Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. My next guest is Lonnie Liston Smith. Lonnie is a jazz legend.

He's a pianist and keyboard player. He's worked with Farrow Sanders, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye.

He's a master of the Fender Roads. That's the electric piano that helped define

a movement in music that eventually became known as Cosmic Jazz. You can hear exactly what I mean

in one of his most iconic tracks, Summer Nights.

Cosmic Jazz is, as they say, having a moment. A moment that has lasted, I don't know, maybe 10

years now. You can hear it in the jazz vanguard being led by artists like Hamasie Washington and

Terris Martin. You can hear it in the beads of hip-hop producers like Be Alchemist and Flying Lotus.

You can hear it sampled on tracks from Benny the Butcher and Kendrick Lamar.

It's been 25 years since Lonnie Liston Smith released his last solo record. He's too word,

he's seen the occasional royalty check come through for compilations or yet another sample.

But this year for the first time in a quarter century, Lonnie dropped a new record.

Jazz is dead 17 is part of a series of albums released by musicians who are collaborating with

the producers Adrian Young and Alicia Heade-Mohamed. It's a vibrant record full of energy still

pushing boundaries. Lonnie Liston Smith is 82 and still in top form. I want to play you a little

bit of this so you can hear it. This is Cosmic Changes, which features vocals from Lauren Odin.

Lonnie Liston Smith, welcome to Bullseye. I'm so happy to have you on the show.

All right, Jesse. It's great to be here.

Congratulations on this great record. I really was enjoying it.

Wow. Okay. It's a very interesting story.

Yeah. So you hadn't recorded a record under your own name in a long time.

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