RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK - I, Eye, Aye : Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1972 (1972-1996) RM | Atlantic Jazz Gallery | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This live recording is a companion to a documentary called The One Man Twins. Released for the first time in 1996, both audio and video gives both fans and the uninitiated a glimpse of the century's most colorful performers and most complex jazz musicians. Kirk's band for the date was comprised of pianist Ron Burton, bassist Henry "Pete" Pearson, drummer Robert Shy, and percussionist Joe Texidor. Only Burton and Texidor were Kirk regulars. The set is absolutely electrifying. From the few short raps Kirk offers the crowd, one cannot be prepared for the honking, shouting, funky, gritty sets that follow. Kirk begins with "Seasons," a careening rush of flute acrobatics, and on into a deeply moving rendition of "Balm in Gilead," where Kirk evokes the spirit of Paul Robeson, and then into arguably the greatest version of "Volunteered Slavery" on record, a slamming R&B stomp of literally epic proportions, where Kirk uses each of his horns and starts blowing different notes on each simultaneously. There is a gorgeous solo medley where Kirk combines Ellington's "Satin Doll" and an improvisation on its two themes and comes up with something completely new, yet reverentially sound. The set ends with "Serenade to a Cuckoo," which moves across scalar dimensions and tonal registers with a deep, funky grace, and finally, "Pedal Up," a standard Kirk crowd-pleaser that brings all of his elements -- the spectral, the spiritual, and the carnal -- into full play. The band, with new players, can barely keep up with Kirk, but Burton keeps them right in line with the master's shifts in mood, mode, and tempo while keeping the entire gig harmonically on course no matter which instrument Kirk chooses to play. This is a hell of an introduction to one of the least-understood figures in jazz history, and an absolute necessity for fans.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1     Rahsaantalk, No. 1 0:38
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
2     Seasons 6:00
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
3     Rahsaantalk, No. 2 1:12
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
4     Balm in Gilead 7:05
Traditional
5     Volunteered Slavery 10:20
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
6     Rahsaantalk, No. 3 0:24
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
7     Blue Rol, No. 2 9:04
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
8     Solo Piece: Satin Doll/Improvisation 4:19
Duke Ellington / Rahsaan Roland Kirk
9     Serenade to a Cuckoo 3:28
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
10     Pedal Up 6:11
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Credits :
Bass – Henry "Pete" Pearson
Drums – Robert Shy
Percussion – Joe "Habao" Texidor
Piano – Ron Burton
Tenor Saxophone, Saxophone [Manzello], Saxophone [Stritch], Clarinet, Flute, Nose Flute, Siren, Performer [Other Stuff] – Rahsaan Roland Kirk

RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK - Prepare Thyself To Deal With a Miracle (1973-2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Recorded in 1973, this is yet another criminally underappreciated Rahsaan Roland Kirk recording from the last phase of a remarkable career. This is perhaps Kirk's most experimental recording in that it involves his most involved performing on multiple horns and flutes -- including his infamous and wonderful nose flute -- and working with drones on a more surface level. Given Kirk's system of playing three horns at once, the drone horn was always a part of his sonic architecture. The difference here is that the melodic and improvisational lines take a back seat on tunes such as the opening "Salvation and Reminiscing," where he makes fantastic use of a baby E-flat saxophone, and on "Celestial Bliss," on which he is accompanied on his "black mystery pipes" only by percussion. On the medley "Seasons: One Mind Winter/Summer/Ninth Ghost," Kirk begins with the nose flutes, playing a part of "Balm in Gilead," before bringing in a six-piece string orchestra to play behind him as he improvises on all the melodies and modes. And this improvisation is not just a series of out arpeggios playing legato and running through and over the changes, but intricately nuanced, gentle, and architecturally sophisticated wanderings. Despite the beauty of the album's first three tracks, it is on the closer, the 21-and-a-half-minute "Saxophone Concerto," where Kirk most leaves his mark as a composer and innovator on the jazz world. Kirk comes out blowing literally like a train and weaves in, with vocalists Jeanne Lee and Dee Dee Bridgewater, a series of muted horn lines and rhythm figures. The band is 16 pieces total, and the concerto is structured in movements from an intro in which the purpose is stated: "time for America to discover some of its true Black miracles," wherein bebop and hard bop shimmy up against free modes and articulations by the rhythm section and the other horns. Kirk may solo on top with his tenor, but he holds close to the rhythm section's articulation of mutated blues. From here, Latin and faux classical chromatics are shaded into the whole as the pace becomes more and more frenetic, and just as the piece becomes perhaps circus-like, Kirk and company strip it all back and out, into a free universe washed by improvising vocalists, crashing cymbals, droning brass, and rumbling tom-toms before it's all a hush of unidentifiable sounds except for those of breaking glass. There are numerous metaphors and metonyms here, but they will not come to the listener until later, when she or he regains the conscious notion of breathing.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1    Salvation And Reminiscing 5:14
Backing Vocals – Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jeanne Lee
Clarinet – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Conductor – Dick Griffin
Seasons (10:32)
Nose Flute, Flute – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
2a    One Mind Winter/Summer    
2b    Ninth Ghost    
3    Celestial Bliss 5:47
Backing Vocals – Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jeanne Lee
Performer [Black Mystery Pipes], Saxophone [Baby E Flat] – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Saxophone Concerto (21:31)
Backing Vocals – Jeanne Lee
Tenor Saxophone – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
4a    Saxophone Miracle    
4b    One Breath Beyond    
4c    Dance Of Revolution
Credits :
Arranged By [Strings] – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Bass – Henry Pearson
Cello – Kermit Moore
Drums – Robert Shy
English Horn, Oboe – Harry Smiles
Percussion – Ralph MacDonald, Sonny Brown
Piano – Ron Burton
Trombone – Dick Griffin
Trumpet – Charles McGhee
Viola – Al Brown
Violin – Gayle Dixon, Julien Barber, Sanford Allen, Selwart Clarke
Written-By – Rahsaan Roland Kirk

RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK - Bright Moments (1974-1993) 2CD | RM | Atlantic Jazz Gallery | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Rahsaan Roland Kirk's live club gigs were usually engaging, freewheeling affairs, full of good humor and a fantastically wide range of music. The double album Bright Moments (reissued as a double CD) is a near-definitive document of the Kirk live experience, and his greatest album of the '70s. The extroverted Kirk was in his element in front of an audience, always chatting, explaining his concepts, and recounting bits of jazz history. Even if some of his long, jive-talking intros can sound a little dated today, it's clear in the outcome of the music that Kirk fed voraciously off the energy of the room. Most of the tracks are long (seven minutes or more), demonstrating Kirk's wealth of soloing ideas in a variety of styles (and, naturally, on a variety of instruments). "Pedal Up" is a jaw-dropping demonstration of Kirk's never-duplicated three-horns-at-once technique, including plenty of unaccompanied passages that simply sound impossible. There's more quintessential Kirk weirdness on "Fly Town Nose Blues," which heavily features an instrument called the nose flute, and the title track has a healthy dose of Kirk singing through his (traditional) flute. His repertoire is typically eclectic: Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss"; a groovy Bacharach pop tune in "You'll Never Get to Heaven"; a lovely version of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"; and a stomping, exultant New Orleans-style original, "Dem Red Beans and Rice." Perhaps the best, however, is an impassioned rendition of the ballad standard "If I Loved You," where Kirk's viscerally raw, honking tone hints in a roundabout way at the avant-garde without ever losing its melodic foundation. Bright Moments empties all the major items out of Kirk's bag of tricks, providing a neat microcosm of his talents and displaying a consummate and knowledgeable showman. In short, it's nothing less than a tour de force. Steve Huey  
Tracklist 1 :
1     Introduction 2:06
Rahsaan Roland Kirk    
2     Pedal Up 11:52
Rahsaan Roland Kirk    
3     You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) 9:48
Burt Bacharach / Hal David
4    Clickety Clack 2:30
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
5     Prelude to a Kiss 5:05
Duke Ellington / Irving Gordon / Irving Mills
6     Talk (Electric Nose) 2:33
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
7     Fly Town Nose Blues 8:52
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Tracklist 2 :    
1     Talk (Bright Moments) 3:30
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
2     Bright Moments 10:02
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
3     Dem Red Beans and Rice 7:05
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
4     If I Loved You 8:50
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers
5     Talk (Fats Waller) 1:30
Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Fats Waller
6     Jitterbug Waltz 7:00
Richard Maltby, Jr. / Fats Waller    
7     Second Line Jump 1:30
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Credits :
Bass – Henry Pearson
Drums – Robert Shy
Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Nose Flute, Liner Notes – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Percussion – Joe Habao
Piano – Ron Burton
Synthesizer, Tambourine – Todd Barkan