Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - Expansions

Lonnie Liston Smith had played with Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis and Gato Barbieri before he assembled the Cosmic Echoes under his own name. Expansions, recorded in November 1974 and released the following year on Flying Dutchman, is where that band found the sound everybody now associates with it.

The title track is the one you already know even if you think you don't: Cecil McBee's bassline, brother Donald Smith on flute and vocals, and a groove that never once raises its voice. Dave Hubbard plays saxophones and alto flute, Art Gore drums, with Michael Carvin, Leopoldo Fleming and Lawrence Killian on percussion. Side two holds "Voodoo Woman," a reading of Horace Silver's "Peace," and the long closing "My Love." Bob Thiele produced alongside Smith and Nat Hentoff wrote the notes.

"Expansions" went on to become a rare groove standard and a favorite source for samplers, and the album has stayed in print and in demand for fifty years on the strength of it.

Original 1975 US Flying Dutchman pressing, catalog BDL1-0934, in the gatefold sleeve.

Used copy: VG+ vinyl / VG+ sleeve