Dr. Lonnie Smith was an American jazz organist from Lackawanna, New York, who began his professional career in the 1960s and became known for his work on the Hammond B3 within soul jazz, hard bop and funk-inflected jazz contexts. His playing combined blues, gospel and funk influences and evolved from tight soul-jazz grooves in the 1960s to more expansive, groove-oriented and exploratory improvisation in later decades, contributing to the prominence of the Hammond organ in modern jazz and Black American popular music scenes.
