Lonnie Liston-Smith - Astral Travelling LP

Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes' groundbreaking albums for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label don't get the attention from jazz fans that they should. In fact, among the many distinguished alumni of Miles Davis' fusion bands, keyboardist Smith and his cohorts arguably ran with Davis' stylistic breakthrough the farthest.

In five albums stretching over four years, Smith and the Cosmic Echoes stretched the fusion aesthetic to embrace post-bop modal and spiritual jazz, funk, rock, pop, and even the smooth jazz, quiet storm, and crossover genres. And if those latter styles raise your traditionalist hackles, Smith imbued all of his records with integrity, vision, and his unique spacey sensibility; instead of playing it safe or commercial, he fearlessly paved a path for modern jazz musicians to follow (Kamasi Washington, for one, no doubt listened to these records at length).

For his 1973 debut album as a bandleader, Smith assembled a killer band of Cecil McBee on bass, George Barron on sax, James Mtume and Sonny Morgan on percussion, David Lee Jr. on drums, Badal Roy on table, Geeta Vashi on tamboura, and Joe Beck on guitar. Such a multifaceted ensemble was perfectly suited to explore the spiritual jazz that Smith had encountered while playing with Pharoah Sanders ("Let Us Go into the House of the Lord" appears here and on Sanders' 1970 album Summun Bukmun Umyun which featured Smith), all presided over by producer Bob Thiele.

1. Astral Traveling
2. Let Us Go into the House of the Lord
3. Rejuvenation
4. I Mani (Faith)
5. In Search of Truth
6. Aspirations