Jazz Keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith Celebrates a Milestone on Friday at Brooklyn Bowl London

Funk, jazz, and soul keys man Lonnie Liston Smith grew up in Virginia surrounded by music. He learned to play the tuba, trumpet, and, of course, the piano before graduating from university. A professional musician for more than 50 years, Smith was known for working with the likes of Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before launching his own endeavour, the fusion- and acid-jazz-tinged Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes. Their best album, Expansions (stream it below), came out in 1975. “It is fully a jazz album, and a completely funky soul-jazz disc as well,” according to AllMusic. “The music on Expansions is timeless soul-jazz, perfect in every era. Of all the fusion records of this type released in the mid-’70s, Expansions provided smoother jazzers and electronica’s sampling wizards with more material than Smith could ever have anticipated.” And to celebrate its 40^th anniversary, Lonnie Liston Smith (below, performing “Expansions”) plays Brooklyn Bowl London on Friday.