Where is lonnie smith

Smith declined to answer questions about it. The more mysterious aspects of his presentation were offset by his playful demeanor—rather than a shadowy enigma, the Doc simply enjoyed messing with you. His mother was his earliest musical influence, a music lover who sang around the house and exposed her son to jazz, classical, and especially gospel music.

Smith himself began as a vocalist, singing in a doo-wop group called the Teen Kings later the Supremes—no relation to the Motown group for six dollars a night. Saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. As he became a teenager, Smith began experimenting with brass instruments, including trumpet and tuba, but also began learning piano by ear. At about 20 years old, Smith was spending hours a day at a small music store owned by a man named Art Kubera.

If I could learn how to play it, I could make a living. He quickly taught himself to play the organ, listening closely to records by Jimmy Smith and showing mastery over the instrument within a year. As a teenager he was introduced to the Hammond organ and began immersing himself in the records of Wild Bill Davis, Bill Doggett, and Jimmy Smith, as well as paying rapt attention to the church organ.

Two more Donaldson dates followed Mr. After his first run of Blue Note albums Smith recorded for many labels including Groove Merchant, Palmetto, and his own label Pilgrimage, and his wide-ranging musical tastes found him covering everyone from John Coltrane to Jimi Hendrix to Beck. It breathes for me. It speaks for me.

I feel every bit of the organ. You can feel it vibrate. It lifts me up, it crawls through the pores of the room. Earlier this year, Smith released his final album Breathe , the third new album since his return to Blue Note. His early Blue Note classics Think! He went on to spend his 60s and 70s in the live-playing company of genre-fluid originals from Robert Glasper to the jazz, classical and opera singer Alicia Olatuja and — on his album, Breathe — the punk performer Iggy Pop.

Beginning his career as a childhood gospel and doo-wop singer, Smith ended it as a National Endowment for the Arts jazz master — but as a master of a discipline that he had mostly picked up from late-night jams, no-rehearsal recording sessions, and shared wisdom about how exploratory and communally popular ways of music-making can co-exist.

His mother, grandmother and aunt performed in a gospel quartet. The boy sang in vocal groups around Buffalo, and led an outfit of his own called the Supremes long before that name shook the world when a trio of young Motown singers adopted it.

In addition to singing, Smith played the trumpet and tuba in high school, and hung out at an instrument shop owned by a music fan called Art Kubera. One day the teenager confided to Kubera that he was sure he could support himself from music if he had an instrument of his own.