Lonnie Liston Smith

So it's kind of like a really swirling, intense, kind of dramatic kind of feeling that kind of sustains itself.

all right finally in some ways the sort of a pivotal moment for our journey into spiritual jazz which our concluding track for today and one that's going to take us on into the rest of the 70s for next time lonnie liston smith and the cosmic echoes astral traveling from 1973 when we were getting ready for this i went i went through my jazz lp collection which is quite big and i found this i pulled this out and i couldn't remember what it sounded like and i listened to it and i thought i'd why i don't know why this isn't like all permanently in one of my top 10 records forever because it's exactly the sort of thing i absolutely love like it is sort of ambient jazz in the fullest sense that it is very kind of relaxing and sort of delicate it's not

quite ambient though it's not quite ambient though is it it's got it's got all this it has got all this percussive elements into it but it's got a very it's very calming and you know and like gently uplifting

yeah So it's really fantastic.

As I say, played with people like Pharaoh Sanders, played with Miles Davis.

He plays on On the Corner and Big Fun, two of the great players.

early 70s Miles Davis albums and it's produced by the aforementioned Bob Thiel on his own label Flying Dutchman that he set up after leaving Impulse where he recorded people like Gil Scott Heron and yeah this is i mean the full name of the group is lonnie liston smith and the cosmic echoes and the truck is astral traveling traveling spell again is that an american thing to spell traveling with one l i don't yes

it is i can tell you this for sure because i use u.s spelling when i'm writing a book So ask me any form of US spelling that you want.

That was like the Harlem Renaissance, but in Richmond.

There's so many legendary artists who came from Richmond, right? You have Lonnie Liston Smith.

A lot of hip hop artists sample his music.

He's about to have like a new documentary out and a show at the Hippodrome, which is a legendary venue.

We heard the James Taylor Trio with The Truth, the title track of their latest album.

And I don't want to say they stole that song, but we played Lonnie Liston Smith expansions after that.

You can definitely see the similarities in where James Taylor...

I'm David Bassin, it's KXSF and support for KXSF comes from Dress San Francisco, a fashion boutique located in the heart of the city's Marina District.

Yeah, it really kicked in when I heard Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Ramsey Lewis, Max Middleton on Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow, Dave Grusin, Bob James on Roberta Flack's Feel Like Makin' Love, and later on, on tracks like Nautilus.

Lonnie Liston Smith, Donald Fagen, Greg Phillinganes, Ronnie Foster, Weldon Irvine.

The Brazilian masters, Manfredo Fest, Edson Frederico, Eumir Deodato, José Roberto Bertrami.

More recently, the torchbearers, they continue to come, Toby Smith, Boogie Wesselturf, James Poyser, D'Angelo, Robert Glasper, and many more.

So wow, what a... opportunity to experiment with you really

oh yeah yeah yeah yep yep and then i um uh i got with uh lonnie liston smith who had a band called the cosmic echoes and he was Gato Barberi's piano player, and most famously, Pharoah Sanders.

But he had his own records.

I would almost call it early, not new age, not new age, smooth, smooth and not smooth jazz.

Right, okay.

Very fashionable, fatback band, Jimmy Castabunch, all, you know, that hot expansions, Lonnie Liston-Smith, all that kind of stuff, you know.

And then you had the sex shop, the Malcolm McLaren shop called Sex.

It had been Let It Rock, I think, changed it called Sex, you know, up King's Road.

No parking zones will be enforced starting at 3 a.m.

This weekend, the historic Hippodrome Theater in Jackson Ward is paying tribute to a Richmond legend, jazz, soul, and funk pianist Lonnie Liston Smith.

Smith is also the subject of a forthcoming documentary directed by RVA MAG editor Landon Schroeder and local director and producer Michael Thibodeau.

It traces Smith's musical journey through interviews with the musicians, artists, producers, and collaborators who have worked with him.

Saturday's event, Cosmic Echo Live, will feature a number of Grammy Award-winning artists, including Mad Skills, Ronnie Lux, and Mike Millins.

Smith, Millins, and Craig Martin with Chaco Records joined Morning Edition host Phil Lyles at VPM Studios to talk about the celebration.

Lonnie Liston Smith, okay.

In addition to the legacy that your music has made, what does your music being most sampled catalogs by hip-hop mean to you?

So that's my early seventies comparison.

And then I did think of two records I would recommend from 1978 itself, Lonnie Liston Smith's exotic mysteries, which not always a dollar bin record anymore, but it's not as expensive as some of his better known records.

albums and that one does a pretty good job of following the same vibe as this it's more instrumental though and then last one also from 1978 dd bridgewater just family

oh interesting what cult or religion is that promoting

[jazz music]

Hi, this is Lonnie Liston Smith, and whenever I'm in London, I like to expand my mind with the Mucho Soul show.

[jazz music]

[jazz music][jazz music] Evening all.