LONNIE LISTON SMITH — Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes : Cosmic Funk (review)

LONNIE LISTON SMITH — Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes : Cosmic Funk album cover

Album · 1974 · Fusion

4.5/5 · 2024-10-13
FunkFreak75

With this album we can see how Jazz-Rock Fusion's growing infatuation with Funk has taken bliss-master Lonnie Liston Smith and his Cosmic Echoes on a detour.

A1. "Cosmic Funk" (5:35) combine SLY AND THE FAMILY STONES' "Thank You (Falettinme be Mice Elf)" with RARE EARTH's "I Just Want to Celebrate" and this is what you might get. Cool, funky, and expressive (especially through Donald Smith's impassioned vocals) but a little repetitive and drawn out. (8.75/10)

A2. "Footprints" (6:08) a cover of a Wayne Shorter song, what starts out fairly mellow, turns into something more in tune with the old jazz sounds and stylings from which Lonnie emerged in the 1960s. Not really J-R Fusion or Cosmic Bliss, the song is dominated by George Barron's traditional sounding jazz saxophone expressions as well as Lonnie's piano. (8.5/10)

A3. "Beautiful Woman" (6:57) sounds like a piano version of Marvin Gaye's spiritually-uplifting What's Going On-era music over which Donald Smith gives a very nice, smooth LEON THOMAS-like performance. As usual, we get great percussion and accompaniment from the rhythm section as well as some gentle support from George Barron's winds. (13.75/15)

B1. "Sais (Egypt)" (8:15) with this song that is credited to percussionist MTUME, now we're moving back toward the hypnotic kosmische musik of Lonnie's niche-defining debut solo album, Astral Traveling. Bassist Al Anderson and the percussion team of Andrew Cyrille, Doug Hammond, Ron Bridgewater, Lawrence Killian, and drummer Art Gore establish a TRAFFIC "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" motif for George Barron to solo over with his reverbed soprano sax while Lonnie employs a heavily-echoed Fender Rhodes while his left-handed piano chords add a steady fullness to the rhythm track. When Lonnie takes the lead somewhere in the fourth minute the percussionists use the spacey foundation to go on a tear of show-off playing, but then George returns in the sixth minute to settle them down a bit. The music thins in the seventh minute leaving Lonnie and Al Anderson's bass more exposed--which they kind of take advantage of (but not really). (13.5/15)

B2. "Peaceful Ones" (5:03) Another beautiful and mesmerizing sonic field (with a repeating killer key change every 30-seconds or so!) supports Donald Smith's beautiful message of hope and love, sung in a gorgeous upper register voice. Metal percussion tinkles away with the congas, drums and others but far more gently than an the previous songs. The melodies, chords, and key changes feel as if they were stolen by Bruce Cockburn for his 1991 hit "The Charity of Night." Cosmically beautiful! (14.75/15)

B3. "Naima" (4:02) a cover of a famous John Coltrane song receives the Goddess worship treatment from vocal/lyricist Donald Smith. A beautiful rendition. (9.25/10)

Total time: 35:00

I have the feeling that Lonnie and or/this album in particular was one of the inspirations for Freddie Hubbard and Al Jarreau's collaboration on their 1979 song,"Little Sunflower."

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of Jazz-Rock Fusion. Highly recommended to all who love to move with a little funk before wallow in the beauty of bliss.