Evolution

"While Smith is the star of Evolution, the expanding group sound works well with his expansive approach to funk-jazz and the cuts with Harrold and Brown bring to mind the energetic hip-hop-inflected jazz of the Roots. Ultimately, it's Smith's juicy, nuanced, Hammond B-3 sound, deepened by over 50 years of experience, that makes Evolution such a career pinnacle".

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"Dr. Lonnie Smith left Blue Note as a young man, but he returns as a sagacious elder. The wisdom he's gained in the intervening years is parceled out in his every gesture, flourish, and note. Evolution is but a single album, yet it speaks to a lifetime of music making from one of our most treasured organists".

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"Ben Ratliff of the New York Times, which seems reluctant to dispense negative reviews, recently characterized Smith's workingstyle as "Rust Belt organ jazz." I'm not certain what that means, but this sounds like it".