Lonnie Liston Smith - Love is the Answer

2017 Japanese CD reissue.

Lonnie Liston Smith entered the 1980s with Love Is the Answer, which is quite similar to previous Columbia efforts like Exotic Mysteries and Song for the Children. Jazz's hard-liners continued to call Smith a sellout; as they saw it, a musician who was talented enough to have been employed by the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Betty Carter, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk had no business becoming more commercial and catering to the quiet storm audience. But while Love Is the Answer isn't as challenging as Smith's work with Kirk and Sanders and isn't in a class with such Flying Dutchman gems as Astral Traveling and Expansions, it isn't a bad album either. "The Enchantress," "Bridge Through Time" (which female rap group the Conscious Daughters sampled on their 1993 recording "We Roll Deep"), "In the Park," and other instrumentals on this LP aren't brilliant, but they're pleasant and likable. Love Is the Answer was the second Smith album to employ vocalist James "Crabbe" Robinson, who had replaced Donald Smith and is featured on the mellow title song as well as the funkier selections "Speak About It" and "Give Peace a Chance (Make Love Not War)." The charismatic Donald Smith was a tough act to follow, but Robinson handled himself nicely when he was a member of the Cosmic Echoes. While Love Is the Answer isn't among the pianist/keyboardist's essential releases, it isn't anything to be ashamed of either.

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