Lonnie Liston Smith: Expansions (AAA remastered edition) [BGP]

Why you'll love it

Frank Merritt cut this edition in an all-analogue chain at the Carvery in London, pressed on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. AllMusic's Thom Jurek called Expansions timeless soul-jazz, perfect in every era, and its title track has been a dance-floor and sample favourite for decades.

This edition

• AAA remastered
• Cut by Frank Merritt at the Carvery
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Some records sound like the weather. Expansions, recorded in 1974 and issued on Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label the following year, sounds like a long, warm afternoon: keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith settles his Cosmic Echoes into airy grooves built for drifting.

The title track is the one everyone knows, a rolling bass line, chiming electric piano and Donald Smith's gentle vocal. "Desert Nights" and "Summer Days" stretch out in the same easy glow, "Voodoo Woman" leans harder into funk with Michael Carvin on percussion and clavinet, and Horace Silver's "Peace" gets a lovely, spacious reading. Cecil McBee's bass and Art Gore's drums keep the floor moving while Dave Hubbard's saxophone and flute float over the top. Smith plays both acoustic piano and electric keyboards throughout, weaving the two together so neatly that the whole record seems to shimmer.

The record went on to feed DJs, sampling producers, electronica artists and smoother jazz players for half a century. Fifty years on, it still makes our shop feel about ten degrees warmer, which in a Toronto winter counts as a public service.

Also at Kops: more Lonnie Liston Smith on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On BGP / Flying Dutchman (cat# XXQLP 145), a reissue of the 1975 album.