During this period Lonnie also backed Sanders vocalist Leon Thomas
on his first album "Spirits Known and Unknown" (Flying Dutchman
, 1969).
Having already guested on Gato Barbieri
's 1969 album "The Third World" (Philips, 1969), Lonnie joined Barbieri's band from 1971-73. Barbieri had by then begun to temper his free jazz excursions of the 1960s with softer Afro-Cuban and South American textures in his music, which would influence Lonnie's playing into new directions in the following years. Lonnie played on a number of albums marking this transition, "Fenix" (Philips, 1971), the critically acclaimed live album "El Pampero" (Flying Dutchman, 1972), "Bolivia" (Flying Dutchman, 1973) and "Under Fire" (Flying Dutchman, 1973). One further recording, "El Gato" (Flying Dutchman, 1975), was released after Lonnie had again moved on; from 1972 Lonnie had also taking up the invitation to join Miles Davis
band on electric keyboards. Over the next year, during an intense period of studio recording by Davis, various line-ups laid down a considerable number of sessions, which were later inter-cut and remixed for final release. Miles Davis insisted that Lonnie learned to play the organ for the sessions: "Miles gave me two nights to learn how to make music on the thing. Miles liked to introduce new sounds in a surprising way — that's how he produced such innovative, fresh music.". Lonnie's contributions appear on "On The Corner
" (Columbia, 1973) and the track "Ife" on "Big Fun" (Columbia, 1974).
on bass, George Barron
(soprano and tenor sax), Joe Beck
(guitar), David Lee, Jr. (drums), James Mtume
(percussion), Sonny Morgan (percussion), Badal Roy
(tabla drums), and Geeta Vashi (tamboura). Blending atmospheric fusion, soul and funk, Lonnie was encouraged by Bob Thiele
, the owner of Flying Dutchman Records
, who had produced both Pharaoh Sanders' and Gato Barbieri's output while Lonnie had been in their bands, the latter for Thiele's newly formed label. For his debut album, "Astral Traveling" (Flying Dutchman, 1973), Lonnie re-recorded the title song he had composed and played on with the Pharoah Sanders band two years previous. An instrumental album, "Astral Travelling" also contained a re-arrangement of the Gospel standard "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord," which Lonnie had also previously arranged for Sanders.
The following year Lonnie's brother Donald joined the Cosmic Echoes as vocalist for "Cosmic Funk" (Flying Dutchman, 1974). 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 Lonnie 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 Lonnie in an interview in 2009. This attitude may not have endeared Lonnie to the hardcore free jazz fans who had appreciated his earlier work, but this new relaxed fusion style proved extremely popular with a cross-over audience not normally associated with jazz, and the following albums, "Expansions" (Flying Dutchman, 1974), "Visions of a New World" (Flying Dutchman, 1975) and "Reflections of a Golden Dream" (RCA, 1976) have since become semi-legendary mainstays of the jazz-funk and chill jazz genres with djs and audiences worldwide, especially in Europe and Japan. "Renaissance" (RCA, 1977) continued this crossover fame, and the following year Lonnie expanded upon his success with a new contract with Columbia Records and two further acclaimed crossover albums in "Loveland" (Columbia, 1978) and "Exotic Mysteries" (Columbia, 1978), the latter containing the single "Space Princess" which became a disco/r+b hit still popular in clubs today in both 7" and remixed 12" versions. "Space Princess" was written by and featured the thundering basslines of 16-year old Marcus Miller
, who was discovered by Lonnie and also wrote the track "Night Flower" on "Exotic Mysteries". A further track from the same album, "Quiet Moments" was to become a mainstay of the smooth jazz genre over the next decade.
After the crossover success of the 1970s, and continuing interest in and discovery of his earlier work by fans of the new 'Quiet storm' late night radio/smooth jazz format, Lonnie moved to Bob Thiele's new label, Doctor Jazz, and had a minor hit in 1983 with "Never too late". He also appeared in Marvin Gaye's backing band at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival, which has since been released on both cd and DVD (Eagle Vision, 2003). However, public interest slowly waned in his newer material as the decade wore on, and the Cosmic Echoes eventually dissipated during the mid-80's after releasing a further three albums mining the same smooth jazz field "Dreams of Tomorrow" (Doctor Jazz, 1983), "Silhouettes" (Doctor Jazz, 1984) and "Rejuvenation" (Doctor Jazz, 1985).
and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine
.
Around this time, the emerging hip-hop movement took an interest in Lonnie's earlier work, and he found himself working with rapper Guru
, who was mixing hip-hop with jazz in an innovative way. "Guru and the other rappers would tell me how their uncles used to make them listen to me and Miles and Donald Byrd and how they got the message" Smith told Australia's Daily Telegraph Mirror newspaper in 1995. Smith appeared on Guru's groundbreaking "Jazzmatazz, Vol 1
" album (Chrysalis, 1993), once again finding a new audience for his earlier work as a result. He had also toured Europe in 1991, but after this short period of activity Lonnie produced little further work in the 1990s. Despite extensive radio play, appearing on a bewildering number of compilation cds and being namechecked and sampled by an increasing number of younger musicians discovering his Cosmic Echoes output, Lonnie spent the next few years mainly involved in setting up his own label, Loveland, and it wasn't until 1998 that Sony International took advantage of his new found audience by reissuing "Exotic Mysteries" and "Loveland" as a double cd. The same year, Lonnie recorded 'Transformation' (Loveland, 1998), once again revisiting the genre he had been most successful in and reuniting with his brother Donald's vocals. For this release he re-recorded "A Chance For Peace (Give Peace a Chance)" (both as vocal and instrumental versions) and "Expansions" as well as "Space Princess".
Since then Lonnie has not recorded, although he has performed live and toured on a number of occasions, especially in Europe and Japan, were he remains popular with new generations of listeners. He has also spent much of his time teaching at various workshops. In 2002, Sony issued a 2-cd retrospective of his Columbia output "Explorations: The Columbia Years", and his compositions remain a feature of jazz fusion orientated radio and cd compilations. The Cosmic Echoes track, "Expansions" has been featured in two videogames: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
and Driver: Parallel Lines
, while "A Chance for Peace" featured in Grand Theft Auto 4. He most recently appearing on the Jazz World Stage at the Glastonbury Festival
in June 2009.
Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes
Later work
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who played with important free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
artists such as Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
/ Quiet Storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
/ smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
and acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
genres.
Early Career (1963 - 1973)
Lonnie was born into a musical family; his father was a member of Richmond Gospel music group The Harmonizing FourThe Harmonizing Four
The Harmonizing Four was an American black gospel quartet organized in 1927 and reaching peak popularity during the decades immediately following World War II....
, and Lonnie remembers groups such as the Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers (then featuring a young Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
) as regular visitors to the house when he was a child. He learned piano, tuba and trumpet in High School and College, graduating from Morgan State University
Morgan State University
Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...
, Baltimore with a Bachelor of Science degree in music education. He has since cited Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
as major influences on his youth. While still a teenager at College, Lonnie became well known locally as a backing vocalist as well as pianist, and played in the Baltimore area with a number of his contemporaries, including Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
(alto), Grachan Moncur
Grachan Moncur III
Grachan Moncur III is an American jazz trombonist who has mostly played free jazz, as well as being a prolific composer. He is the son of jazz bassist Grachan Moncur II and the nephew of jazz saxophonist Al Cooper.-Biography:...
(trombone), and Mickey Bass (bass). He also backed a number of jazz singers such as Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
and Ethel Ennis
Ethel Ennis
Ethel Llewellyn Ennis is an American jazz musician. Ethel Ennis began performing on the piano in high school, but her natural vocal abilities soon eclipsed those as a pianist...
when, soon after graduating, he began playing live with the house band at the Royal Theater, Baltimore.
In 1963 he moved to New York, and played piano in Betty Carter's band for a year. Early in 1965 Lonnie began playing with Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
(then known as Roland Kirk), first recording with his band on "Here Comes The Whistleman
Here Comes the Whistleman
Here Comes the Whistleman is a live album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk recorded in March 1965 at Atlantic Studios in New York. It was his first release on the Atlantic label and features performances by Kirk with Lonnie Liston Smith, Major Holley and Charles Crosby. The Allmusic review...
" (Atlantic, 1965), an album recorded live in NYC, March 14, 1965. A further track from that gig, "Dream" appeared later the same year on Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler's live album "A Meeting Of The Times
A Meeting of the Times
A Meeting of the Times is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and vocalist Al Hibbler recorded in March 1972 in New York City...
" (Atlantic, 1965).
Late in 1965 Lonnie joined Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
's sextet, the Jazz Messengers, sharing the piano position with Mike Nock
Mike Nock
Mike Nock is a jazz pianist, currently based in Australia. He began studying piano at 11 and by 18 was performing in Australia. He headed a trio that toured England in 1961 and then attended Berklee College of Music...
and Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
. The Jazz Messengers, together with Miles Davis' group, were one of the main proving grounds for young up-and-coming jazz musicians, experimentally edgy and musically stretching, and both were an ever-revolving door of young modern jazz musicians as modes and moods rapidly changed during a fresh period of experimentation. Beginning with a live session at The Five Spot, New York City, November 9, 1965, Lonnie's time as a Jazz Messenger was fairly short-term, only lasting until a 3-gig engagement at The Village Vanguard 26–28 April 1966; by May 1966 his position was filled by Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
. Unfortunately no recordings exist of this period.
In May 1967 Lonnie returned to working with Roland Kirk for the album sessions for "Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith
Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith
Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk. It was originally released on the Verve label in 1967 and features performances by Kirk with Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Boykins and Grady Tate...
" (Verve,1967) before continuing his career as pianist for a year with drummer Max Roach (although once again no recordings were made of this lineup).
Following this stint, Lonnie moved to Pharaoh Sanders ensemble early in 1968, a group Sanders had set up on the death of John Coltrane the previous year. Fiercely improvisational, Sanders pushed the band to the creatively boundaries of free jazz, recording two of Sanders finest recordings "Karma
Karma (Pharoah Sanders album)
Karma is a 1969 jazz recording by the American tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.-Background:The social and political upheavals of the 1960s have been cited as a major factor in the emergence of a new stylistic trend in jazz, with a very different emphasis to previous sub-genres such as swing,...
" (Impulse, 1969), and "Thembi
Thembi
Thembi is a 1971 album by free-jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.In this album, named after Sanders's wife, the saxophonist moved away from the intense, lengthy, percussion-heavy jams he'd been pursuing in his solo work up to that point, and produced a record made up of shorter tracks, often with a...
" (Impulse, 1971), together with 1969 recording sessions not released until 1973 as "Izipho Zam" (Strata East
Strata-East Records
Strata-East Records is an American record label specialising in jazz which was founded in 1971 by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver.Gil Scott-Heron recorded his 1974 album Winter in America with Brian Jackson for Strata-East. "The Bottle" featured on the album, was a popular single...
, 1973). It is at this point that Lonnie began experimenting with electric keyboards - “On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to set up his drums, Pharoah had to unpack all of his horns. Everybody had something to do, but the piano was just sitting there waiting. I saw this instrument sitting in the corner and I asked the engineer, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘That’s a Fender Rhodes electric piano.’ I didn’t have anything to do, so I started messing with it, checking some of the buttons to see what I could do with different sounds. All of a sudden I started writing a song and everybody ran over and said, ‘What is that?’ “And I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m just messing around.’ Pharoah said, ‘Man, we gotta record that. Whatcha gonna call it?’ “I’d been studying astral projections and it sounded like we were floating through space so I said let’s call it ‘Astral Traveling.’ That’s how I got introduced to the electric piano.”. During this period Lonnie also backed Sanders vocalist Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas
Amos Leon Thomas Jr was an American avant garde jazz singer from East St. Louis, Illinois.Thomas studied music at Tennessee State University. In the 1960s he was a vocalist for Count Basie and others....
on his first album "Spirits Known and Unknown" (Flying Dutchman
Flying Dutchman Records
Flying Dutchman Records was a jazz record label which was owned by veteran music industry executive, producer and songwriter Bob Thiele. Initially distributed by Atlantic Records, it was later distributed by RCA Records which took over the label in 1976...
, 1969).
Having already guested on Gato Barbieri
Gato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
's 1969 album "The Third World" (Philips, 1969), Lonnie joined Barbieri's band from 1971-73. Barbieri had by then begun to temper his free jazz excursions of the 1960s with softer Afro-Cuban and South American textures in his music, which would influence Lonnie's playing into new directions in the following years. Lonnie played on a number of albums marking this transition, "Fenix" (Philips, 1971), the critically acclaimed live album "El Pampero" (Flying Dutchman, 1972), "Bolivia" (Flying Dutchman, 1973) and "Under Fire" (Flying Dutchman, 1973). One further recording, "El Gato" (Flying Dutchman, 1975), was released after Lonnie had again moved on; from 1972 Lonnie had also taking up the invitation to join Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
band on electric keyboards. Over the next year, during an intense period of studio recording by Davis, various line-ups laid down a considerable number of sessions, which were later inter-cut and remixed for final release. Miles Davis insisted that Lonnie learned to play the organ for the sessions: "Miles gave me two nights to learn how to make music on the thing. Miles liked to introduce new sounds in a surprising way — that's how he produced such innovative, fresh music.". Lonnie's contributions appear on "On The Corner
On the Corner
On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
" (Columbia, 1973) and the track "Ife" on "Big Fun" (Columbia, 1974).
The Cosmic Echoes (1973 - 1985)
While passing through Miles Davis' ever-changing line-up, Lonnie had finally formed his own group, 'Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes' in 1973, together with his partner in Pharoah Sanders group Cecil McBeeCecil McBee
Cecil McBee is an American post bop jazz bassist, described by the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz as "a full-toned bassist who creates rich, singing phrases in a wide range of contemporary jazz contexts." Allmusic called him "One of post-bop's most advanced and versatile bassists".-Biography:McBee...
on bass, George Barron
George Barron
George Ward Barron was an English professional footballer who played as a winger. Born in Darlington, he made one appearance in the Football League First Division for Sheffield Wednesday in 1903.-References:...
(soprano and tenor sax), Joe Beck
Joe Beck
Joe Beck was an American guitarist who had been notable in jazz for more than 30 years.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Beck also briefly flirted with rock music in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
(guitar), David Lee, Jr. (drums), James Mtume
James Mtume
James Mtume is a jazz and R&B musician and a radio personality. Mtume's group is perhaps best known for their 1983 R&B hit song "Juicy Fruit". The song was sampled by The Notorious B.I.G. in his song "Juicy"...
(percussion), Sonny Morgan (percussion), Badal Roy
Badal Roy
Badal Roy is a tabla player, percussionist, and recording artist known for his work in jazz, world music, and experimental music.-Biography:...
(tabla drums), and Geeta Vashi (tamboura). Blending atmospheric fusion, soul and funk, Lonnie was encouraged by Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele was an American record producer who worked on countless classic jazz albums and record labels.-Biography:...
, the owner of Flying Dutchman Records
Flying Dutchman Records
Flying Dutchman Records was a jazz record label which was owned by veteran music industry executive, producer and songwriter Bob Thiele. Initially distributed by Atlantic Records, it was later distributed by RCA Records which took over the label in 1976...
, who had produced both Pharaoh Sanders' and Gato Barbieri's output while Lonnie had been in their bands, the latter for Thiele's newly formed label. For his debut album, "Astral Traveling" (Flying Dutchman, 1973), Lonnie re-recorded the title song he had composed and played on with the Pharoah Sanders band two years previous. An instrumental album, "Astral Travelling" also contained a re-arrangement of the Gospel standard "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord," which Lonnie had also previously arranged for Sanders.
The following year Lonnie's brother Donald joined the Cosmic Echoes as vocalist for "Cosmic Funk" (Flying Dutchman, 1974). Although he remained close to his earlier roots with featured versions of Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
's "Footprints" and John Coltrane's "Naima" on this album, by now Lonnie 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 Lonnie in an interview in 2009. This attitude may not have endeared Lonnie to the hardcore free jazz fans who had appreciated his earlier work, but this new relaxed fusion style proved extremely popular with a cross-over audience not normally associated with jazz, and the following albums, "Expansions" (Flying Dutchman, 1974), "Visions of a New World" (Flying Dutchman, 1975) and "Reflections of a Golden Dream" (RCA, 1976) have since become semi-legendary mainstays of the jazz-funk and chill jazz genres with djs and audiences worldwide, especially in Europe and Japan. "Renaissance" (RCA, 1977) continued this crossover fame, and the following year Lonnie expanded upon his success with a new contract with Columbia Records and two further acclaimed crossover albums in "Loveland" (Columbia, 1978) and "Exotic Mysteries" (Columbia, 1978), the latter containing the single "Space Princess" which became a disco/r+b hit still popular in clubs today in both 7" and remixed 12" versions. "Space Princess" was written by and featured the thundering basslines of 16-year old Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
, who was discovered by Lonnie and also wrote the track "Night Flower" on "Exotic Mysteries". A further track from the same album, "Quiet Moments" was to become a mainstay of the smooth jazz genre over the next decade.
After the crossover success of the 1970s, and continuing interest in and discovery of his earlier work by fans of the new 'Quiet storm' late night radio/smooth jazz format, Lonnie moved to Bob Thiele's new label, Doctor Jazz, and had a minor hit in 1983 with "Never too late". He also appeared in Marvin Gaye's backing band at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival, which has since been released on both cd and DVD (Eagle Vision, 2003). However, public interest slowly waned in his newer material as the decade wore on, and the Cosmic Echoes eventually dissipated during the mid-80's after releasing a further three albums mining the same smooth jazz field "Dreams of Tomorrow" (Doctor Jazz, 1983), "Silhouettes" (Doctor Jazz, 1984) and "Rejuvenation" (Doctor Jazz, 1985).
Later Career (1986 - )
In October 1986 Lonnie 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 Lonnie, Cecil McBee and Al Foster, produced by Bob Thiele. However, despite critical acclaim for this work, Lonnie 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). "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.". Both of the Startrak albums marked an about turn to the smooth jazz mode of the Cosmic Echoes period, "Love Goddess" featuring vocalist Phyllis HymanPhyllis Hyman
Phyllis Linda Hyman was an American soul singer and actress.-Early years:Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the St. Clair Village, the South Hills section of Pittsburgh...
and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
.
Around this time, the emerging hip-hop movement took an interest in Lonnie's earlier work, and he found himself working with rapper Guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
, who was mixing hip-hop with jazz in an innovative way. "Guru and the other rappers would tell me how their uncles used to make them listen to me and Miles and Donald Byrd and how they got the message" Smith told Australia's Daily Telegraph Mirror newspaper in 1995. Smith appeared on Guru's groundbreaking "Jazzmatazz, Vol 1
Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1
Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 is a jazz rap album by alternative hip hop artist Guru, released on May 18, 1993 on Chrysalis Records. This album is one of the first albums to combine a live jazz band with hip hop production and rapping. It is the first such project to feature established rappers...
" album (Chrysalis, 1993), once again finding a new audience for his earlier work as a result. He had also toured Europe in 1991, but after this short period of activity Lonnie produced little further work in the 1990s. Despite extensive radio play, appearing on a bewildering number of compilation cds and being namechecked and sampled by an increasing number of younger musicians discovering his Cosmic Echoes output, Lonnie spent the next few years mainly involved in setting up his own label, Loveland, and it wasn't until 1998 that Sony International took advantage of his new found audience by reissuing "Exotic Mysteries" and "Loveland" as a double cd. The same year, Lonnie recorded 'Transformation' (Loveland, 1998), once again revisiting the genre he had been most successful in and reuniting with his brother Donald's vocals. For this release he re-recorded "A Chance For Peace (Give Peace a Chance)" (both as vocal and instrumental versions) and "Expansions" as well as "Space Princess".
Since then Lonnie has not recorded, although he has performed live and toured on a number of occasions, especially in Europe and Japan, were he remains popular with new generations of listeners. He has also spent much of his time teaching at various workshops. In 2002, Sony issued a 2-cd retrospective of his Columbia output "Explorations: The Columbia Years", and his compositions remain a feature of jazz fusion orientated radio and cd compilations. The Cosmic Echoes track, "Expansions" has been featured in two videogames: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 open world action computer and video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the second 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and sixth original title overall...
and Driver: Parallel Lines
Driver: Parallel Lines
Driver: Parallel Lines is the fourth video game in the Driver series. The game was released on March 2006 on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by Atari, Wii and Microsoft Windows on June 2007 by Ubisoft.-Overview:...
, while "A Chance for Peace" featured in Grand Theft Auto 4. He most recently appearing on the Jazz World Stage at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
in June 2009.
Discography
This discography excludes re-releases under different titles and compilations by other artists/companies featuring previously released work- 1965 Roland Kirk - Here Comes the WhistlemanHere Comes the WhistlemanHere Comes the Whistleman is a live album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk recorded in March 1965 at Atlantic Studios in New York. It was his first release on the Atlantic label and features performances by Kirk with Lonnie Liston Smith, Major Holley and Charles Crosby. The Allmusic review...
' (Atlantic) - 1965 Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler - A Meeting of the TimesA Meeting of the TimesA Meeting of the Times is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and vocalist Al Hibbler recorded in March 1972 in New York City...
(Atlantic) - 1967 Roland Kirk - Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful EdithNow Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful EdithNow Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk. It was originally released on the Verve label in 1967 and features performances by Kirk with Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Boykins and Grady Tate...
(Verve) - 1969 Gato Barbieri - The Third World (Philips)
- 1969 Pharoah Sanders - Karma (Impulse)
- 1969 Leon Thomas - Spirits Known And Unknown (Flying Dutchman)
- 1970 Pharaoh Sanders - Jewels Of Thought (Impulse)
- 1970 Pharaoh Sanders - Summun Bukmun Umyun (Impulse)
- 1971 Pharoah Sanders - Thembi(Impulse)
- 1971 Huey Simmons - Burning Spirits (Contemporary)
- 1971 Stanley Turrentine - SugarSugar (Stanley Turrentine album)Sugar is an album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, his first recorded for the CTI Records label following his long association with Blue Note, featuring performances by Turrentine with Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Ron Carter, and Billy Kaye with Lonnie Liston Smith added on the title...
(CTI) - 1971 Gato Barbieri - Fenix (Philips)
- 1972 Gato Barbieri - El Pampero (Flying Dutchman)
- 1973 Pharoah Sanders - Izipho Zam (Strata East)
- 1973 Gato Barbieri - Bolivia (Flying Dutchman)
- 1973 Gato Barbieri - Under Fire (Flying Dutchman)
- 1973 Miles Davis - On the CornerOn the CornerOn the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
(Columbia) - 1974 Miles Davis - Big Fun (Columbia)
- 1975 Gato Barbieri - El Gato (Flying Dutchman)
- 1975 Oliver Nelson - Skull Session (Flying Dutchman)
- 1977 Mysterious Flying Orchestra - Mysterious Flying Orchestra (RCA)
Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes
- 1973 Astral Traveling (Flying Dutchman)
- 1974 Cosmic Funk (Flying Dutchman)
- 1974 Expansions (Flying Dutchman)
- 1975 Visions of a New World (Flying Dutchman)
- 1976 Reflections of a Golden Dream (RCA)
- 1977 Live! (RCA)
- 1977 Renaissance (RCA)
- 1978 Loveland (Columbia)
- 1978 Exotic Mysteries (Columbia)
- 1979 A Song for the Children (Columbia)
- 1980 Love Is the Answer (Columbia)
- 1983 Dreams of Tomorrow (Doctor Jazz)
- 1984 Silhouettes (Doctor Jazz)
- 1985 Rejuvenation (Doctor Jazz)
Later work
- 1986 Make Someone Happy (Doctor Jazz)
- 1990 Love Goddess (Startrak)
- 1991 Magic Lady (Startrak)
- 1998 Transformation (Import)
- 2002 Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - The Bridge
- 2003 Marvin Gaye - Live in Montreux 1980 (DVD/CD) (Eagle Vision)
Lonnie Liston Smith tracks sampled by other artists
An incomplete list- "Expansions" ::StetsasonicStetsasonicStetsasonic was an American hip hop group formed in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is remembered as one of the first hip hop crews to use a live band, and the group's positive, uplifting lyrics made it forerunners of alternative hip hop and jazz hip...
- "Talkin' All That Jazz" - "Devika (Goddess)" ::Digable PlanetsDigable PlanetsDigable Planets is an American alternative hip hop trio based in New York City, composed of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler , Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving . They released their debut album Reachin' in 1993, and their follow-up album Blowout Comb in 1994...
- "Pacifics" - "A Garden of Peace" ::Jay-ZJay-ZShawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
- "Dead Presidents II" - "A Garden of Peace" ::Mary J. BligeMary J. BligeMary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
- "Take Me as I Am" - "Bridge Through Time" ::Jay-ZJay-ZShawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
- "Understand Me" - "A Garden of Peace" ::Stacie OrricoStacie OrricoStacie Joy Orrico is a Contemporary Christian and R&B singer-songwriter and occasional actress. In 1998, she signed to ForeFront Records when she was 12 years old, and recorded her first album Genuine , which sold 13,000 in the first week of release.After her first album she signed to a new record...
- "Is It Me" - "A Garden of Peace" ::TotalTotal (band)Total was an American R&B girl group and one of the signature acts of Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records imprint during the 1990s.-Emergence & Total:...
- "Rain" - "A Garden of Peace" ::O.C. - "You and Yours"
- "A Garden of Peace" ::ABN-"I Miss My Dawg (I Gotta Survive)"
- "A Garden of Peace" ::Nikki JeanNikki JeanNikki Jean is a singer-songwriter, musician, and occasional actress from the United States. She was a part of the band Nouveau Riche, an indie/hip-hop band based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. She is also featured on Lupe Fiasco's second album, The Cool, as a lyricist and vocalist...
- "Exit Sign" - "A Garden of Peace" ::Grifta (Dubstep act) - ""
- "A Garden of Peace" ::Duo Infernale - "Feeling Blue"
- "Mystical Dreamer (A Tribute To Miles Davis)" ::Three 6 MafiaThree 6 MafiaThree 6 Mafia are an Academy Award-winning, American rap group originating from Memphis, Tennessee. Formed in 1991 as Triple 6 Mafia, by DJ Paul, Juicy J, & Lord Infamous, the group at its most featured six members including; Crunchy Black, Gangsta Boo and Koopsta Knicca...
- "Smoke If U Got It" - "Quiet Moments" ::Scienz Of Life - "Yikes!"
- "A Chance for Peace" ::Shape of Broad Minds - "Let's Go"
- "A Chance for Peace" ::La FouineLa FouineLaouni Mouhid, commonly known by his alias La Fouine or Fouiskin , is a French rapper of Moroccan origins from the city of Trappes, Yvelines in the Paris western suburbs. He is a growing figure of French rap. La Fouine signed with Sony Records in 2003 and released his debut album, Bourré au son,...
- "Tombé pour elle" - "Quiet Moments" ::Malcolm MclarenMalcolm McLarenMalcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
- "World Famous" (Ft. World's Famous Supreme Team)
External links
Note: some of these links confuse Lonnie Smith's work with Lonnie Liston Smith's, and should be used with caution- Official Website
- Lonnie Liston Smith Myspace page
- [ Lonnie Liston Smith Bio at Allmusic]
- Lonnie Liston Smith discography at Discogs.com
- Short Biography
- Lonnie Liston Smith interview at Allaboutjazz.com