Cosmic Voyager of Sound: Lonnie Liston Smith

 

This week's Sunday Special.  From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.

Lonnie Liston Smith is a cosmic voyager of sound—a jazz keyboardist, composer, and producer whose work spans spiritual jazz, soul, funk, and fusion. Born December 28, 1940, in Richmond, Virginia, Smith studied music at Morgan State University and started his career playing acoustic piano with jazz heavyweights like Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Miles Davis during the late 1960s and early 1970s. But it was with Pharoah Sanders that Smith first tapped into the celestial frequencies that would define his legacy—meditative, transcendent, and deeply rooted in Black spiritual consciousness. His shimmering electric piano can be heard on Sanders’ classic Thembi (1971), where he conjures sonic landscapes that feel more like prayers than compositions. In 1973, he stepped into his own light and formed Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes. Their albums, especially Expansions (1975), became iconic for their fusion of ethereal jazz, Afrocentric mysticism, and danceable funk grooves. The title track “Expansions” is a manifesto for higher consciousness, featuring the mantra: “Expand your mind and listen to the music.” Throughout the ’70s and early ’80s, Smith’s music was a bridge—between spiritual jazz and funk, the cosmic and the corporeal. He was also a pioneer in using the Fender Rhodes and other electric keyboards to create lush, dreamlike textures that continue to influence genres like hip-hop, house, ambient, and nu-jazz. Artists like Guru, A Tribe Called Quest, and Madlib have sampled his work. Lonnie Liston Smith isn’t just a musician—he’s a sonic mystic, a groove philosopher, a space-age prophet of peace and transcendence. Still alive and occasionally performing, he remains a living embodiment of jazz’s spiritual quest.