The Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce honored the great Dr. Lonnie Smith at its sixth annual Village Jazz Alive event on Tues., Oct. 20, at the Metropolitan Room, 34 W. 22nd St. Village Jazz Alive promotes and supports the unique music culture of the Village by honoring outstanding musicians who have helped create and sustain it.
“The Doc is an amazing artist, a seminal figure in the soul/jazz movement,” Elizabeth Butson, The Villager’s former publisher and an organizer of the event, said of the turbaned and bearded legend. “He has played with most of the great jazz artists, among them the great Lou Donaldson. He has won many awards for his ability to get unique and mysterious sounds out of his Hammond B3 organ! There is a mystical quality to his music. When the Doc plays a set, you just don’t know where he is going to take you — from sweetness and light to rain and thunder…to total exuberance. Dr. Lonnie Smith has always been ahead of the curve.”
Speaking afterward, Smith said he enjoyed playing before the appreciative audience. “It was beautiful, a great room,” he said. “You could hear a pin drop.”
