By
DAN BILAWSKY (All About Jazz)
Dr. Lonnie Smith has always addressed organ traditions on his own
terms. He seems to intentionally avoid clichés and marketplace trends,
preferring instead to chart his own course, so it's beautifully ironic
that he's become something of a trendy figure-to-follow for the
jazz-meets-jam crowd. While Smith recently attained septuagenarian
status, he shows no signs of developing a conservative crust or going
musically gentle into that good night. The Healer, culled from material recorded at the 2011 Lamantin Jazz Festival in Hungary and a date at New York's Jazz Standard in early 2012, is brimming with the bold, bizarre and beautiful.
