Loveland

Jazz keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith charted a curious path through the 1970s. He’s a spiritual jazz pioneer that skirted fusion for the most part, yet he also made ambient synth drifts, buttery soul, and spacy disco as well, oft-times all on the same album. Loveland from 1978 serves as a perfect example. Opener “Sunburst” features flute and string-laced disco while “Floating Through Space” is as drifty as its title suggests. It builds to a sun-filled version of Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Bright Moments,” a dancefloor stepper that vamps and crests ever higher across its 7 minutes.