Lonnie Liston Smith

Before becoming a bandleader, pianist/organist/composer Lonnie Liston Smith made essential contributions to important recordings by Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, and Miles Davis. After founding the Cosmic Echoes, he issued six influential electric albums for Flying Dutchman between 1973 and 1977 -- including Astral Traveling and Visions of a New World -- that established him as a jazz-funk innovator. Between 1978 and 1980, his four Columbia outings -- including Exotic Mysteries and Love Is the Answer -- consciously stitched together funk, disco, and smooth jazz....