Roland Kirk - Volunteered Slavery

Styles: Saxophone, Clarinet And Flute Jazz
Year: 1969
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:54
Size: 98,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:45) 1. Volunteered Slavery
(3:38) 2. Spirits Up Above
(3:19) 3. My Chérie Amour
(2:08) 4. Search For The Reason Why
(8:00) 5. I Say A Little Prayer
(0:39) 6. Roland's Opening Remarks
(5:02) 7. One Ton
(1:46) 8. Ovation & Roland's Remarks
(8:15) 9. A Tribute To John Coletrane: Lush Life - Afro-Blue - Bessie's Blues
(4:17) 10. Three For The Festival

Before the issue of Blacknuss, Rahsaan Roland Kirk was already exploring ways in which to make soul and R&B rub up against jazz and come out sounding like deep-heart party music. Volunteered Slavery, with its beat/African chanted poetry and post-bop blues ethos was certainly the first strike in the right direction. With a band that included Charles McGhee on trumpet, Dick Griffin on trombone, organist Mickey Tucker, bassist Vernon Martin, drummers Jimmy Hopps and Charles Grady, as well as Sony Brown, Kirk made it work.

From the stinging blues call and response of the tile track through the killer modern creative choir jam on "Spirits Up Above" taking a small cue from Archie Shepp's Attica Blues. But it's when Kirk moves into the covers, of "My Cherie Amour," "I Say a Little Prayer," and the Coltrane medley of "Afro Blue," "Lush Life," and "Bessie's Blues," that Kirk sets it all in context: how the simplest melody that makes a record that sells millions and touches people emotionally, can be filled with the same heart as a modal, intricate masterpiece that gets a few thousand people to open up enough that they don't think the same way anymore.

For Kirk, this is all part of the black musical experience. Granted, on Volunteered Slavery he's a little more formal than he would be on Blacknuss, but it's the beginning of the vein he's mining. And when the album reaches its end on "Three for the Festival," Kirk proves that he is indeed the master of any music he plays because his sense of harmony, rhythm, and melody comes not only from the masters acknowledged, but also from the collective heart of the people the masters touched. It's just awesome.By Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/album/volunteered-slavery-mw0000508533

Personnel: Roland Kirk: tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, clarinet, flute, nose flute, whistle, voice, Stylophone; Charles McGhee: trumpet; Dick Griffin: trombone; Ron Burton: piano; Vernon Martin: bass; Charles Crosby: drums; Sonny Brown: drums; Jimmy Hopps: drums; Joseph "Habao" Texidor: tambourine

Volunteered Slavery

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear

Styles: Saxophone, Clarinet And Flute Jazz
Year: 1968
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:15
Size: 94,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:08) 1. The Black and Crazy Blues
(2:54) 2. A Laugh For Rory
(4:45) 3. Many Blessings
(4:15) 4. Fingers In the Wind
(4:58) 5. The Inflated Tear
(3:54) 6. The Creole Love Call
(2:42) 7. A Handful of Fives
(4:18) 8. Fly By Night
(4:04) 9. Lovellevelliloqui
(2:12) 10. I'm Glad There Is You

The debut recording by Roland Kirk (this was still pre-Rahsaan) on Atlantic Records, the same label that gave us Blacknuss and Volunteered Slavery, is not the blowing fest one might expect upon hearing it for the first time. In fact, producer Joel Dorn and label boss Neshui Ertegun weren't prepared for it either. Kirk had come to Atlantic from Emarcy after recording his swan song for them, the gorgeous Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith, in April. In November Kirk decided to take his quartet of pianist Ron Burton, bassist Steve Novosel, and drummer Jimmy Hopps and lead them through a deeply introspective, slightly melancholy program based in the blues and in the groove traditions of the mid-'60s. Kirk himself used the flutes, the strich, the Manzello, whistle, clarinet, saxophones, and more the very instruments that had created his individual sound, especially when some of them were played together, and the very things that jazz critics (some of whom later grew to love him) castigated him for. Well, after hearing the restrained and elegantly layered "Black and Crazy Blues," the stunning rendered "Creole Love Call," the knife-deep soul in "The Inflated Tear," and the twisting in the wind lyricism of "Fly by Night," they were convinced and rightfully so. Roland Kirk won over the masses with this one too, selling over 10,000 copies in the first year. This is Roland Kirk at his most poised and visionary; his reading of jazz harmony and fickle sonances are nearly without peer. And only Mingus understood Ellington in the way Kirk did. That evidence is here also. If you are looking for a place to start with Kirk, this is it.~Thom Jurekhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/the-inflated-tear-mw0000765520

Personnel: Roland Kirk – tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, clarinet, flute, whistle, cor anglais, flexatone; Rahn Burton – piano; Steve Novosel – bass; Jimmy Hopps – drums; Dick Griffin (incorrectly credited on the LP sleeve as Dick Griffith) – trombone (on "Fly by Night")

The Inflated Tear

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Let's Talk About Jazz

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:05
Size: 84,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:10)  1. Domino
(2:30)  2. 3-In-1 Without the Oil
(3:40)  3. Rolando
(2:18)  4. E.D.
(5:01)  5. A Stritch in Time
(4:45)  6. Get out of Town
(4:21)  7. I Believe in You
(3:35)  8. Lament
(3:37)  9. Meeting on Termini's Corner
(3:06) 10. Time

Arguably the most exciting saxophone soloist in jazz history, Kirk was a post-modernist before that term even existed. Kirk played the continuum of jazz tradition as an instrument unto itself; he felt little compunction about mixing and matching elements from the music's history, and his concoctions usually seemed natural, if not inevitable. When discussing Kirk, a great deal of attention is always paid to his eccentricities playing several horns at once, making his own instruments, clowning on stage. However, Kirk was an immensely creative artist; perhaps no improvising saxophonist has ever possessed a more comprehensive technique one that covered every aspect of jazz, from Dixieland to free and perhaps no other jazz musician has ever been more spontaneously inventive. His skills in constructing a solo are of particular note. Kirk had the ability to pace, shape, and elevate his improvisations to an extraordinary degree. During any given Kirk solo, just at the point in the course of his performance when it appeared he could not raise the intensity level any higher, he always seemed able to turn it up yet another notch. Kirk was born with sight, but became blind at the age of two. He started playing the bugle and trumpet, then learned the clarinet and C-melody sax. Kirk began playing tenor sax professionally in R&B bands at the age of 15. While a teenager, he discovered the "manzello" and "stritch" the former, a modified version of the saxello, which was itself a slightly curved variant of the B flat soprano sax; the latter, a modified straight E flat alto. To these and other instruments, Kirk began making his own improvements. 

He reshaped all three of his saxes so that they could be played simultaneously; he'd play tenor with his left hand, finger the manzello with his right, and sound a drone on the stritch, for instance. Kirk's self-invented technique was in evidence from his first recording, a 1956 R&B record called Triple Threat. By 1960 he had begun to incorporate a siren whistle into his solos, and by '63 he had mastered circular breathing, a technique that enabled him to play without pause for breath. In his early 20s, Kirk worked in Louisville before moving to Chicago in 1960. That year he made his second album, Introducing Roland Kirk, which featured saxophonist/trumpeter Ira Sullivan. In 1961, Kirk toured Germany and spent three months with Charles Mingus. From that point onward, Kirk mostly led his own group, the Vibration Society, recording prolifically with a range of sidemen. In the early '70s, Kirk became something of an activist; he led the "Jazz and People's Movement," a group devoted to opening up new opportunities for jazz musicians. The group adopted the tactic of interrupting tapings and broadcasts of television and radio programs in protest of the small number of African-American musicians employed by the networks and recording studios. In the course of his career, Kirk brought many hitherto unused instruments to jazz. In addition to the saxes, Kirk played the nose whistle, the piccolo, and the harmonica; instruments of his own design included the "trumpophone" (a trumpet with a soprano sax mouthpiece), and the "slidesophone" (a small trombone or slide trumpet, also with a sax mouthpiece). Kirk suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1975, losing movement on one side of his body, but his homemade saxophone technique allowed him to continue to play; beginning in 1976 and lasting until his death a year later, Kirk played one-handed. ~ Chris Kelsey https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rahsaan-roland-kirk-mn0000864257/biography

Let's Talk About Jazz

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Vibration Continues

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 90:19
Size: 210,5 MB
Art: Front

( 4:52)  1. The Inflated Tear
( 6:28)  2. Introduction And Medley (Live At The Village Vanguard, New York, NY May 12, 1970)
( 3:46)  3. Water For Robeson and Williams
( 5:42)  4. Volunteered Slavery
( 2:51)  5. I Love You Yes I Do
( 3:40)  6. Rahsaanic
( 4:39)  7. Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
( 2:25)  8. Ain't No Sunshine
(13:05)  9. A Tribute To John Coltrane
( 7:14) 10. Old Rugged Cross
( 6:04) 11. The Black and Crazy Blues
( 6:22) 12. Portrait of Those Beautiful Ladies
( 8:40) 13. If I Loved You (Live At Keystone Korner, San Francisco, CA, June 9, 1973)
( 3:49) 14. Creole Love Call
(10:36) 15. Seasons (Live At Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI July 1968)

Arguably the most exciting saxophone soloist in jazz history, Kirk was a post-modernist before that term even existed. Kirk played the continuum of jazz tradition as an instrument unto itself; he felt little compunction about mixing and matching elements from the music's history, and his concoctions usually seemed natural, if not inevitable. When discussing Kirk, a great deal of attention is always paid to his eccentricities playing several horns at once, making his own instruments, clowning on stage. However, Kirk was an immensely creative artist; perhaps no improvising saxophonist has ever possessed a more comprehensive technique one that covered every aspect of jazz, from Dixieland to free and perhaps no other jazz musician has ever been more spontaneously inventive. His skills in constructing a solo are of particular note. Kirk had the ability to pace, shape, and elevate his improvisations to an extraordinary degree. During any given Kirk solo, just at the point in the course of his performance when it appeared he could not raise the intensity level any higher, he always seemed able to turn it up yet another notch.  Kirk was born with sight, but became blind at the age of two. He started playing the bugle and trumpet, then learned the clarinet and C-melody sax. Kirk began playing tenor sax professionally in R&B bands at the age of 15. While a teenager, he discovered the "manzello" and "stritch" the former, a modified version of the saxello, which was itself a slightly curved variant of the B flat soprano sax; the latter, a modified straight E flat alto. To these and other instruments, Kirk began making his own improvements. 

He reshaped all three of his saxes so that they could be played simultaneously; he'd play tenor with his left hand, finger the manzello with his right, and sound a drone on the stritch, for instance. Kirk's self-invented technique was in evidence from his first recording, a 1956 R&B record called Triple Threat. By 1960 he had begun to incorporate a siren whistle into his solos, and by '63 he had mastered circular breathing, a technique that enabled him to play without pause for breath. In his early 20s, Kirk worked in Louisville before moving to Chicago in 1960. That year he made his second album, Introducing Roland Kirk, which featured saxophonist/trumpeter Ira Sullivan. In 1961, Kirk toured Germany and spent three months with Charles Mingus. From that point onward, Kirk mostly led his own group, the Vibration Society, recording prolifically with a range of sidemen. In the early '70s, Kirk became something of an activist; he led the "Jazz and People's Movement," a group devoted to opening up new opportunities for jazz musicians. The group adopted the tactic of interrupting tapings and broadcasts of television and radio programs in protest of the small number of African-American musicians employed by the networks and recording studios. In the course of his career, Kirk brought many hitherto unused instruments to jazz. In addition to the saxes, Kirk played the nose whistle, the piccolo, and the harmonica; instruments of his own design included the "trumpophone" (a trumpet with a soprano sax mouthpiece), and the "slidesophone" (a small trombone or slide trumpet, also with a sax mouthpiece). Kirk suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1975, losing movement on one side of his body, but his homemade saxophone technique allowed him to continue to play; beginning in 1976 and lasting until his death a year later, Kirk played one-handed. ~Chris Kelsey https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rahsaan-roland-kirk-mn0000864257/biography

The Vibration Continues

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Kirkatron

Styles: Saxophone, Clarinet And Flute Jazz
Year: 1977
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:06
Size: 112,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:37)  1. Serenade To A Cuckoo
(5:29)  2. This Masquerade
(3:27)  3. Sugar
(0:26)  4. Los Angeles Negro Chorus
(6:42)  5. Steppin' Into Beauty
(3:36)  6. Christmas Song
(2:18)  7. Bagpipe Medley
(0:23)  8. Mary Mcleod Bethune
(4:10)  9. Bright Moments
(4:10) 10. Lyriconon
(4:58) 11. Night In Tunisia
(7:44) 12. J. Griff's Blues

Shortly after Rahsaan Roland Kirk finished his first album for Warner Brothers, he suffered a major stroke that put him out of action and greatly shortened his life. His second LP for the label was actually comprised of leftovers from the earlier session plus three songs taken from an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival; the latter has been reissued on CD in a sampler but the other selections (which include "Serenade to a Cuckoo," his cover of "This Masquerade," "Sugar," "The Christmas Song" and "Bright Moments") remain out of print. This LP (which finds him mostly sticking to tenor), Kirk's next-to-last album, has enough highlights to make it worth searching for. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/kirkatron-mw0000869726

Personnel:   Rahsaan Roland Kirk - tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, clarinet, flute

Kirkatron

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Roland Kirk - Verve Jazz Masters 27

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1994
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:18
Size: 154,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:09)  1. Three For The Festival
(6:11)  2. Blue Rol
(5:19)  3. Reeds And Deeds
(3:34)  4. Hip Chops
(6:29)  5. From Bechet, Byas And Fats
(2:48)  6. Berkshire Blues
(5:17)  7. A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
(4:01)  8. March On, Swan Lake
(3:39)  9. The Haunted Melody
(3:40) 10. Meeting On Termini's Corner
(3:49) 11. Rolando
(4:09) 12. Blues For Alice
(5:24) 13. Black Diamond
(2:28) 14. You Did It, You Did It
(4:09) 15. Where Monk And Mingus Live / Let's Call This
(3:05) 16. Blues For C &

Rahsaan Roland Kirk's volume in Verve's Jazz Masters series is a distillation of the ten-disc Complete Mercury Recordings set. It covers the '60s with an emphasis on 1961-1962, and includes many of the best selections from Kirk LPs like Rip, Rig and Panic, We Free Kings, and Domino.

Those separate albums should be of more interest to fans, leaving this disc as an adequate collection for beginners or those unsure of where to start. ~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/album/verve-jazz-masters-27-mw0000120079

Personnel:  Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Tenor Saxophone, Flute;  Lonnie Liston Smith, Hank Jones, Harold Mabern - Piano;  Charli Persip - Drums;  Percy Heath, Wendell Marshall - Bass;  Bobby Bryan - Trumpet.

Verve Jazz Masters 27

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Roland Kirk - Left & Right

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1968
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:55
Size: 101,2 MB
Art: Front

( 1:18)  1. Black Mystery Has Been Revealed
(19:36)  2. Expansions
( 3:48)  3. Lady's Blues
( 3:41)  4. I X Love
( 3:24)  5. Hot Cha
( 4:13)  6. Quintessence
( 2:54)  7. I Waited For You
( 3:57)  8. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing

The title of this album, Left and Right, no doubt refers to the sides of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's brain, which were both heavily taxed in the composing, arranging, conducting, and playing of this recording. For starters, the band is huge 17 players plus a 16-piece string section, all of it arranged and conducted by Kirk, a blind man. None of this would matter a damn if this weren't such a badass platter. Along with Kirk's usual crew of Ron Burton, Julius Watkins, Dick Griffin, Jimmy Hopps, and Gerald Brown, there are luminaries in the crowd including Alice Coltrane on harp, Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, and no less than Roy Haynes helping out on the skins. What it all means is this: The man who surprised and outraged everybody on the scene as well as blew most away was at it again here in "Expansions," his wildly ambitious and swinging post-Coltrane suite, which has "Black Mystery Has Been Revealed" as its prelude. While there are other tracks on this record, this suite is its centerpiece and masterpiece despite killer readings of Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" and "Quintessence." "Expansions" has Kirk putting his entire harmonic range on display, and all of the timbral extensions he used in his own playing are charted for a string section to articulate. There are subtleties, of course, which come off as merely tonal variations in extant harmony with the other instruments, but when they are juxtaposed against a portrayal of the entire history of jazz from Jelly Roll Morton to the present day then they become something else: the storytellers, the timbres, and the chromatic extensions that point in the right direction and get listeners to stop in the right places. This is an extreme for Rahsaan  extremely brilliant and thoroughly accessible. ~ Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/album/left-right-mw0000661555

Personnel: Roland Kirk: tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, clarinet, flute, organ, narration, thumb piano, celesta; Jim Buffington, Julius Watkins: french horn; Frank Wess: woodwinds;   Richard Williams: trumpet;   Dick Griffith, Benny Powell: trombone;   Daniel Jones: basoon;  Pepper Adams: baritone saxophone;  Alice Coltrane: harp;   Ron Burton: piano;  Vernon Martin: bass;  Roy Haynes: drums;  Jimmy Hopps: drums;  Warren Smith: percussion, vocals;  Gerald "Sonny" Brown: percussion;  Gil Fuller: arranger

Left & Right

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Charles Mingus - Tonight At Noon

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:15
Size: 89,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:00)  1. Tonight At Noon
(4:50)  2. Invisible Lady
(7:55)  3. 'Old' Blues For Walt's Torin
(9:42)  4. Peggy's Blue Skylight
(9:46)  5. Passions Of A Woman Loved

A valuable reissue for Mingus fans, Tonight at Noon compiles five tunes originally recorded for two of the great bassist's most important album's, 1957's The Clown and 1961's Oh Yeah. Though the two sessions cover somewhat different stylistic ground, they blend together seamlessly and amount to much more than a haphazard assemblage of dusty outtakes. The earlier session is the more restrained of the two, with Mingus and a typically responsive quintet (trombonist Jimmy Knepper, alto saxophonist Shafi Hadi, pianist Wade Legge and drummer Dannie Richmond) expertly weaving a path between the extremes of European impressionism (on the haunting "Passions of a Woman Loved") and hard bop (on the fast-paced title tune). The 1961 date is a more freewheeling journey into the blues and gospel roots of jazz via Duke Ellington, with Mingus switching to piano (an instrument on which he was more than proficient) and handing the bass duties over to Doug Watkins. The hard-swinging group also includes Mingus stalwarts Knepper and Richmond, along with the dynamic saxophone duo of Booker Ervin and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Though most of the compositions on Tonight at Noon are not well known (with the exception of "Peggy's Blue Skylight" from the 1961 session) and several make their only appearances in the Mingus catalog here, there's certainly nothing second rate about these tunes. Along with the time limitations of the LP era, one gets the impression that, if anything, they were left off the original albums because they were even more provocative than the selected cuts. This is vital, exciting music.~ Joel Roberts https://www.allaboutjazz.com/tonight-at-noon-charles-mingus-water-music-review-by-joel-roberts.php

Personnel: Charles Mingus, Bass, Piano, Vocals; Shafi Hadi, Alto Saxophone; Doug Watkins, Bass; Dannie Richmond, Drums; Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Saxophones; Wade Legge, Piano; Booker Ervin, Tenor Saxophone; Jimmy Knepper, Trombone.

Tonight At Noon

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Roland Kirk - We Free Kings

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:45
Size: 87,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:08)  1. Three For The Festival
(4:21)  2. Moon Song
(4:37)  3. A Sack Full Of Soul
(3:37)  4. The Haunted Melody
(4:07)  5. Blues For Alice
(4:46)  6. We Free Kings
(2:28)  7. You Did It, You Did It
(6:08)  8. Some Kind Of Love
(4:30)  9. My Delight

We Free Kings, Roland Kirk's third long-player, is among the most consistent of his early efforts. The assembled quartet provides an ample balance of bop and soul compliments to Kirk's decidedly individual polyphonic performance style. His inimitable writing and arranging techniques develop into some great originals, as well as personalize the chosen cover tunes. With a nod to the contemporary performance style of John Coltrane, as well as a measure of his influences most notably Clifford Brown and Sidney Bechet -- Kirk maneuvers into and out of some inspiring situations. His decidedly 'Trane-esque solos on "My Delight" are supported with a high degree of flexibility by one-time Charles Mingus' pianist Richard Wyands and Dizzy Gillespie percussionist Charlie Persip. The album's title track is a Kirk original, based on the melody of the Christmas hymn "We Three Kings." Incorporating recognizable melodies into Kirk's oft times unorthodox musical settings would prove to be a motif throughout his career. An example is the highly touted cover of Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice." This is an ideal avenue for the quartet to explore one of Kirk's specialties the blues. The almost irreverent manner in which he fuses blues and soul music into the otherwise bop-driven arrangements is striking. "A Sack Full of Soul" is a funky number with a walking-blues backbeat that perfectly supports Kirk's swinging solos. The stop time syncopation is reminiscent of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say." The 1987 CD version also includes an alternate take of "Blues for Alice." One additional track a cover of the Frank Loesser standard "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" was also recorded at these sessions and remained unissued until its inclusion on the ten-disc Rahsaan: The Complete Mercury Recordings of Roland Kirk box set. ~ Lindsay Planer http://www.allmusic.com/album/we-free-kings-mw0000649599

Personnel:  Roland Kirk: tenor saxophone, manzello, flute, stritch saxophone;  Richard Wyands: piano (tracks 3-5 & 9);  Art Davis: double bass (tracks 3-5 & 9);  Charlie Persip: drums;  Hank Jones: piano (tracks 1-2 & 6-8);  Wendell Marshall: bass (tracks 1-2 & 6-8)

We Free Kings

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Roland Kirk - Domino

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1962
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 79:47
Size: 189,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:16)  1. Domino
(3:41)  2. Meeting On Termini's Corner
(3:13)  3. Time
(3:40)  4. Lament
(5:06)  5. A Stritch In Time
(2:35)  6. 3-In-1 Without The Oil
(4:50)  7. Get Out Of Town
(3:47)  8. Rolando
(4:26)  9. I Believe In You
(2:36) 10. E.D.
(4:12) 11. Where Monk And Mingus Live / Let's Call This
(4:07) 12. Domino
(3:15) 13. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
(2:18) 14. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
(2:21) 15. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
(2:37) 16. Someone To Watch Over Me
(3:38) 17. Someone To Watch Over Me
(2:35) 18. Termini's Corner
(2:28) 19. Termini's Corner
(2:45) 20. Termini's Corner
(4:10) 21. Termini's Corner
(2:48) 22. When The Sun Comes Out
(2:05) 23. When The Sun Comes Out
(2:44) 24. When The Sun Comes Out
(0:22) 25. Time Races With Emit

When Roland Kirk (pre-Rahsaan) issued Domino in 1962, the album contained 10 tracks, which amounted to just over half an hour of music. On this reissue there are 25 tracks and nearly 80 minutes of music. What’s more, the 15 bonus tracks feature a 22-year-old Herbie Hancock, who did not appear on the original Domino at all. (Getting left on the cutting-room floor must not have thrilled the young pianist.) Bassist Vernon Martin is featured throughout all the sessions. Six of the original 10 tracks feature Andrew Hill on piano and Henry Duncan on drums, both of whom are replaced on the remaing four by Wynton Kelly and Roy Haynes, respectively. Haynes stays on for the tracks that feature Hancock. (No other Hancock/Haynes collaborations come to mind.) So in addition to what this reissue says about Kirk’s enormous talents, it is also of historical interest for its stellar cast of supporting players. Kirk’s arsenal includes two unusual instruments, the manzello (sort of like a soprano sax) and the stritch (like a mellow alto), in addition to tenor, flute, and the occasional siren whistle, usually to introduce a piano solo. His simultaneous two- and three-horn work led some to dismiss him as a gimmick player, which was absurd, for what’s astonishing about the technique is its sheer musicality in Kirk’s hands. Need to ratchet up the intensity over a pedal point or during a solo? Add another horn or two and you’ve got an instant one-man shout chorus. (Check out his faster-than-usual reading of J.J. Johnson’s "Lament" for a good example of this.) And mind you, this is not mere noisemaking  his note choices, whether unisons or two- and three-part harmonies, make perfect sense. Indeed, for a musician often thought of as incurably odd and left-of-center, Kirk’s rootedness in tradition couldn’t be clearer on Domino. On tenor he sounds not unlike Sonny Rollins; his flute work surely influenced Thomas Chapin. On the fast minor blues "Rolando" he plays a stritch solo full of exemplary post-bop lines. "E.D.," the last of the original 10 tracks, is a furiously fast reworking of "Tea for Two." At least at this stage, Kirk’s playing was far more inside than Ornette Coleman’s, for instance.

Perhaps this reissue will prompt a reappraisal of Kirk’s importance. As someone who took the tradition seriously and yet created something entirely new from it, he has a great deal to say to today’s like-minded younger generation of players. ~ David Adler https://www.allaboutjazz.com/domino-roland-kirk-verve-music-group-review-by-david-adler.php
 

Personnel: Roland Kirk, tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, flute, nose flute, siren whistle;  Vernon Martin, bass;  Andrew Hill, piano (tracks 1-6, celeste on track 3);  Wynton Kelly, piano (tracks 7-10);  Herbie Hancock, piano (tracks 11-25);  Henry Duncan, drums (tracks 1-6);  Roy Haynes, drums (tracks 7-25)

Domino

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Blacknuss

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1972
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:41
Size: 98,0 MB
Art: Front

(2:24)  1. Ain't No Sunshine
(3:44)  2. What's Goin' On, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
(2:47)  3. I Love You Yes I Do
(3:18)  4. Take Me Girl, I'm Ready
(3:04)  5. My Girl
(2:26)  6. Which Way Is It Going
(3:40)  7. One Nation
(4:01)  8. Never Can Say Goodbye
(7:12)  9. Old Rugged Cross
(4:49) 10. Make It with You
(5:11) 11. Blacknuss

From its opening bars, with Bill Salter's bass and Rahsaan's flute passionately playing Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," you know this isn't an ordinary Kirk album (were any of them?). As the string section, electric piano, percussion, and Cornel Dupree's guitar slip in the back door, one can feel the deep soul groove Kirk is bringing to the jazz fore here. As the tune fades just two and a half minutes later, the scream of Kirk's tenor comes wailing through the intro of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On," with a funk backdrop and no wink in the corner he's serious. With Richard Tee's drums kicking it, the strings developing into a wall of tension in the backing mix, and Charles McGhee's trumpet hurling the long line back at Kirk, all bets are off especially when they medley the mother into "Mercy Mercy Me." By the time they reach the end of the Isleys' "I Love You, Yes I Do," with the whistles, gongs, shouting, soul crooning, deep groove hustling, and greasy funk dripping from every sweet-assed note, the record could be over because the world has already turned over and surrendered and the album is only ten minutes old! Blacknuss, like The Inflated Tear, Volunteered Slavery, Rip, Rig and Panic, and I Talk to the Spirits, is Kirk at his most visionary. He took the pop out of pop and made it Great Black Music. 

He took the jazz world down a peg to make it feel its roots in the people's music, and consequently made great jazz from pop tunes in the same way his forbears did with Broadway show tunes. While the entire album shines like a big black sun, the other standouts include a deeply moving read of "My Girl" and a version of "The Old Rugged Cross" that takes it back forever from those white fundamentalists who took all the blood and sweat from its grain and replaced them with cheap tin and collection plates. On Kirk's version, grace doesn't come cheap, though you can certainly be a poor person to receive it. Ladies and gents, Blacknuss is as deep as a soul record can be and as hot as a jazz record has any right to call itself. A work of sheer blacknuss! ~ Thom Jurek http://www.allmusic.com/album/blacknuss-mw0000101699

Personnel: Rahsaan Roland Kirk (vocals, tenor saxophone, flute, whistle, percussion); Princess Patience Burton, Cissy Houston (vocals); Charles McGhee (trumpet); Dick Griffin (trombone); Sonelius Smith, Richard Tee (piano); Mickey Tucker (organ); Billy Butler, Cornell Dupree, Keith Loving (guitar); Henry Pearson, Bill Salter (bass); Khalil Mhrdi, Bernard Purdie (drums); Arthur Jenkins (congas, cabasa); Richard Landrum (congas); Joe Habad (percussion).

Blacknuss

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Roland Kirk - Gifts And Messages

Styles:  Hard Bop, Avant Garde Jazz
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 78:48
Size: 184,3 MB
Art: Front

( 0:17)  1. Ronnie's Intro
(12:07)  2. Bags' Groove
( 2:23)  3. Roland's Intro
( 6:30)  4. It Might As Well Be Spring
( 9:32)  5. (On A) Misty Night
( 5:44)  6. Come Sunday
( 9:47)  7. Avalon
( 6:56)  8. My Ship
(10:01)  9. A Stritch In Time
(12:37) 10. Gifts And Messages
( 2:50) 11. Reeling And Rhyming

This CD has previously unreleased music featuring the remarkable Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1964 during a London gig at Ronnie Scott's club. Joined by the talented pianist Stan Tracey, bassist Rick Laird and drummer Allan Ganley, Kirk puts on quite a show. He plays conventionally on tenor in spots (particularly during the opening "Bags' Groove") in addition to wailing on three horns at once and showing off his talents on manzello, stritch, flutes and what he called a saxophonium (a saxophone without a mouthpiece). There is a great deal of humor on this set including many song quotes, a wild version of Tadd Dameron's "On a Misty Night" that is worthy of Richie Cole, some wicked laughing and a few short monologues that are both witty and quite insightful. Although Rahsaan Roland Kirk really had to be seen to be fully appreciated (much of what he did was simply impossible), this CD gives one a fine overview of his unique abilities. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/gifts-and-messages-candid-mw0002022122

Personnel:  Bass – Rick Laird;  Drums – Allan Ganley;  Piano – Stan Tracey;  Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Nose Flute, Siren, Voice, Instruments [Manzello. Stritch, Saxophonium] – Roland Kirk

Gifts And Messages

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Roland Kirk with Jack McDuff - Kirk's Work

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:19
Size: 77,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:15)  1. Three For Dizzy
(5:09)  2. Makin' Whoopee
(6:17)  3. Funk Underneath
(3:56)  4. Kirk's Work
(4:22)  5. Doin' The Sixty-Eight
(3:54)  6. Too Late Now
(4:24)  7. Skater's Waltz

Technically his third album, following Introducing Roland Kirk (Chess, 1960), and a previously unissued R&B session (Triple Threat), Kirk's Work pre-dates the boundless surrealism of his post-Rahsaan era. Sharing the bill with organist Jack McDuff, the record is commonly regarded as a fairly straight-ahead date made years before Kirk gradually transformed from a stunning virtuoso multi-instrumentalist into an iconic musical shaman. While not as outrageous as some of Kirk's later albums, this sublime 1961 date has its fair share of unusual subtle surprises, providing a few early examples of the man's twisted genius. Already displaying remarkable prowess on his menagerie of thrift-store horns (manzello, stritch, siren), Kirk displays each to its own effect. His ability to play two and three saxophones at a time is already apparent, although his mastery of circular breathing was still a few years away. 

He limits his doubling to supportive riffing, rather than intertwining solo counterpoint, but the distinctive sound of his massed horns is still present."Funk Underneath" showcases Kirk's nascent vocalized flute stylings, blending gruff vocalizations with soaring flute harmonics. The dark-hued title track and "Skater's Waltz" demonstrate Kirk's aggressive hard bop attack, something he perfected over the course of his Atlantic Records tenure as he ascended from swinging modernist into unclassifiable genius. The rhythm section contributes heavily to the session, providing more than just run of the mill backbeats for Kirk to riff over. Jack McDuff's greasy down home organ instills the session with a buoyant sensibility, celebratory and optimistic. Benjamin and Taylor are a tight, snappy rhythm section, Taylor strikes hard and deep, sounding at times like Roy Haynes. "Doin' The Sixty-Eight" finds the rhythm duo deep in a pulsating polyrhythmic groove, dragging Kirk and McDuff headfirst into the infectious Latin rhythms. A solid and infinitely enjoyable album easily overlooked in the massive and convoluted discography of such a diverse artist, Kirk's Work is more than just an embryonic session. It's an accessible classic, the sort of unconventional soul jazz/hard bop hybrid that only Roland Kirk could deliver. ~ Troy Collins  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/kirks-work-rahsaan-roland-kirk-prestige-records-review-by-troy-collins.php
 

Personnel: Roland Kirk: tenor saxophone; manzello; stritch, flute, siren; Jack McDuff: Hammond organ; Joe Benjamin: bass; Arthur Taylor: drums.

Kirk's Work

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Roland Kirk - Here Comes The Whistleman

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:23
Size: 81.0 MB
Styles: Haerd bop, Avant garde jazz
Year: 1967/2006
Art: Front

[5:49] 1. Roots
[4:04] 2. Here Comes The Whistleman
[5:54] 3. I Wished On The Moon
[4:29] 4. Making Love After Hours
[4:04] 5. Yesterdays
[6:12] 6. Aluminum Baby
[4:47] 7. Step Right Up

Here Comes the Whistleman showcases Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1967 with a fine band, live in front of a host of invited guests at Atlantic Studios in New York. His band for the occasion is stellar: Jacki Byard or Lonnie Smith on piano, Major Holley on bass, Lonnie Smith on piano, and Charles Crosby on drums. This is the hard, jump blues and deep R&B Roland Kirk band, and from the git, on "Roots," they show why. Kirk comes screaming out of the gate following a double time I-IV-V progression, with Holley punching the accents along the bottom and Byard shoving the hard tight chords up against Kirk's three-horn lead. The extended harmony Kirk plays -- though the melody line is a bar walking honk -- is extreme, full of piss and vinegar. On the title track, along with the artist's requisite, and genuinely good, humor, Kirk breaks out the whistles on top of the horn for a blues stomp with Smith taking over the piano chores. Smith plays a two chord vamp, changing the accent before he beings to break it open into a blues with skittering fills and turnarounds while Kirk blows circularly for 12 and 14 bars at a time. Byard returns for a tender and stirring duet rendition of "I Wished on the Moon," with his own glorious rich lyricism. And here is where Kirk displays the true measure of his ability as a saxophonist. Turning the ballad inside out, every which way without overstating the notes. Here, Ben Webster meets Coleman Hawkins in pure lyric ecstasy. The set officially ends with the wailing flute and sax jam "Aluminum Baby," (both courtesy of the irrepressible Kirk) and the bizarre ride of "Step Right Up" where Kirk sings scat in a dialect that sounds like Pop-eye. Now that's where the LP version ended, but the Label M CD reissue tags on, without credits anywhere two absolutely essential scorchers with what seems to be Byard on piano and an over-the-top bass blowout from Holley. Kirk plays saxophones on both, being his own horn section. This makes an already satisfying date an essential one. Given these additions, this might arguably be the place to start for an interested but underexposed listener who wants to experience how dazzlingly original Kirk was. ~Thom Jurek

Here Comes The Whistleman

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Boogie Woogie String Along For Real

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 44:42

Size: 102.3 MB

Styles: Hard bop

Year: 1977/2006

Art: Front

[8:52] 1. Boogie Woogie String Along For Real

[1:47] 2. I Loves You, Porgy

[7:17] 3. Make Me A Pallet On The Floor

[5:05] 4. Hey Babehips

[6:14] 5. In A Mellow Tone

[1:38] 6. Summertime

[7:11] 7. Dorthaan's Walk

[6:34] 8. The Watergate Blues

The final album Rahsaan Roland Kirk ever recorded remains one of his finest. Post-stroke, Kirk struggled with his conception of the music he was trying to make. Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real is the payoff. The title track features strings playing distended harmonics over his blowing and the backing of a guttersnipe rhythm section and a full-blown horn section -- including a very young trombonist named Steve Turre -- behind him. From here, Kirk works veritable magic with the material of the age, swimming deeply in the blues that Gershwin didn't know he had in "I Loves You Porgy," getting an aging Tiny Grimes to wail his guitar-playing ass off on "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," and then flowing elegantly on Ellington's "In a Mellow Tone" and Gershwin's "Summertime." It's almost too much to bear as the emotions come falling from the horn and the rhythm section tries to keep them balanced, but the heartbreak and joy are everywhere. When Kirk closes the disc with his own stomping hard-swing R&B of "Dorthaan's Walk" (dedicated to his wife) and takes it out with Percy Heath's "Watergate Blues," he closes the circle. With Hilton Ruiz playing a deep-grooved Latin funk against Kirk's harmonica and alto, Heath playing cello, and Turre opening up a huge space of feeling behind the front line as Sonny Brown and Phil Bowler keep it all in check on drums and bass respectively, Kirk sums it all up in his alto solo.

There is so much sadness, betrayal, pain, and resolve in his lines that the rules of Western music no longer apply. The all-inclusive vision Kirk has of a music embraces all emotions and attitudes and leaves no one outside the door. This is Kirk's Black Classical Music, and it is fully realized on this final track and album. ~Thom Jurek

Boogie Woogie String Along For Real 

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Roland Kirk - Kirk In Copenhagen

Styles: Straight-ahead/Mainstream
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:30
Size: 88,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:23)  1. Narrow Bolero
(8:07)  2. Mingus-Griff Song
(5:43)  3. The Monkey Thing
(7:18)  4. Mood Indigo
(7:46)  5. Cabin In The Sky
(4:12)  6. On The Corner Of King And Scott Streets

To fully appreciate his artistry, Roland Kirk truly needed to be experienced live. Sure, playing three instruments at once is an incredible feat, but wouldn't it be great to have seen it? Unfortunately for most of us, we can only be satisfied with recordings such as this one from Club Montmarte, Denmark's famous jazz club. Live, Kirk barrels through tunes with an almost reckless abandon, making judicious use of the noisemaking possibilities of his various instruments and firing out long, squalling passages made possible by the circular breathing he mastered. Kirk was a performer who was very sympathetic to his audience, injecting humor through bawdy lyrics and the occasional nose flute licks and, this being an earlier recording, little of the politicizing that became his passion later on. Overall this is a prime example of Kirk's gifts as a musician. He was often criticized for being a carnival act, and certainly his ability to multitask brought out the showman in him in front of interested parties. 

But he was also a crafty improviser as well, and tunes like "Mingus-Griff Song" show his dedication to preserving the legacy of jazz by stitching all its manifestations into a patchwork quilt of influences. This 1963 date is a good representation of Kirk's work, but it has a couple of drawbacks. First, the sidemen seem under rehearsed, not having fully absorbed Kirk's method and hanging on by their fingernails whenever he solos, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief when he takes a break. Also, the levels aren't balanced: the drums are overmiked and the piano lacks the presence it requires. But one of the joys of jazz is bringing together musicians from different backgrounds different countries, even and watching the interplay that follows no matter what occurs. When it comes right down to it, all musicians speak the same language, and in the end this was the message that Kirk was preaching all along. ~ David Rickert  

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/kirk-in-copenhagen-roland-kirk-verve-music-group-review-by-david-rickert.php

Personnel: Roland Kirk - tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, flute, nose flute, and/or siren whistle; Tete Montoliu - piano; Niels-Henning

Thank You Steve!

Kirk In Copenhagen

Kirk In Copenhagen

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