Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Astral Traveling (LP, colored Vinyl, Ltd.)

(Real Gone Music) 6 tracks, gatefold cover, clear vinyl in sunlight yellow, limited edition of 550, the original artwork gatefold sleeve reissued with Nat Hentoff's liner notes...

The groundbreaking albums by Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes for the Flying Dutchman label don't get the attention they deserve from jazz fans. Of the many important former members of Miles Davis' fusion bands, keyboardist Smith and his fellow musicians have probably come the furthest from Davis' stylistic breakthrough. Over five albums spanning four years, Smith and the Cosmic Echoes stretched the fusion aesthetic to include post-bop, modal and spiritual jazz, funk, rock, pop and even the smooth jazz, quiet storm and crossover genres. And if the latter styles are a thorn in your side: Smith infused all of his records with integrity, vision and his unique spatial sensibilities. Rather than playing it safe or being commercial, he fearlessly paved the way for modern jazz musicians (Kamasi Washington, for example, no doubt listened to these records extensively). For his 1973 debut album as a bandleader, Lonnie Liston Smith put together a killer band: Cecil McBee on bass, George Barron on saxophone, James Mtume and Sonny Morgan on drums, David Lee Jr. on percussion, Badal Roy on table, Geeta Vashi on tamboura and Joe Beck on guitar. Such a diverse ensemble was perfect for exploring the spiritual jazz Smith had encountered while working with Pharoah Sanders (“Let Us Go into the House of the Lord” appears here and on Sanders' 1970 album Summun Bukmun Umyun, on which Smith contributed), all under the direction of Flying Dutchman label owner and former John Coltrane producer Bob Thiele. We have reissued the original gatefold artwork with Nat Hentoff's liner notes... one of the great jazz albums of its time!