I've been into Lonnie Liston Smith since I was a teenager, he was one of the first Jazz-Funk legends I discovered.

Lonnie played acoustic piano with Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Leon Thomas, Betty Cater and Gato Barbieri before joining Miles Davis as an electric keyboardist in the early 1970s.

In 1973, Lonnie founded the Cosmic Echoes Band with his brother Donald Smith, a singer and piano player who has collaborated, among others, with Oliver Lake. In the following decade, Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes released a series of groundbreaking albums for the Flying Dutchman label, which are considered to be among the best and most influential of their genre.
Lonnie was also featured on the Guru's first album for the Jazzmatazz project. His most popular track Expansions has been featured in two videogames: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Driver: Parallel Lines. Another Smith song, A Chance for Peace, was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Check out some of Lonnie's classics:

Expansions




Cosmic Funk




Love Beams




Don't miss the man himself join us on our radio show Midnight Soulstice! He'll be with us in the studio in person for the full two hours! We'll have much music to listen to and much to talk about. Friday, January 23rd, 11 pm - 1 am EST on 97.3 fm (in Richmond, VA) or the live stream on www.wrir.org


[Edited 1/24/09 6:32am]

Nice interview selection.

Expansions was a major cut back in the day.
There's a Doug Carn/Horace Silver colab called Peace on that album.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I knew that this would be your kinda thread.

Lonnie lives in Richmond, too, so it's kinda a must to have him on our show.

MrSoulpower said:

The force is strong with this one...


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Do you know what other albums he played on other than his own? I know he played on Oliver Nelson's Skull Session. But did he actually record with Miles? I'm just tryin' to get some more information so we have more to talk about his past.

Admittedly, a major 70s fusion geek, but I never got into LLS. Don't know why cuz my runnin' buddy bombarded me with his tapes every we rode in his car. Just found him dull and the tunes melded together; always sounding the same.

MrSoulpower said:

He had some pretty good recording stints with Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk & Gato Barbieri.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Great musician ! Looks like that's gonna be a cool show tomorrow ! Have fun !

This yahoo-link below is one of my alltime fave tracks recorded by Lonnie,
which he released around 1983. It's only an brief sample unfortunately.
But i always get a good feeling hearing that composition :

http://music.yahoo.com/track/414421

theAudience said:

Great, thanks. I got most of these, so I'll be able to give them a spin. I didn't know he played on Big Fun and On the Corner.

Shango said:

Agreed. I always dug his later material as well.

PFunkjazz said:

That's cool, there are some great artists I'm not feelin' either. I think I love Lonnie cuz he was one of the first Jazz-Funk/Fusion cats I got into. Expansions, A Chance for Peace and Visions of a New World are classics in my book and I never get tired of them.

MrSoulpower said:

Yeah, i picked up his work around the mid 80's, when he did some albums on the Doctor Jazz label and on which he recorded some tracks devoted to the religion
he followed (forgot the name). Is he still deep into that ?
And he sometimes mixed a phat bass sound in his tracks which i always dug.
Is there gonna be a signing-session afterwards, or did you already get some of your vinyl autographed ? lol

Shango said:

I don't know about his religious beliefs, but I may ask him.
I already got my albums signed. I ran into him a few times on the road when I was touring with other artists and we played at the same festivals. When I moved to Richmond, I figured it would be appropriate to give him a call.

MrSoulpower said:

I just tried to look it up online, but couldn't find the exact name of what he followed, but i remember when reading about it on the backsleeve, that it had a vibe of Chakra's/Hare Krishna/Zen or something in that area.

MrSoulpower said:

Great ! So it's reunion of the groove, lol. Yeah, from what i saw in that brief live-clip i posted above, it looks and sounds cool with Lonnie bobbin' his head and stuff. Party time !

Great designed flyer too. Most of Lonnie's sleeves (especially the 70's) are great artwork.
[Edited 1/22/09 9:35am]

Found this flyer from 1976 online :

Shango said:

Great, thanks! I'll show it to him.

MrSoulpower said:

You're welcome ! I bookmarked your site and look forward to the show.

I love Lonnie's "Love Goddess" CD, which includes one of my favorite Phyllis Hyman songs, "Obbession", along with an outstanding mostly instrumental remake of BeBe and CeCe Winan's "Heaven", which features vocals from Jean Carne and the late Spencer Harrison.
[Edited 1/22/09 14:19pm]

Cool. Yeah, I dig him. Looking forward to this show!

Manki and I saw the Professor here in Chicago two years ago.

I'll be listening in Pari.

I love his track Garden of Peace.

I only have one album, Visions of a New World but Secret Garden is not on it.
So, how´s he doing these days ? What are his shows like ? Good to hear that he´s still around.
[Edited 1/23/09 8:10am]

Expansions always finds its way in my sets,

kitbradley said:

That's a very late one, from 1990. Not really my sound, because he left his spiritual path. But he returned to his roots in the late 1990s.
I agree though, the vocals on Love Goddess are great. I just find the production to stale.

KoolEaze said:

Listen to the show and find out.

Does the scheldue on www.wrir.org change often ? I know some online stations who do that, which gets confusing sometimes when i wanna hear one of their rewinds, lol.
Just switched on this morning around 11-ish, because i thought your show would be around that time (i mixed up the AM-PM), but i heard a rock track played on "Sound Opinions" by show-hosts Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kot.
[Edited 1/23/09 7:57am]

Shango said:

Naw, we are fixed on Fridays, 11 pm - 1 am. That never changes really. And if you can't listen, you can download the shows. Go to "Schedule", find "Midnight Soulstice" and click on it.
Or you can get the links from our brandnew www.myspace.com/midnightsoulstice

Cool ! thanks again.
Yeah, your stream is already automatically transfered to my i-tunes, so all is set now.
Have fun in a few hours !

Shango said:

Thanks!

You're welcome !
Just browsed through your autographed sleeves on your own Myspace-page.
Leroy Hutson's handwriting looks very graphic and cool !
[Edited 1/23/09 9:07am]

Shango said:

Yeah, just like his music.