Album Reviews: Breathe, Dr. Lonnie Smith
By Resonate | July 9, 2021
Words By Kris Griffiths
Lonnie Smith celebrated his 75th Birthday with masterful performances at New York’s Jazz Standard. Breathe returns us to those performances of July 2017, allowing for six more live tracks to sit alongside two studio collaborations between Smith’s trio and Iggy Pop.
The musical marriage between Lonnie Smith and Iggy Pop emerged from a simple interaction during a practice session and yet the music born from it seems larger than life. Why Can’t We Live Together? is a take on the 1972 Timmy Thomas song of the same name. Pop’s voice is mature and firm while he echoes anti-war statements of 50 years prior. As Lonnie hits a blistering solo, there is a sense of the reciprocal nature in which both are acknowledging each other’s roots. Where moments before Iggy Pop is humble and emotive, now Dr Lonnie Smith is wild and exuberant. Winding in from extended instrumental passages, Iggy sings, “No matter what colour, you are still my brother”.
Leading into the live recordings, the sound is as much Jazz as it is soul and every note is abreast with the wisdom you would expect of a veteran in the twilight of his career. The virtuosity and the chemistry between all the instrumentalists involved is undeniable, a gift of instrumental mastery in every gorgeous harmony.
Track 9 (sic) is really where the swagger is. The muffled, heavily plucked wah guitar of Kreisberg work in tangent with the trills of the wind section, to provide the ever-evolving soundscape in which the tenor sax takes to a galaxy of its own. The World Weeps is a blue waterfall, as deep and bewitching as it is cold and crushing. As each passage of music passes, intertwining with the next, the audience can be heard gasping, applauding the musical feats. Closing number Sunshine Superman, is a truly special rework of Donovan. The track exuberates a smoothness and cool encapsulating the very essence of Lonnie Smith.
Breathe is a Blue Note standard each note should be savoured as if the digital age did not exist to keep it in our possessions forever. A lifetime’s work is truly on display within this record.
10/10
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