Sunday 5 November 2017

Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio — Concert in Trondheim, Norway



Last year another jazz-legend visited Trondheim (Norway). Dr. Lonnie Smith brought his Trio and performed at the quirky and very popular venue Dokkhuset.
His set-up was a Hammond B3 with both a short and a tall Leslie. On his left side he had several keyboards running into a laptop and/ or a synth, and on his right he had drum pads.
Dr. Lonnie was stretching the envelopes of time and harmony from the very outset of the show. It was hard to know exactly where you were in time or texture, until it gradually became revealed to you. I tried to both take in the enjoyment of the sound and listen for the clues that reveal where the music was headed. One was gratified instantly, the other as the works unfolded. Dr. Lonnie’s style allows for highly experimental and very groovy pars to run over and into each other. He can take the listener back and forth between these two shores like waves — and just as naturally.
When Lonnie walked on to the stage with a cane I presumed he needed it (which for all I know, he might). What I didn’t know was that old men with walking-sticks could play as fast as this. At one point he rose up and looked a bit like Gandalf — that’s when we found out that the cane was in fact an instrument! At first it seemed more like a funny curio, but as he kept playing it started making sense. Seeing him wielding his cane it was impossible not to think of Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm!
I had a chance to speak with him after the show and told him that the Hammond Organ was one of the really important sounds of my own childhood. It could literally make me get goosebumps everywhere! My father had a friend with a Hammond he had re-furbished himself, and I remember the ground vibrating when I stood next to the Leslie. I went on to sing a lot of Gospel and Jazz and the sound of the organ stuck with me. Dr. Lonnie also used to sing Gospel when he was younger, and so did his Mother and siblings. The organ always stood out to him. When hearing it, he said, it was like electricity went through his body like a spear! He put a real emphasis on those words and I believe his experience of the sound goes beyond what most of us can fully understand. He isn’t just a musical legend who helped define how we hear this instrument, but the sound of the instrument might have connected so strongly with something inside of him that he himself might not have had much of a choice but to pursue it.



The band


Jonathan Kreisberg (Guitar), is a firework between lyrical passages and rapid breathtaking runs. His tone is incredible, even through a PA in a concrete room on an old shipyard. It’s not rare to come across nice guitar tones per se, but at this level it is.

Jonathan Kreisberg


Johnathan Blake (Drums). Blake is often the rails that Dr. Lonnie’s experimentation rides on top of. But Blake’s triplet-arsenal and his abstracting of metre also makes him an integral part of the experimentation. If the word ‘firework’ was to be used for only one of the band-members it would have to be him.

Johnathan Blake

 

Till next time!

After the show Dr. Lonnie and his band hung around on stage. They were clearing cables and packing up, and all were approachable for conversation and picture-taking. Mark of true gentlemanly down-to-earth-ness!
Dr. Lonnie was last in Trondheim six years ago. ‘It’s been a while’ he said while stating that he hoped it would not be as long till next time. Though if Trump became President he promised to be back earlier. While I don’t think Trump has been even half as bad as the media wants us to believe — Dr. Lonnie and his band are very welcome to move to Norway at any time!

Great concert — I got to see another legend!






Dr. Lonnie and his music-making cane!

Dr. Lonnie and his music-making cane!



Dr Lonnie Smith and Harald Haltvik
Yours truly meets Dr. Lonnie Smith
(Photo: Fredrik Thommesen)

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