BST 84371 (NR)

Lonnie Smith - Live At Club Mozambique

Released - 1995

Recording and Session Information

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, May 21, 1970
Dave Hubbard, tenor sax; Ronnie Cuber, baritone sax; Lonnie Smith, organ, vocals; George Benson, guitar; Joe Dukes, drums; Gary Jones, congas; Clifford Mack, tambourine.

tk.4 I Can't Stand It
tk.8 Expressions
tk.7 Scream
tk.9 Play It Back
tk.1 Love Bowl
tk.2 Piece Of Mind
tk.10 I Want To Thank You For Loving Me
tk.11 Seven Steps To Heaven

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
I Can't Stand It	John Patton	May 21 1970
Expressions	John Patton	May 21 1970
Scream	John Patton	May 21 1970
Play It Back	John Patton	May 21 1970
Side Two
Love Bowl	John Patton	May 21 1970
Peace of Mind	John Patton	May 21 1970
I Want to Thank You	Sly Stone	May 21 1970
Seven Steps to Heaven	Victor Feldman, Miles Davis	May 21 1970

Liner Notes

Lonnie Smith is more than the picture jazz history currently paints of him. He has always been associated with Lou Donaldson; yet when one digs beneath the surface, new and amazing facts surface about this great jazz organist.

The story before the story is truly unique. Lonnie is from Buffalo, NY, and began his musical life as a trumpet student. He then formed a vocal group after completing high school. But fate intervened and soon Lonnie was entranced by the Hammond organ. Lonnie is an ORGANIST and not a pianist turned organist.

He began developing his own personal style because of his affinity for R&B and soon became something of a local attraction. He moved to New York and sat in one night with Jack McDuff's band and 10 and behold he connected with Jack's guitarist: George Benson. The two became a team once George left Jack's band and soon a Columbia record contract followed.

The George Benson Quartet featuring Lonnie Smith recorded two albums for Columbia (ITS UPTOWN [1966] and COOKBOOK [1967]) and Lonnie was given a chance to record an album of his own. The result was FINGER LICKIN' GOOD (Columbia CS 9496-1967). It included a cast of musicians the he would associate with for the next five years: George Benson, Ronnie Cuber, Melvin Sparks and Marion Booker.

The George Benson group worked a lot during 1966-67, so Lonnie was "established" by the time of his fateful association with Lou Donaldson. As Lonnie recalls the events: "Lou was at Rudy's (Van Gelder Studios) working on a Blue Note date and he just couldn't get the thing' he was looking for from the guys on the session. So George Benson and I were called in by Duke Pearson and that was the ALLIGATOR BOOGALOO record."

And in the tradition of Blue Note, Lonnie was being scouted by Frank Wolff (who was duly impressed at the Donaldson session). "Duke Pearson would call me," Lonnie remembers, "and say "Frank really digs you man, and I think he's going to sign you".

Sure enough, on July 23, 1968, Lonnie recorded the first of four released albums. THINK (4290) reunited him with Melvin Sparks and Marion Booker (with Lee Morgan and David 'Fathead' Newman), and TURNING POINT (4313) followed (with Morgan, Benny Maupin, Sparks and Idris Muhammed).

During this time, Lonnie had a steady working band, and would play some of the better neighborhood jazz rooms around the northeast. Included in his working bands were saxophonists Ronnie Cuber, Dave Hubbard, Bill Easley and George Adams; trumpeter Donald Hahn; guitarists George Benson and Larry McGee; and drummers Joe Dukes, Sylvester Goshay, Phillip Terrell, Marion Booker, Jimmy Lovelace, Charles Crosby, Art Gore, Norman Connors and Bobby Durham.

Lonnie recorded MOVE YOUR HAND (4326) with his working band at the 'Club Harlem' in Atlantic City, New Jerey on August 8, 1969. "Move Your Hand" became a surprise hit and after recording his last studio album for Blue Note (DRIVES 4351) he embarked on another live recording with his band. It is believed that Blue Note was going to release it at the time, (and probably gave it a catalog number [4371]), but it remained on the shelf for 25 years.

The band assembled at Cornelius Wattls Club Mozambique', located in Detroit, Michigan. (Mr. Watt's also owned another club the musicians liked to work, the 'Jazz West'). "I loved those clubs" Lonnie told me. "Those days were times of happiness. The people were up for the music, they were excited. They would even help you set up your equipment. A different time altogether from today". The 'Mozambique' became home base for Lonnie. "I lived in Detroit at that time and worked both rooms regularly. Grant Green (who also lived there) would come down and try to get me to go on the road with him." (Current Blue Note artist Joe Lovano remembers all night drives back and forth to the 'Mozambique' from Cleveland to play with Lonnie when he was a teenager).

"George Benson just happened to have some time off, so I wanted him on this date. Ronnie Cuber, Dave Hubbard and Joe Dukes were my regular guys. Dave joined the group when George came back in 1970. Davels from Baltimore and is still a close friend. Joe Dukes came on after he left Jack McDuff. So we were pretty tight at the time. The percussionists were cats who lived in Detroit and added more sound to the date. And of course, Ronnie and I had made all of those gigs together."

The music recorded that night is still as fresh and funky today as it was on May 21, 1970. It sounds like a happy reunion between old friends; no competition, just an air of fun and good times. "Frank Wolff (Blue Note co-founder and A&R man at that time) loved me, and he loved to dance to my slow funky tunes. We used to go everywhere together and hang out. Blue Note was the best at that time--the best sound, covers and musicians. I was proud to be a part of the label."

There is no need to go into detail about the music on these sides; sit back and enjoy it in the spirit of Mr. Watt's, the good groovy citizens of Detroit, and most of all, the beautiful music that Lonnie Smith and his band provide.

-Bob Belden

BST 84351

Lonnie Smith - Drives

Released - 1970

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 2, 1970
Dave Hubbard, tenor sax; Ronnie Cuber, baritone sax; Lonnie Smith, organ; Larry McGee, guitar; Joe Dukes, drums.

5717 tk.30 Twenty-Five Miles
5718 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
5719 Spinning Wheel
5720 Seven Steps To Heaven
5721 tk.34 Psychedelic PI

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Twenty-Five Miles	Lonnie Smith	January 2 1970
Spinning Wheel	David Clayton-Thomas	January 2 1970
Seven Steps to Heaven	Miles Davis, Victor Feldman	January 2 1970
Side Two
Psychedelic Pi	Lonnie Smith	January 2 1970
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Don Kirkpatrick, Keith Knox	January 2 1970

Liner Notes

Several years ago, one of my friends in uptown New York told me to make a point of hearing the group that was then at Minton's. When I arrived there in due course, Teddy Hill was standing around with a benign expression that augured well.

I was familiar with guitarist George Benson from his records with Brother Jack McDuff, and he sounded even better as leader of his own quartet in the freedom that position ensured. But I was also very much impressed by his organist, Lonnie Smith. "When I thought about organ players," George told me later, explaining how he got his group together, "Lonnie came into my mind because he can swing. When I called him he was working with a rhythm-and-blues group, but he decided to take a chance with me, although I had nothing lined up."

I thought Lonnie had to be celebrating some great occasion that night, or had found some elixir outclassing those behind the bar on Teddy Hill's well-stocked shelves. He exuded happiness, and he was as energetic as he was enthusiastic. Afterwards, of course, I discovered there was nothing unusual about his performance. It was to his own abandoned pattern, the Lonnie Smith Ordinary that always sounds like the Lonnie Smith Special.

They had a good drummer there, and a really formidable musician on the baritone saxophone, Ronnie Cuber, who plays so rewardingly on this record, too. He would take big, bustling solos, and work away in the ensemble, nudging the others along with robust, vehement phrases. There was, in fact, a rare four-way thing going between these men, each protruding and stimulating the others into more vigorous and imaginative flights. The instrumentation was new, but the spirit of collective improvisation, and the kind of cumulative rhythmic momentum they achieved were as old as jazz itself.

Lonnie Smith's drive, as the album title recognizes, is the cardinal factor in the five performances that compose this set. A lot of adjectives and likenesses come to mind, but as always in attempts to describe the intangibles of music, they lack precision. They drive, after all, from subjective impressions, and to say that Lonnie plays with furious energy, or that he always manages to set the pot boiling—and keep it boiling—is not necessary to describe the effect of the music on the record buyer. Nevertheless, what can be said without fear of contradiction is that his playing is synonymous with excitement. You just cannot stand by, cool and detached, for long. The music pulls you in headlong, sets you whirling...why, just as though you were in a whirlpool of sound!

A remarkable characteristic of the organ groups, at a time when jazz has generally lost its sense of direction, is their rhythmic strength and vitality. Unlike most of the rock, pseudo-jazz, or jazz-rock groups, they are not content with a heavy, ponderous beat. Note what happens on Spinning Wheel, a number made famous by Blood, Sweat and Tears, when Lonnie takes off on his solo; note how aerially, how effortlessly he swings.

The choice of material is interesting in itself. Spinning Wheel is sandwiched between Twenty Five Miles (on which the leader elects to sing and Dave Hubbard's Coltrane-like tenor is introduced) and Seven Steps To Heaven, a Miles Davis "hit' of 1963. The difference of approach on this last is more than a matter of the difference between organ and trumpet, and the performance is notable for the group's fresh insights on a number that Miles and Victor Feldman jointly composed.

On the second side, Lonnie's own hypnotic original, Psychedelic Pi, is presented with considerable humor, and the two saxophones are used very effectively in the riffing behind Larry McGee's excellent guitar work. Here is another example of how the organ groups have contributed to jazz. Ever since the days of Wild Bill Davis with Bill Jennings, and Bill Doggett with Billy Butler, they have constantly brought admirable guitarists to the attention of the public. McGee's playing here is impressively assured and inventive.

Finally, there is a version of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? that is even longer — by some sixty-five seconds — than that made by Jimmy Smith in 1964. No doubt Lonnie had heard the earlier one, and it may well have fired his imagination. But he is no imitator and this is almost totally different in tempo and treatment, his playing over stop-time being resourceful and clearly spontaneous. Joe Dukes, who put the whole record into a groove with his introduction to Twenty Five Miles, calls the meeting to order after the stop-time and takes the band out, driving. His solo throughout is vital to the whole enterprise and, as further reference to his records with Jack McDuff will show, Joe Dukes is a drummer almost impossible to top in the organ field. Put him with Lonnie Smith, and you have an infallible combination for the production of music which Drives.

-STANLEY DANCE 1970

BST 84326

Lonnie Smith - Move Your Hand

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

"Club Harlem", Atlantic City, NJ, August 9, 1969
Rudy Jones, tenor sax; Ronnie Cuber, baritone sax; Lonnie Smith, organ, vocals; Larry McGee, guitar; Sylvester Goshay, drums.

4809 tk.2 Charlie Brown
4811 tk.5 Move Your Hand
4812 tk.6 Sunshine Superman
4814 tk.8 Layin' In The Cut

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Charlie Brown	Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller	August 9 1969
Layin' in the Cut	Lonnie Smith	August 9 1969
Side Two
Move Your Hand	Lonnie Smith	August 9 1969
Sunshine Superman	Donovan Leitch	August 9 1969

Liner Notes

In jazz, either you got it or you ain't. Judging by these sides, it is obvious that Lonnie Smith's got it.

Jazz is a complex, many sided affair. Today, you can find as many varieties of jazz as Heinz has soup. The question is: Which soup is the best? A few years back someone invented "soul jazz" and a lot of people actually thought here was something new. While "soul jazz" is as old as jazz itself the name pretty much fits the type of jazz I believe is the best. I feel that history supports me on this: there have been more reissues of "soul jazz" recordings than of any other kind of jazz.

Lonnie Smith has soul, plus fire, imagination and taste.

These sides were born on a warm Saturday night in the "soul center" of Atlantic City. People were jammed around the bar, glasses in hand, smiling. Friendly and animated, a good jazz audience — if you gave them what they wanted to hear. The music, I think, reflected the atmosphere that prevailed at "Club Harlem" that night.

The band was tight. There was a feeling of togetherness on that small bandstand. From the first note on, everything fell into place. Whether they played Charlie Brown or Sunshine Superman, the blues permeated everything they played. The "Blues with a Feeling"—perhaps more a matter of the spirit than of notes. Right in the groove and probably the high point of the session was Lonnie's sensational Move Your Hand. His infectious, humorous vocal really turns this track into "something else.

When it was all over, it started to rain. People scattered in all directions. Two big buses pulled up dumping new crowds of tourists. Another band began to play. We scrambled down the street to the nearest "soul food" place. Opening the door, Lonnie murmured: "D'you think we got it?" I smiled "Well, yes, I think so." Now, with the record in front of me, I know that we got it. I close in the hope that many thousands of people will enjoy this session as much as I did.

—Francis Wolff

BST 84313

Lonnie Smith - Turning Point

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 3, 1969
Lee Morgan, trumpet #1-4; Julian Priester, trombone #1-4; Bennie Maupin, tenor sax #1-4; Lonnie Smith, organ; Melvin Sparks, guitar; Leo Morris, drums.

3307 tk.7 See-Saw
3308 tk.11 Eleanor Rigby
3309 tk.15 Turning Point
3310 tk.19 Slow High
3311 tk.27 People Sure Act Funny

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 

https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
See Saw	Don Covay, Steve Cropper	January 3 1969
Slow High	Lonnie Smith	January 3 1969
People Sure Act Funny	Bobby Robinson, Titus Turner	January 3 1969
Side Two
Eleanor Rigby	John Lennon, Paul McCartney	January 3 1969
Turning Point	Lonnie Smith	January 3 1969

Liner Notes

THREE YEARS AGO a group led by guitarist George Benson was on its way to Detroit to play a night club engagement. I was mainly interested in the work of the leader since I had heard him briefly before with Jack McDuff.

No one seemed to know about the rest of the group except one man. That man was organist Richard '"Groove" Holmes. In addition to praising guitarist Ben- Son, Groove had high praises for his new organist Lonnie Smith. When the group arrived I understood why George had praised him so highly. Many organists sound very similar to me, however, Lonnie has a sound that was immediately identifiable. The man had a likeable personality, seemed to be a happy person and was enthusiastic about his music. All this came through in his playing and it still does. Immediately, I predicted good things would happen for him, but for three years it seems I was wrong in my prediction. Although Lonnie recorded two albums with George Benson and one as a leader little or no comment was heard. Then Blue Note released a Lou Donaldson LP "Alligator Bogaloo" which featured Lonnie Smith on organ. Now comments on him were very strong. Subsequently, he recorded two more albums with Donaldson, "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" and "Midnight Creeper" and interest from listeners grew even greater. By that time, it became apparent to me that Lonnie should have his own LP.

Then it happened. Lonnie's Blue Note LP "Think" was released. We started playing the big tune from the album, Son Of Ice Bag, (along with the other tracks) and our listening audience could not get enough of it. In my nine years In Detroit radio, "Think" along with a Lou Rawls LP of four years ago, are the only albums I have seen sell out in two or three days. Detroit record shops could not keep the LP in stock. "Think" was the biggest selling album in Detroit for 14 weeks. On the strength of the "Think" l_p, Lonnie was brought to Detroit to headline a recent concert (together with Lou Donaldson) and people literally went wild over Lonnie.

Now a word about the other swingers heard on "Turning Point." Lee Morgan, who is a veteran Blue Note artist with man popular albums to his credit, is a favorite in Detroit. While he was on stage at the aforementioned concert, members of the audience were shouting for him to play some of his tunes. Mr. Morgan surely makes his presence felt on this LP. Trombonist Julian Priester is remembered for his work with Max Roach and Art Blakey. Detroiter Bennie Maupin sounds better with each new release. Finally, good things are beginning to happen for him as many Detroiters predicted when he left for New York five years ago. The music played here by guitarist Melvin Sparks will make you take notice. It must be a pleasure to have a drummer like Leo Morris in your section. Morris supplies the spark so important to the success of an LP.

Jazz is a music of many moods and feelings and it's all found here. See Saw, the Don Cova original, was a hit for him and also Lady Soul, Aretha Franklin.

The Smith original Slow High will prove to be the favorite track on the LP for many listeners. It's a medium tempo blues that a lot of swingers I know can really unwind and do their own thing to while listening or dancing.

People Sure Act Funny is a trio track that is very relaxed and remindful of the sound one might hear in a much less than half filled nightclub on a dead Tuesday night, round midnight. "Pour me another taste bartender."

Eleanor Rigby has been recorded numerous times but there is none finer than the presentation found on this LP. The melodic line expresses a feeling of sadness. Especially attractive is the interlude played before the melody and before Lonnie's solo. Maupin's solo shows that he's maturing, learning the value of being economical with the notes he plays. Lee Morgan displays the highly individual sound that has made him what he is today. Eleanor Rigby contains all the ingredients that made Son Of Ice Bag a Lonnie Smith trademark.

Lonnie seems to have a penchant for getting you into a relaxing mood by easing into a tune slowly before transposing your mood into a swinging groove. He does it here on the title tune, Turning Point, a Lonnie Smith original. This is a straight down the middle swinger that allows room for all the soloists to stretch out and play.

I have been living with an advance copy of this LP for five days and I must say that it was a pleasure. I'm sure Lonnie has another hit album with "Turning Point."

— ED LOVE, WCHD-FM, Detroit, Michigan

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT TURNING POINT

There has never been a single Blue Note sound. One key to the label's legendary status was the ability of label founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff to bring musicians together from supposedly separate realms and create ensembles where that very diversity proved inspirational. This session is a fine example of the good music that could result when three players, each from the funk and the straight-ahead side, got together and did it the Blue Note way.

The rhythm section of organist/leader Lonnie Smith, guitarist Melvin Sparks, and drummer Idris Muhammad (then known as Leo Morris, as Ed Love's original liner notes indicate) was as funky as they came. At least two of the three were present on almost every one of Lou Donaldson's Blue Note dates from this period of the saxophonist's career, with all three heard on part of his Everything I Play Is Funky album; and each sustained the soulful feeling as leaders of their own sessions. Nearly four decades later, all three are still among the first-call players when music of this style is on the agenda, with Smith still a Donaldson mainstay; but they also regularly display their adaptability in other settings. Muhammad, for instance, is equally at home in support of Ahmad Jamal, where he occupies the chair once filled by another New Orleans native, Vernel Fournier.

In contrast, the horn players represented the envelope-pushing wing of hard bop at the time, Not that anyone doubted Lee Morgan's soulfulness, but by the late '60s his music had taken on more daring harmonic and rhythmic contours, One of his primary partners in these investigations between 1968 and '70 was Bennie Maupin, the young Detroit saxophonist who also worked with Roy Haynes and Horace Silver in this period, but truly blossomed, as both soloist and composer, on Morgan's memorable 1970 Live at the Lighthouse sessions. Maupin followed his Morgan tenure by joining the Herbie Hancock Sextet, which already included trombonist Julian Priester, and took an even more exploratory approach to its material. It is a credit to Morgan, Maupin, and Priester that they could function in this more direct and blues-centered setting with true conviction and without sacrificing their personal voices.

It helped immeasurably, of course, that the rhythm section created a feeling that was both comfortable and propulsive, that Smith had a knack for selecting the right tempo for each piece, and that the hit songs he chose to cover had an integrity that inspired rather than hand-cuffed improvisers, Consider "Eleanor Rigby," which had already received a slew of makeovers from such diverse folk as Ray Charles, Sonny Criss, the Jazz Crusaders, Morgana King, Wes Montgomery, Kai Winding, and Young-Holt Unlimited (and, shortly after this recording, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson), among many others. One would need a deep record collection and a lot of listening time to confirm Love's claim that "there is none finer" than this "Rigby", but it is doubtful that any of the other jazz versions give as leeway to the musicians while still retaining the lyrical mystery of the original.

In retrospect„ it appears that this very balance of groove and openness could not be sustained in an era when musicians found themselves faced with a choice between challenge and accessibility. Many, including Morgan, occasionally found themselves crossing the line if for no reason than economic necessity (the trumpeter's last studio appearance was as a sideman with Charles Earland, another organist who came to prominence with Lou Donaldson), but as a rule one either took it further out or further in. Smith definitely retreated from the more venturesome aspects of performances such as "Slow High" and the title track on his net few albums, and then had to face a sea-change which the Hammond B-3 organ was considered passe as newer and more portable electric keyboards became the rage. It is instructive that when the now self-accredited "Dr. Lonnie Smith got the chance to record again as a leader in the "90s after a long hiatus, he used iconoclastic guitarist John Abercrombie for some very open-minded takes on Jimi Hendrix's music. Smith has never abandoned funk, but he keeps us that it is only part of what he does. A session like Turning Point therefore stands out as one of more complete presentations of what Lonnie Smith is all about.

- Bob Blumenthal, 2005

BST 84290

Lonnie Smith - Think!

Released - 1968

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 23, 1968
Lee Morgan, trumpet; David Newman, tenor sax, flute; Lonnie Smith, organ; Herman Henry, Melvin Sparks, guitar; Marion Booker Jr., drums; Norberto Apellaniz, Willie Bivens, congas #1,2; Pucho, timbales #1,2.

3064 tk.12 The Call Of The Wind
3065 tk.24 Slouchin'
3066 tk.31 Son Of Ice Bag
3067 tk.51 Three Blind Mice
3068 tk.57 Think

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images / 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Son of Ice Bag	Hugh Masekela	July 13 1968
The Call of the Wild	Lonnie Smith	July 13 1968
Side Two
Think	Aretha Franklin, Ted White	July 13 1968
Three Blind Mice	Traditional	July 13 1968
Slouchin'	Lonnie Smith	July 13 1968

Liner Notes

NO MATTER who you are friend, it is not so easy to define the style of an era as complex as music. No definition in fact can take in all its currents and cross currents, or even come close to encompassing its extraordinarily different personalities. No single person of time, no single piece of art or literature is fully typical of music as we precisely know it in the 20th century. When one chooses music as a career, one must be prepared to THINK and think well, for if you do not, you are destined to end up a foolish soul with notes, tracks and writings around your neck making you look like a pedlar going to a fair.

The manner in which Lonnie Smith has rallied his spiritual and material forces for this recording leads me to believe the shadows of gradual obscurity will not have the chance to Cover one so thoroughly committed to his art. It is apparent that because Lonnie does think, he is fundamentally, intellectually and musically equipped to be himself, as he so well demonstrates throughout the five selections heard in this album, THINK.

Jazz is art and a very special art. It is an art that involves so very much. Lonnie Smith seems to be aware of it all. This album does attest to that, in that it swings throughout. The basic essentials of rhythm, melody and tonal colors are always present.

Son Of Ice Bag launches side one of this beautiful Blue Note adventure. The tune itself was written by Hugh Masekela. It has a joyous beginning in good taste and restraint. Then, the cue is given and guitarist Melvln Sparks takes over with a solo that flashes excitement as it glows and sparkles with vitality. Melvin's guitar packs a free and easy flow of improvised melody. David Newman solos with the customary swinging know-how with which he has been identified so long, but he does it with a great edge on today's sound, yet he doesn't overpower you with it to a point where he has your nerves rattling. Then, as if by E.S.P, Lee Morgan enters with the beautiful "bee" and "bird" sounds of his trumpet. He surges ahead with the same Morganese we've enjoyed through the years, and he does it with controlled vigor and freshness. After a brief unified statement by the group, Lonnie slides in unobtrusively with some organ pumping that will have you up and doing your own thing by this time. From the very beginning, you can detect that Lonnie is full of imagination and zest. He digs In and cooks in such a way as to come out sounding strictly Lonnie Smith. All in all, the group has a successful flight on this one.

The Call Of The Wild, a Lonnie Smith original, is a well planned expedition. It begins by wrapping itself around you with beautiful warmth and quietness. Then wow!! With the gates open and the barriers down, Lonnie and his men leap out. A great Latin sound has been created here. Lonnie shows that he has the knowledge and abundant know-how to compose pieces against accepted beliefs. He reconciles the two themes with marvelous technique sugesting the trained musician's skill and ability in timing and coordination. Sparks, Morgan and Newman once more have the opportunity to acquit themselves admirably with excellent solo spots. Lonnie's great organ propulsion is behind the whole action. You feel the injection of imaginative excitement and fervor rising from his keyboard as it whirls around great instrumental interplay. The percussion heat generated by Marion Booker, Jr. and Pucho in the lead is a sheer knockout. The pulsation of The Call Of The Wild will liberate the most controlled id.

Think, the well chosen title tune, is the Aretha Franklin and Ted Wright soul classic. On this one, Lonnie and his music mates wear their "'considering caps" with great style. This one isn't just played. It's interpreted. The good vibrations take little time to impress you. Forget about all that intellectualizing for a while and help yourself to a heavy sampling of Lonnie Smith as he sermonizes his way across town on this soul beat. One of the interesting things about Think is the fact that Lonnie obviously does not have time for exaggeration of fact. Rather, he tells it like it really is, and after all when you are running for public acceptance there's nothing else the people want to hear. THINK is an excellent showcase for Lonnie. If nothing else, his performance does much to broaden his already wide appeal.

Three Blind Mice are blind no longer. Figuratively spea19ng, Lonnie has helped these three overcome their legendary plight by breathing new hope into their souls. With the aid of his brothers in music Lonnie has enabled these mice to stop chasing the wrong object and pick on something more to their fancy instead.

Slouchin', one of the best tunes in the album, is another Lonnie Smith original. This piece means just what it implies. There's nothing else to do for a while, so let's take a holiday and do some slouchin'. Here again, the Lonnie Smith organ touch is not only a happy and moving one, but is immediately identifiable. The leader and his soul brothers display all their magnificent growth. Sparks gets the first solo nod. His guitar work is tasty. Morgan launches a solo that won't let go. Newman takes it next and by the time he turns the piece over to the boss, everybody within earshot is Slouchin'. Lonnie keeps it going in such a way with his free and easy organ style, that before you realize it, your shoes are off and the Slouchin' is over. Booker and Pucho lead the percussion section in a nice galloping fashion and cheer their leader all the way home.

Jazz continues to stay alive, interesting, fresh sounding to our senses, a vital art of today (with a great past and hopefully an exciting future), thanks to artists like Lonnie Smith, who THINK.

-RHETT EVERS
Jazz in Stereo
WTFM, N.Y., N.Y.

David Newman performs by courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
Henry (Pucho) Brown performs by courtesy of Prestige Records.

Album design by FORLENZA VENOSA ASSOCIATES
Photos by FRANCIS WOLFF
Recording by DAVE SANDERS (A & R Recordings, Inc.)
Produced by FRANCIS WOLFF

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT THINK!

The leader of Think! is one of two keyboard-playing Lonnie Smiths emerged in the 1960s and have caused more than a bit of discographic confusion. The other, slightly older Lonnie Smith (Lonnie "piano" Smith, if you will), recorded under that name with Roland Kirk and a few others. By the time he joined Pharoah Sanders in 1969, he using his middle name as well and was henceforth known as Lonnie Liston Smith.

The present Lonnie Smith (or Dr. Lonnie Smith, as he has taken to calling himself in recent years) was born in 1942 in Buffalo and began his musical career while still a teenager in a doo-wop group that also included Grover Washington, Jr. Fascination with Jimmy Smith's 1960 Blue Note album Midnight Special led Smith to the organ, an instrument he mastered without formal instruction. While sitting in with Jack McDuff's band in 1964, he met and immediately bonded with McDuff's guitarist George Benson. The encounter led to the formation of Benson's own quartet in 1966 (a band that would soon also feature drummer Marion Booker, Jr.) and to Smith's recording debut with Benson on Columbia.

Benson's band made enough of a splash to earn Smith his own Columbia album, Finger Lickin' Good; but what really cemented the reputations of the guitarist and organist was their contribution to Lou Donaldson's 1967 Blue Note hit Alligator Bogaloo. Smith participated in two more sessions with Donaldson over the next year, and then landed his own contract with the label, with Think!, the first of albums Smith recorded as a leader over the next two years.

The personnel involved here, and the variety of material featured, make this far superior to the organ-combo norm of the late-'60s. In addition to the soulful, still-underrated Melvin Sparks and the always reliable David "'Fathead" Newman, the band includes trumpeter Lee Morgan, who had participated in some of the greatest organ jams sessions in history with Jimmy Smith a decade earlier. While taking his music into more contemporary post-bop areas at the end of his career, Morgan also began making occasional appearances with organists again. He returned for Lonnie Smith's next album Turning Point, and did turns with Blue Note artists Larry Young (Mother Ship) and Rueben Wilson (Love Bug), all in 1969. Two days before this murder in 1972, Morgan made his last studio appearance with another organist, Charles Earland, on Prestige. As was the case on those other dates, Morgan never had to simplify his approach to accommodate the format (hear his turnarounds on Slouchin'), and the soulful content of his contributions were a given, he also blends well with Newman, who was Morgan's front-line partner on the trumpeters 1967 Sonic Boom.

On "The Call of the Wild" and "Slouchin'," a three-piece Afro-Latin percussion section under the leadership of Henry "Pucho" Brown is added. They lend a particularly orgiastic rhythm vibe to the former track. Norberto Apellaniz, credited as a second conga player here, was regularly heard on bongos in Pucho's popular combo of the time, the Latin Soul Brothers.

The material is fairly straightforward, with a minimum of harmonic movement, yet there is variety in the arrangements and consistent quality in the solo contributions. Among the three covers is "Three Blind Mice" that borrows directly, albeit at a slower tempo, from the arrangement of the nursery rhyme that Curtis Fuller crafted for Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1962.

Smith's subsequent history is indicative of the struggles that all organists encountered. The rise of electric pianos and other keyboards by 1970 signaled what appeared to be the death knell of the Hammond B-3. Public interest dropped so precipitously that Smith's final Blue Note date, the presence of Benson notwithstanding, remained unissued for a quartet century. Odd Smith albums appeared on a variety of labels through the next two decades, until a few trio albums for the Japanese Venus imprint in the early '90s reminded the world that the now-turbaned Dr. Lonnie Smith remained at the peak of his powers. As these notes are written, Smith has just released a new collection under his own name on Palmetto, He continues to work regularly with Lou Donaldson and has become the organist of choice for musicians of diverse styles and generations.

— Bob Blumenthal, 2005