Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 06/02/2009
Run Time: 37:43
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 Jurek, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
