[HAM] A Day With Dr. Lonnie Smith

[Scott Hawthorn]

Well, what can I say? Most of it would be far too personal to be publishing 
on the Internet.

Lonnie needed a ride from his motel in Seattle to the Anacortes Jazz 
Festival, 85 miles to the north, and back. I was lucky that it was I who 
was called on. Yes, I spent hours detailing my car the day before, and I 
spent more time putting some choice organ trax onto some CDs for him to 
hear. Nothing like a captive audience.

He seemed greatly relieved that I showed up exactly on time to pick him up. 
He had to sit in the lobby for an hour-and-a-half because they kicked him 
out of his room at precisely 11 AM. On the road, you're still a nobody I guess.

On the way up, Lonnie allowed me to play some Dan Bonow tunes, the funkier 
stuff. He had already met Dan before, and kept saying what a nice guy he 
is. Lonnie remembers *everybody*. He really liked it. He got all involved 
with the beat, and was laughing with pleasure.

Lonnie was preceded onstage by our local hero and list member, Joe Doria, 
with his group McTough. I missed it, because Lonnie had said beforehand, "I 
don't want to arrive to early and hear a bunch of bands." I gathered that 
it might have polluted his concentration on his own music. After making a 
minor emergency repair on Joe's miraculous A-100, the thing sounded great. 
Lonnie played with two local musicians, including a drummer he had never 
met before. His treatment of these guys was just superb-- he reassured them 
that he would never hang them out to dry, and then he really let them solo, 
at least the guitarist, Michael Powers.

Lonnie just gets better and better. Every time I hear him I am amazed all 
over again. He pulled out all the stops, so to speak, on the funk tunes, 
playing just about every one you could think of. He really didn't need his 
left hand for bass-- it was frequently doing other stuff, like almost 
constantly changing the settings, playing chromatic runs, directing the 
drummer, or playing cross-handed. He seldom does anything complicated on 
the pedals, but it is always rock-solid.

There were the usual, hilarious vocal impressions of Stevie Wonder, Johnny 
Mathis, and a generic blues shouter with nonsense syllables. There was 
blazingly fast jazz, extremely articulate but always with the maximum level 
of soul. No matter how tired, hungry, or cold, no matter the condition of 
the organ, this man always comes through and he lets nothing bother him. A 
good example for everyone in this tough business.

I drove him another hundred miles to the airport and we listened to some of 
my private recordings of McDuff and Groove Holmes with Joe Dukes. He said 
"this is putting a smile on my face," and said it really reminded him of 
those days. All day, he was full of stories about McDuff, whom he used to 
gig with, and Groove, Jimmy Smith, and everybody else you could think of. 
Though he almost never says anything negative about anybody, he abhors 
"pianistic" jazz organists, but makes a special exception for Don 
Patterson, whom he called, I think, his favorite. He knew him well. It was 
a fascinating day for me. And, despite my extreme protests, I was treated 
to a nice lunch and a big wad of cash at the end of the day. Lonnie's not 
only one of the greatest of the jazz organists, he's a totally class act. 
And no, he's not nearly as "ethereal" as he appears to be onstage.