Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio
Blue Note Tokyo
July 1, 2015
Dr. Lonnie Smith – Hammond B3 organ
Jonathan Kreisberg – guitar
Joe Dyson – drums
Dr. Lonnie Smith is a force of nature, and his chosen instrument in the world, the Hammond B3 organ, only amplifies his force. He’s not someone you see in concert; he’s someone you experience. His powerful charisma and captivating organ pick you up and slip you deep in the pocket right beside him.
His second set at Blue Note July 1st started with a slow burner. But that was all right, since slow for Smith is more intense than fast for most musicians. At first, he worked the B3 into slow, deep areas, as if plumbing the bottom of the depths before the show got too far under way. Whether slow or, as on the second tune, bopping along, Smith keeps all the playing fluid and loose and alive with possibility.
It was on “My Favorite Things” that the trio really found their groove. “Cook” is exactly the right word to describe how all three of the musicians jumped into the Coltrane standard, turned up the heat, and gave it all they had. All three of the members have their own voices, and the tension between Kreisberg’s pristine guitar and Dyson’s edgy drumming upped the satisfaction level on the tune everyone in the crowd knew well.
What makes Smith so much fun to hear is the sheer joy he takes in playing. Settled majestically at the keyboard, he smiles with every note. And maybe each note deserves a smile, coming as it does through the vibrato of the organ, the pump of the bass pedals, the flip of the drawbars and the crescendos from the expression pedal. Under Smith’s hands, the B3 really is a band in itself. He works the entire organ and then throws his hands up in the air and grins. He plays around like a child, and delivers like a master.
The shift in dynamics from everyone in the trio was especially striking. Starting with a slow martial rhythm, funky upbeat drive, or spacy swirl made little difference to the middle of the songs, where the trio edged into louder and louder playing, or quickly downshifted tempos with ease. Smith used every organ trio trick in the book to make music that was funky, dreamy, entrancing or muscled, just as he wanted, just when he wanted.
By the end of the set, “Pilgrimage,” from the must-have CD, “Rise Up,” eased out the set with slow, gospel-fueled and dramatic playing. Many fans perhaps prefer the upbeat funky numbers, and they are easy to get into, but it was the slow, stately songs that lingered in the mind’s ear the longest.
Smith really knows how to pump up the energy under Kreisberg’s long lead lines, and Dyson’s energetic, quick-shift drumming. With a glance, the two switch with Smith, or duck out from under and find their own direction, until they re-merge into one. The three have played together live for quite a few years and have the instinctual response that long-term bands have, but it goes beyond that. The three have a comingled voice that combines into a single grooving core of great musical energy.
All photos by Tsuneo Koga, courtesy of Blue Note Tokyo.
