Jazz / Post-Bop, Hard Bop
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Manzello, Sax (Alto), String Arrangements, Stritch, Clarinet, Liner Notes, Harmonica, Nose Flute, Sax (Tenor), Reed Trumpet, Flute
Al Brown Viola
Alfred Brown Strings
Alice Coltrane Harp
Alvern Bunn Conga
Amy DiDonato Production Coordination
Andre Perry Liner Notes
Anthony Sophos Strings
Arthur Jenkins Percussion
Benny Powell Trombone (Bass)
Bob Lifton Remixing, Engineer
Bruce Tergesen Engineer
Charles McCracken Strings
Dee Dee Bridgewater Vocals (Background), Vocals
Dick Griffin Conductor, Trombone
Frank Wess Woodwind
Gayle Dixon Violin
Gene Orloff Strings
Gene Paul Mastering
Geoffrey Haslam Engineer
George Ockner Strings
Gerald Brown Percussion
Giuseppe Pino Photography
Gloria Agostini Harp
Habao Texidor Percussion
Harold Furmansky Strings
Henry Pearson Bass
Hilton Ruiz Piano
Howard Johnson Tuba
Ira Gitler Liner Notes
James Buffington French Horn, Strings
James Madison Drums
Jeanne Lee Vocals (Background), Vocals
Jimmy Hopps Drums
Joe Habad Texidor ?, Tambourine
Joel Dorn Liner Notes, Producer
Joseph Malignaggi Strings
Julien Barber Strings, Violin
Julius Watkins French Horn
Kermit Moore Cello
Lee Friedlander Photography
Lee Tanner Photography
Leo Kruczek Strings
Leroy Jenkins Violin
Lewis Hahn Remixing, Engineer
Matthew Raimondi Strings
Nancy Dwyer Graphic Design
Noel DaCosta Strings
Page Simon Graphic Design
Pepper Adams Sax (Baritone)
Phil Iehle Engineer
Ralph MacDonald Percussion
Richard Gene Williams Trumpet
Robert Shy Drums
Ron Burton Piano
Roy Haynes Drums
Sanford Allen Strings, Violin
Selwart Clarke Strings, Violin
Sonelius Smith Piano, Celeste
Sonny Brown Percussion, Drums
Stanislaw Zagorski Original Cover Artwork, Cover Design
Stanley Crouch Liner Notes
Trudy Pitts Piano, Piano (Electric)
Vernon Martin Bass
Winston Collymore Strings
Whether or not the four individual albums packaged with in Aces Back to Back are among Rahsaan Roland Kirk's finest is of no consequence. The fact that they have been assembled in a package that offers the listener a sense of Kirk's development and continuity is the issue here. And in this way, Aces Back to Back is a supreme collection. The four albums included -- Left & Right, Rahsaan Rahsaan, Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle, and Other Folks Music -- date from 1969 to 1976 and chart dimensional growth of Kirk's completely original music. There's the outsider wizardry of Left & Right that melds the innovations of John Coltrane and Scott Joplin across an entire range of highly experimental yet wonderfully human music. Guests included Roy Haynes, Alice Coltrane, Julius Watkins, and many others in a band that ranged from a quartet to a full orchestra. Then there are the nine musicians who appear on Rahsaan Rahsaan, among them avant violinist Leroy Jenkins. Here, from the margins comes Kirk's preaching and poetry and also yielded the classics "The Seeker" and "Baby Let Me Shake Your Tree." The fact that they open and close the album, respectively, reveals not only Kirk's diversity, but also his commitment to a universal black music. Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle is Kirk's meditation on orchestral music juxtaposed against folk and r&b forms. Form the opening "Salvation and Reminiscing," where the string section carries a monadic theme into microtonal territory, Kirk uses the "ugliness" to achieve great beauty which is fully realized when he combines a revved-up version of "Balm in Gilead" with a section of Ralph Vaughn Williams' Pastoral Symphony on "Seasons." Finally, with the issue of Others Folks Music, Kirk contributes only one composition, a beautiful meditation entitled "Water for Robeson and Williams." The rest is made up of the music of Charlie Parker ("Donna Lee"), Kirk's then pianist Hilton Ruiz ("Arrival"), Frank Foster ("Simone"), and others. This is a loose, roughneck record where Kirk uses the harmonics of others to transform his own into something that would make the music itself larger than any of its individual parts. In all for the price tag, this is a solid buy, revealing the most misunderstood innovator in the history of jazz. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Active Decades: '50s, '60s and '70s
Born: Aug 07, 1936 in Columbus, OH
Died: Dec 05, 1977 in Bloomington, IN
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modern Creative, Soul-Jazz, Post-Bop, Mainstream Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
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, All Music Guide |
