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On the Death of Lonnie Smith: The Volcano Culture

Dr. Lonnie Smith was one of the first to understand the need to make the Hammond hiss, gasp, and roar.

The always turban-crowned jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith who was neither a doctor nor a Shiite, Sikh or Sufi has died. In the mid-1970s he got the title and the headdress. Not least because it was Lonnie Liston Smith’s fame and honor, who also played the organ and piano. In the mid-1970s, Smith, like so many other jazz musicians, recorded funk records in the hope of breaking out of the low-wage niches of jazz clubs and small labels in the wake of James Brown in the new world of pop and rock. At that time he had already had a steep career curve. Growing up in the upstate New York province, he first sang in R&B groups before the owner of a music shop gave him a Hammond B-3 organ.

The Hammond is a difficult instrument. It was invented by an engineer in the 1930s in order to market it as an inexpensive alternative to church organs for the parishes of the countless small churches in the country. However, the instrument does not tolerate Protestant reluctance. Then it quickly sounds as stuffy as the home organs that became so popular in the 1970s. Smith was one of the first to understand that you have to make the Hammond hiss, gasp, and roar and create a blaze in the low registers. This can then have the rousing effect of a gospel choir on the audience.

In hip-hop, his albums are an inexhaustible source of samples

When he came to New York in the mid-1960s, he made friends with the musicians who soon became the stars of soul jazz. He became known in the groups of guitarist George Benson and saxophonist Lou Donaldson. In 1967 he published his first record under his own name. He became the workhorse of the Blue Note jazz label before changing record labels every year. He tried his hand at disco and pop. In the early 1980s, he withdrew from the music business in frustration. For a long time he played for a cocktail in a hotel lobby in Florida, unnoticed.

In hip-hop, however, his albums remained an inexhaustible source of samples. In the early 2000s he began touring and recording again. The new Blue Note boss Don Was finally brought him back in 2016. Smith seemed better than ever. The effect of his volcanic game can be heard on his last record “Breathe”. Not just on the live pieces. Iggy Pop lived not far from Smith in Florida and attended one of his gigs at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Pop was enthusiastic, wanted to get on board. Smith let him play a little electric percussion. Then they met again in the studio and recorded two hippie hit songs: “Sunshine Superman” and “Can’t We Live Together”. At the very end, when Smith and Pop have brought the blaze to the boiling point, you can hear the rock star whispering a very spontaneous, moved “Yeaaaah, nice”.

Dr. Lonnie Smith died at home in Fort Lauderdale of complications from a lung disease. He was 79 years old.

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