Keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith came up playing with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Max Roach, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Pharoah Sanders before landing in Miles Davis's group from 1972-74. Recorded in 1973, Astral Traveling is Smith's debut as a leader. The album has the same swirling and ecstatic highs as Alice Coltrane's or Sanders's music--the extremely intense "I Mani (Faith)" is particularly reminiscent of Sanders's classic Impulse! sides of the era. Yet, armed with a strong sense of groove, Smith is his own man, creating muscular, flowing lines on Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano that are seemingly endless. He's also well supported throughout by the aptly named Cosmic Echoes, who texture the celestial funk jazz with hand drums and Eastern percussion, as well as the more typical jazz bass, guitar, and saxophone. (Unheralded saxophonist George Barron is particularly self-assured and impressive throughout.) Repackaged with additional liner notes, this reissue also includes four unreleased, alternate versions of songs from the album. --Tad Hendrickson