Cosmic Funk is an album by keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith, featuring performances recorded in 1974 and released by the Flying Dutchman label.Flying Dutchman Label Discography accessed November 22, 2019
Jason Heller, in Strange Stars: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Transformed Popular Music, pointed to the title track as an example of "sci-fi funk."
Reception
In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated, "it's a record where the good ideas are sometimes suggested rather than developed. ... That opening song is one of the few tracks that emphasizes funk, otherwise the cosmic reigns, as the group usually getting spacy all the while never quite leaving the earth. ... the album is distinguished by the spaces that lie between funk and bop, the periods where Smith and company start to float, then pull themselves back."
Record Collector called the album "funky spiritual jazz."
Track listing All compositions by Lonnie Liston Smith except where noted "Cosmic Funk" − 5:35 "Footprints" (Wayne Shorter) − 6:08 "Beautiful Woman" − 6:57 "Sais (Egypt)" (James Mtume) − 8:15 "Peaceful Ones" − 5:03 "Naima" (John Coltrane) − 4:02
Personnel Lonnie Liston Smith − piano, electric piano, percussion Donald Smith − vocals, flute, piano George Barron − soprano saxophone, flute, percussion Al Anderson − electric bass Art Gore − drums Lawrence Killian − congas, percussion Andrew Cyrille, Doug Hammond, Ron Bridgewater − percussion
References