Although his role as Pharoah Sanders' sideman partly explains his immersion in the ‘spiritual jazz’ of the late 1960s, Smith could make a very credible claim to being the electric alter ego of Alice Coltrane. Her harp may well be his Fender Rhodes. Smith's modal arrangements also feature similar swooning fanfares for soprano sax, though when he does use chord changes, none more so than on the title track, they are well placed. For the most part, Smith is concerned with trance by way of hypnotic texture rather than any key signature gymnastics.

If some of the melodic and harmonic content has been stripped away, then what is added to give the music sufficient substance is a string of warm, glowing reverberations from the leader and rich percussive layering from James Mtume and Badal Roy, who, like Smith, are Miles Davis alumni. And indeed, In A Silent Way is also a central formative component of Smith's engrossing musical vision.