by Alex Henderson
For the most part, Lonnie Liston Smith's creativity is wasted on Magic Lady, an R&B/pop/jazz CD that usually ignores artistic considerations in its quest for commercial radio airplay. Some of the R&B cuts, including &Colour My Love,& and &Let's Spend the Night,& are enjoyable enough, but hardly remarkable. Magic Lady definitely contains some outright stinkers -- such as a soulless note-for-note cover of Brenda Russell's adult contemporary hit &Get Here.& Revisiting his very pretty and enchanting &Quiet Moments& (originally recorded on 1978's Loveland), Smith demonstrates how charismatic a soloist he can be. But on the whole, he doesn't give himself nearly enough room to stretch out and improvise. Of all the albums Smith has recorded, Magic Lady is his weakest and most disappointing.