People Everywhere Just Wanna B3: Dr. Lonnie Smith 80

A week went by, and now it's July... so it's time to give you some music to go with that Stinkfoot.

And what better way to commence the extravagance than with the 80th birthday of a legend's legend, who left us at the end of last year but who shall never, ever be forgotten?

Considered by not a few to be the greatest organist of all time, today's birthday guy began with George Benson in the mid-1960s, and began recording solo LPs soon after.

He then joined Lou Donaldson's band, sprinkling burning Hammond over all those bumpin' late Sixties platters like Midnight Creeper and Mr. Shing-a-Ling on Blue Note... records that are still considered formative entries in the Acid Jazz canon today.

Later on, he'd occasionally guest with Sweet Poppa Lou, but at the end of the 1960s he went solo for good, with ultra-classic albums like Turning Point, Think! and Move Your Hand hitting the shelves.

From there it seemed he never stopped, moving to the Groove Merchant label for more deeply funky sessions and seemingly never leaving the global Jazz touring circuit.

He recorded and released his last album in 2021, part of which was a collaboration with Iggy Pop.

Then he passed away suddenly, last September at the age of 79.

This is his first birthday since his death, and a milestone eightieth to boot, so I was not gonna miss paying tribute to the great Dr. Lonnie Smith.

To celebrate this ultimate Maestro of the B3, we have a full, unexpurgated and wonderfully captured collaboration and career overview from 2015, where the Doctor gets down with the HR Bigband on their home turf in Frankfurt.

Don't sleep on the other soloists in this either, because in addition to Lonnie's fiery organ, they about torch the place using mostly just brass instruments and a guitar.

Dr. Lonnie Smith & HR Bigband

Hessischer Rundfunk Sendesaal

Frankfurt, Germany

3.6.2015 

01 Backtrack 

02 When Johnny Comes Marching Home 

03 announcement 

04 Ue o Moite Arukō   

05 announcement  

06 People Make the World Go Round 

07 announcement 

08 The Beehive 

09 Come Together 

10 Too Damn Hot 

11 Dapper Dan 

12 announcement 

13 Frame for the Blues 

14 band introductions 

15 Mellow Mood 

16 announcement 

17 Pilgrimage 

Total time: 1:59:35

disc break goes after Track 08

Dr. Lonnie Smith - Hammond B3 organ & vocals

Heinz Dieter Sauerborn, Tony Lakatos & Stefan Weber - saxophones

Benjamin Steil - soprano saxophone & clarinet

Rainer Heute - baritone saxophone

Frank Wellert, Thomas Vogel, Martin Auer & Axel Schlosser - trumpets & flugelhorns

Günter Bollmann, Peter Feil, Christian Jaksjö & Wolf Schenk - trombones

Martin Scales - guitar

Thomas Heidepriem - bass

Paul Höchstädter - drums

Mike Holober - conductor & announcements

digital off-air capture of a 2021 Italian Radio3 RAI FM broadcast

Italian FM announcer removed, with digiskip and diginoise in Track 01 repaired -- and right channel boosted 0.75 dB throughout -- by EN, July 2022
865 MB FLAC/July 2022 archive link

There was a nasty digiskip I looped out of existence in the first song, but apart from boosting the right channel a little bit throughout the whole two hours, it didn't need many major renovations.

I've got quite the month planned, and I'll try not to overdo it, but for now I wanted to make sure proper homage was paid to the good Doctor Lonnie Smith, born this day in 1942 and forever a go-to physician when you need your organs operated upon.--J.

7.3.1942 - 9.28.2021