Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith is an American pianist and keyboardist, born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1940. After years as a sideman in spiritual and electric jazz, he formed Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes in 1973. His albums for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label, starting with Astral Traveling (1973) and Expansions (1975), mix jazz, soul and funk and are still played by DJs. Lonnie Liston Smith moved to New York in the early 1960s and worked with Betty Carter, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Max Roach and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.