Rahsaan Roland Kirk

When Rahsaan Roland Kirk died after his second major stroke at 42 in 1977, jazz lost a major sound innovator who was also an unabashed entertainer. But Kirk, who overcame the impairments of blindness and a 1975 stroke which forced him to play with one arm, always performed without compromising or condescending. Naturally ebullient, on this 77½ minute gig, he not only plays a music store’s collection of instruments, including tenor saxophone, stritch, manzello, flute, nose flute, whistle and oboe, often two or three simultaneously, but also vocalizes a sly anti-racist blues.

Although backed by Sonny Brown’s tough backbeat drumming, Henry Grimes’ bass pulse and three different pianists, Jane Getz, Horace Parlan or Melvin Rhyme, who are alternately bluesy, minimalist or highly rhythmic, the set is rightly focused on Kirk’s work. He creates an unsentimental, throbbing flute version of the ballad “Laura” with the same ingenuity he brings to tricky chord and pitch changes on swift originals like “Ecclusiastics” and “Three For The Festival”. He dexterously appends quotes from other tunes, playing two reeds at once, whistles for emphasis and once duets with himself on transverse and nose flute. He even uses the oboe’s snarky vibrato to originate a double-time, nearly unaccompanied blues groove.

Recorded in 1963 at the height of Kirk’s communicative powers, it’s easy to ignore the occasional audience cross talk, even when there isn’t a bass solo, to appreciate comprehensive sounds that would never be heard again.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Jump Up And Down-Fast 2. Ecclusiastics 3. All The Things You Are 4. Laura 5. Kirk’s Delight 6. Oboe Blues 7. Blues Minor At The Gate 8. Falling In Love With Love 9. Three For The Festival

Personnel: Rahsaan Roland Kirk (tenor saxophone, stritch, manzello, flute, nose flute, vocals, whistle and oboe); Melvin Rhyne, Horace Parlan or Jane Getz (piano); Henry Grimes (bass) and Sonny Brown (drums)