I Mani (Faith) is performed by Lonnie Liston Smith and The Cosmic Echoes, reflecting a deep musical synergy among the artists. The song is characterized by its lush instrumentation and a vibrant blend of jazz influences, creating a unique listening experience that spans various moods.
Throughout the Astral Traveling album, I found Lonnie’s avant-garde jazz style very effective in rerouting us to a more spiritual outlook on life. The perfectly harmonious arrangement of sounds tells us a profound, yet simple and relatable story.
What this song tells me.
For the first minute fifty, the song opens up with a sense of consciousness.
We can now perceive a Light that an individual has been longing for. This Light makes you feel loved. This Light hugs your entire body, leaving not a single inch of your skin untouched. The saxophone masterfully weaves the memories of good experiences into every note that you hear. Experiences that made you smile and experiences where you had a good cry.
We then approach the minute-fifty mark, where the tone of the piano changes.
What was once speaking to us with an affectionate soothing tone, has now changed into a voice striking fear. Fear of an inevitable obstacle that has caused trouble in the past. The Light that we were once familiar with is now rivaling the Darkness and unmerited and merited evil that lives within us.
The tune of 1:58 paints the picture of Light running throughout the body, doing its best to suffocate and dispel the darkness and evil within us. From this point on the saxophone represents darkness. The scary, screechy, shrieky, airy, and aggressive sound of the sax can be translated to our internal battle when trying to rebirth ourselves.
For a minute straight, we hear Darkness trying to latch on to every part of our soul, but Light is restricting it from doing so. Darkness is scrambling to dodge Light while trying to preserve a spot in our hearts. Every instrument we hear contributes to the image of Darkness feeling cornered but not defeated.
It’s not until we arrive at the 3-minute mark of the song that we feel a sudden shift in the narrative of this story. We are reintroduced with the voice of a loving and affectionate piano that we started with. This signals that Light can now be seen through us and the battle has been won. For ten beautiful seconds between 3:00 – 3:10, we think Light has won and claimed its spot in a person’s soul, until we realize we have been fooled and the saxophone returns to its scary, screechy, shrieky, airy, and aggressive sound, signaling that the relentless Darkness and evil has come yet again.
Despite Light proving its superiority over Darkness, we are welcomed back with the sound of evil because we have not chosen Light. By not choosing Light, we give it no room to stay after its work has been done.
Instead, we allow Darkness to regroup and manifest itself in a way even more terrifying than the last, unaware of how the effort to rid oneself of our bad is a lifelong task.
For the next 10 seconds after 3:10, we hear several notes from the piano that you would hear if you pressed the keys most to the left. To me, this signals a battle fiercer than the last. A battle where Light has been chosen and Darkness cannot stay much longer.
Now that Light has a place to stay, for the next 20 seconds, the sound of Darkness being extinguished becomes the theme. What was once the size of a forest fire, has been reduced to the weak slim flame on a candle wick. 3:40 – 3:50 communicates the flame is now weak enough to be blown out at just the mention of Light, with 3:50 indicating we have now exited a state of rebirth and have been made anew.
From this point on we encounter the same feelings of that of family and friends who surround a woman who just gave birth to a child. In this, there is a moment of tears dropping, a moment of laughter, and a moment of adoration, all compacted into every note.
Just like we’re so quick to envision the great life we plan to provide the newborn with, we’re just as swift to do so with a new life full of Light. With the same bravery and fearlessness of a child facing the world, we embark on our new journey, empowered by the knowledge that the negative forces of our past no longer hold sway over us.
What does this song mean for you?
In regards to how this conclusion came about, I think the name of the album “Astral Traveling”, says enough for how Lonnie intended for his music to be digested.
I think when listening to not only this song but the entire album, the emotions evoked wouldn’t drastically differ from the next person. I think what’s so special about this piece of work, is how although we might come to feel the same things, the place in which these emotions take us and how we interpret them can look so different for every person.
Personally, I’ve never really thought about or cared enough to experiment with any sort of astral traveling in my mind or sleep, but I don’t allow this to cancel out the song’s message I interpreted for myself.
To me, this Light that I speak of represents God’s love and how warm, soothing, and nonjudgemental it is. Once accepted, this Light has the power to rid oneself of all of our soul’s defects, making us into a person unaffected by the shackles of what used to bind us.
The story of the song I Mani (Faith) gives me an impervious feeling of hope by reminding me that I am capable of change and will never have to be characterized by my shortcomings.
Delivered by Michael Ogbonna
