There was a piano in the house and he began investigating it before formal instructions a few years later. It was during high school that Lonnie became infatuated with modern Jazz through hearing alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, one of the creative geniuses in music. It was not long before he was listening to Miles Davis (a future employer) and John Coltrane. Lonnie also began listening to great pianist geniuses, such as: Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Earl “Father” Hines, Erroll Garner and the many other piano geniuses. In the 90’s, Lonnie got involved with “Guru Jazzmataz Volume One” (Rap meets Jazz) and was discovered by an all new young audience. Lonnie also has had two hit singles with Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z . Mary J. Blige sampled Lonnie’s composition “A Garden of Peace” in her Grammy winning single, “Take Me As I Am” and Jay -Z also sampled, “A Garden of Peace” in his hit sample, “Dead Presidents”. after newsletter promotion It’s like what Miles and Pharoah taught me – you have to keep growing and searching for what is new Years later Lonnie renewed his association with Bob Thiele again, who had a distribution deal with CBS, and once again recorded well received albums, “Silhouettes”, “Rejuvenation”, and “Dreams of Tomorrow”. Also, during this time period, Lonnie discovered a young, 16 year old bassist, Marcus Miller. Lonnie also appeared on the Jazz Explosion All Star Tours with Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Ayers, Jean Carne, Angela Bofil, Stanley Clarke, Gato Barbieri, Tom Brown, Wayne Henderson, Jon Lucien and Ronnie Laws, and kept his audience through incessant roadwork.

Lonnie was born in Richmond, Virginia into a musical family. His father was a member of the Gospel Group, “The Harmonizing Four”. In 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt invited “The Harmonizing Four” to sing at the White House following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lonnie remembers such gospel groups as “The Dixie Humming Birds” and “The Soul Stirrers” with Sam Cooke, being frequent visitors at his family’s home. Expand your mind! To understand! We all must leave… In Peace today! Extend your hand! To help the plan! Of Love to all… Mankind on Earth!” Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Lonnie Liston Smith and Adrian Younge in the studio. Photograph: The Artform Studio A similar theme manifested itself on 1976’s ‘Get Down Everybody (It’s Time For World Peace)’, a positive plea for global harmony married to dance floor funk. Other highlights on the new collection showcase the meditative side of Smith’s music, exemplified by the ethereal and otherworldly ‘Meditations’ and ‘In Search Of Truth’ with its exotic mysticism.After graduating from Armstrong High School, Lonnie entered Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he majored in music education and earned his B.S. degree. While attending Morgan State University, Lonnie became a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and also a member of the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

The story of how Smith came to join Bob Thiele at Thiele's new label is told on the LP cover notes to Dreams of Tomorrow (1983) by Leonard Feather. Clearly Smith was at a crossroads. The reuniting with Thiele brought Smith full circle for Thiele was partly responsible for supporting Smith's early work. Thiele's new record label 'Doctor Jazz' (distributed through PRT in the UK) provided the perfect platform for Smith to showcase his new and critically acclaimed work of the early to mid 1980s. For Dreams of Tomorrow, Smith enlisted the vocal talents of his younger brother Donald Smith for the album's opener A Lonely Way to Be and side two's stunning opening Never Too Late. A major musician on the album was Marcus Miller on bass guitar. David Hubbard plays a series of saxophones and flutes on the album, with Yogi Horton, Buddy Williams and Steve Thornton leading on drums and percussion. The album relaunched Smith and the 'Doctor Jazz' albums are now considered amongst Smith's finest work. The Dreams of Tomorrow sessions were produced by Marcus Miller. Fast-forwarding to 2012 and Lonnie Liston Smith’s music still sounds fresh, vibrant and above all, relevant. The fact that many of the songs on this collection have been plundered for samples in the hip-hop era – by Jay-Z, Stetsasonic, Mary J Blige and others – affirms the enduring appeal of his cosmic sounds.

On The Go

In 1973 Lonnie received the important call to join the Miles Davis ensemble. Lonnie recorded 2 CDs with Miles, “On The Corner” and “Big Fun”. Lonnie said working with Miles Davis was his greatest experience and joy. Miles was a genius on stage and off stage because Miles has produced more band leaders than any other musician in the history of creative music. Lonnie Liston Smith, during an interview for Electronic Standards, starts to write the lyrics of the LP theme and prepare his explanations: Following this stint, Smith moved to Pharoah Sanders' ensemble early in 1968, [1] a group Sanders had set up on the death of John Coltrane the previous year. Fiercely improvisational, Sanders pushed the band creatively to the boundaries of free jazz, recording three of Sanders' finest recordings: Karma ( Impulse, 1969), Jewels of Thought ( Impulse, 1970) and Thembi (Impulse, 1971), together with 1969 recording sessions not released until 1973 as Izipho Zam ( Strata East, 1973). It is at this point that Smith began experimenting with electric keyboards: The very first time I played the Fender Rhodes piano was on Pharaoh Sanders’ album “Thembi”,” said Smith. “Everything I’d done before then was on acoustic piano. As Pharaoh was opening his case for his horn and everybody was setting up I found this instrument sitting in the corner. I walked over and started messing about with the knobs. All of a sudden I started writing this song – all the musicians ran over and said ‘Man, what is that? We have to play that. What are you going to call it?’ At that time I was studying astral projection and it sounded like I was floating so I said let’s call it ‘Astral Traveling’. And from that I developed a whole new sound on the Fender Rhodes. Everybody fell in love with it.”