Dr. Lonnie Smith – Breathe (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:52 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records
Breathe captures the Hammond B-3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith during his 75th birthday run at the Jazz Standard in NYC in 2017, the same week he recorded his acclaimed trio album All In My Mind. On this night the good doctor took the stage with an expanded line-up featuring Jonathan Kreisberg on guitar, Johnathan Blake on drums, John Ellis on tenor saxophone, Jason Marshall on baritone saxophone, Sean Jones on trumpet, and Robin Eubanks on trombone. Two additional studio tracks that open and close the album present the unique collaboration between Doc and Iggy Pop including a sublime cover of Donovan’s 1966 hit “Sunshine Superman.”
With 2016’s Evolution, Dr. Lonnie Smith had put out a pretty flamboyant comeback. The last time the name of this unusual doctor graced the cover of a Blue Note album was forty-five years ago… It was on this famous label, first as a sideman to Lou Donaldson and then as a leader, that this master of the Hammond B-3 organ made a name for himself in the late 1960s. In 2018, he followed up with All in My Mind, a live album recorded at the Jazz Standard in New York with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Johnathan Blake. It’s the same team and the same concert hall for this release, Breathe. In addition to his two faithful accomplices, this time the good old Doc develops his unique groove in a septet, with saxophonists John Ellis and Jason Marshall, trumpeter Sean Jones and trombonist Robin Eubanks. As the cherry on this groovy cake, he even hands the microphone to singer Alicia Olatuja and unexpectedly and most notably, to Iggy Pop! The Iguana, who is more and more fond of playing the crooner as he ages, launches into in a suave version of Timmy Thomas’s Why Can’t We Live Together, and an equally inspired cover of Donovan’s psychedelic Sunshine Superman. Delicious. – Max Dembo
Tracklist:
1. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Why Can’t We Live Together (feat. Iggy Pop) (07:44)
2. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Bright Eyes (Live) (07:25)
3. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Too Damn Hot (Live) (07:33)
4. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Track 9 (Live) (09:43)
5. Dr. Lonnie Smith – World Weeps (Live) (12:04)
6. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Pilgrimage (feat. Alicia Olatuja) (Live) (08:19)
7. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Epistrophy (Live) (04:22)
8. Dr. Lonnie Smith – Sunshine Superman (feat. Iggy Pop) (06:37)
