Love Goddess

by Alex HendersonAt his best, Lonnie Liston Smith has been a wealth of imagination and creativity -- a fact that makes so much of the often calculated Love Goddess difficult to listen to. Sometimes engaging and sometimes outright worthless, this erratic CD ranges from radio-oriented Muzak to strong post-bop jazz. Smith excels as an acoustic trio pianist on very lyrical and warm interpretations of Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa," Miles Davis' "Blue in Green" and Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born." Much of the CD, however, contains shamelessly formulaic and contrived pop/R&B/jazz that throws artistic integrity to the wind and is concerned only with commercial radio airplay -- the worst offender being a boring and cynical note-for-note cover of Anita Baker's "Giving You the Best That I Got." For consistently excellent listening, a much wiser investment would be Astral Traveling, Expansions or the acoustic trio gem Make Someone Happy.