LONNIE LISTON SMITH — Reflections Of A Golden Dream (review)

LONNIE LISTON SMITH — Reflections Of A Golden Dream album cover

Album · 1976 · Fusion

4/5 · 2024-12-08
FunkFreak75

Lonnie and the Echoes team up with Bob Thiele and his Flying Dutchman label for yet another majestic display of "mind-expanding" music for the masses.

A1. "Get Down Everybody (It's Time For World Peace)" (4:19) what sounds like an anthemic Blaxploitation song set in a Disco funk milieu. Nice music with requisite sassy female b vox and real horns accenting the call of the title phrase by Lonnie himself. The brief bridge in the middle is derivative of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album's sound palette. Very nice percussion work. (8.75/10)

A2. "Quiet Dawn" (3:29) reverting to his bread-and-butter: the relaxing music that remains founded in jazz yet previews the coming takeover of Smooth Jazz. Synth strings, congas, simple bass line, and sonorous flutes back Lonnie's exquisite piano tinklings on the upper registers. So calming. (9.125/10) A3. "Sunbeams" (3:52) percussion rich Latin-lite with bass and autoharp opens this one before low-note flutes and bouncy piano join in. Soprano sax takes the first solo while Lonnie' synth strings enrich the sonic field. Lonnie's piano takes the second solo, using a more melodic-yet-definitely jazz approach. Drums and flutes get to show off a bit in the final minute. (9/10)

A4. "Meditations" (4:21) "dirty" Fender Rhodes plays Blade Runner-like over wind-chime-like piano arpeggi and other mid-range piano and Fender chords and water-like arpeggi and runs. Lonnie tout seul. Very pretty. (8.875/10)

A5. "Peace & Love" (2:39) a Leopold Fleming composition unveils a different more Sly & The Family Stone approach to the album's opening song. The only song on the album not composed and arranged by Lonnie. (4.375/5)

B1. "Beautiful Woman" (5:57) a Marvin Gaye-like funk-lite tune with Lonnie's usual mastery of "full" textural weaves. Nice wah-wah rhythm guitar, clavinet, and "dirty" Fender Rhodes with some stellar drumming from Wilby Fletcher. Flutes, steady bass and bongos, and the smooth voice of brother Donald Smith add so much enrichment. (8.875/10)

B2. "Goddess Of Love" (4:24) a rich sonic field seems to carry forward some of the essence of the previous song (especially in the bass line and rhythm guitar sound) while Lonnie's synth strings and Fender magic double up with calming flute notes to set up this very engaging, hypnotic tune. After the 90 second opening sucks us in and settles us into our pool-side lounge chair we are treated to some of the Master's Fender piano melody magic. Very rich and beautiful. (9/10)

B3. "Inner Beauty" (2:18) swirling piano arpeggi and glissandi with wordless vocalese and saxophone laying out the gentle melody over the top. Nice work from Donald, David, and percussionists Leopold Fleming and Guilherme Franco. (4.5/5)

B4. "Golden Dreams" (4:47) gentle Latin foundation with breathy flutes and gentle Fender Rhodes two-chords supporting Lonnie's pleasant-though-unpolished singing voice. In the third minute Lonnie's heavily-reverbed "dirty" Fender Rhodes lends an equally-gentle and very pleasant solo. Nice song that transports the listener as do so many of Lonnie's songs. (8.875/10)

B5. "Journey Into Space" (2:29) individual chimes (or tubular bells) with water percussion sounds and other swipes and hits of synth sounds, muted kalimba, echoed flute riffs, and lots of other sounds that sound more like African jungles than space. (4.375/5)

B+/4.5 stars; a wonderful collection of songs exhibiting Lonnie's usual polish and excellent engineered, composed, and produced music. There's a lot of pop and smooth jazz leanings on display here but it's still of that ultra-engaging jazz-trained heart.