Rahsaan Roland Kirk (August 7, 1935 - December 5, 1977) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality, during which virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously.

Life

Kirk was born Ronald Theodore Kirk in Columbus, Ohio, where he lived in a neighborhood known as Flytown. He felt compelled by a dream to transpose two letters in his first name to make Roland. He became blind at an early age as a result of poor medical treatment. In 1970, Kirk added "Rahsaan" to his name after hearing it in a dream.

Kirk's musical career spans from 1955 until his death in 1977. He preferred to lead his own bands, Kirk rarely performed as a sideman, although he did record with arranger Quincy Jones and drummer Roy Haynes and had notable stints with bassist Charles Mingus. One of his best-known recorded performances is the lead flute and solo on Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova", a 1964 hit song repopularized in the Austin Powers films (Jones 1964; McLeod et al. 1997).

Kirk was politically outspoken. During his concerts, between songs he often talked about topical issues, including black history and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. His monologues were often laced with satire and absurdist humor. According to comedian Jay Leno, when Leno toured with Kirk as Kirk's opening act, Kirk would introduce him by saying, "I want to introduce a young brother who knows the black experience and knows all about the white devils .... Please welcome Jay Leno!"

In 1975, Kirk suffered a major stroke which led to partial paralysis of one side of his body. He continued to perform and record, modifying his instruments to enable him to play with one arm. At a live performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London he even managed to play two instruments, and carried on to tour internationally and to appear on television.

He died from a second stroke in 1977 after performing in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana University Student Union in Bloomington, Indiana.

Instruments and techniques

His playing was generally rooted in soul jazz or hard bop, but Kirk's knowledge of jazz history allowed him to draw from many elements of the music's past, from ragtime to swing and free jazz. Kirk also absorbed classical influences, and his artistry reflected elements of pop music by composers such as Smokey Robinson and Burt Bacharach, as well as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and other jazz musicians. The live album Bright Moments (1973) is an example of one of his shows.

Kirk played and collected a number of musical instruments, mainly various saxophones, clarinets and flutes. His main instruments were tenor saxophone supplemented by other saxes, like two obscure saxophones: the stritch (a straight alto sax lacking the instrument's characteristic upturned bell) and a manzello (a modified saxello soprano sax, with a larger, upturned bell). A number of his instruments were exotic or homemade. Kirk modified instruments himself to accommodate his simultaneous playing technique.

He typically appeared on stage with all three horns hanging around his neck, and at times he would play a number of these horns at once, harmonizing with himself, or sustain a note for lengthy durations by using circular breathing. He used the multiple horns to play true chords, essentially functioning as a one-man saxophone section. Kirk insisted that he was only trying to emulate the sounds he heard in his head. Even while playing two or three saxophones at once, the music was intricate, powerful jazz with a strong feel for the blues.

Kirk was also an influential flautist, including recorders. He employed several techniques that he developed himself. One technique was to sing or hum into the flute at the same time as playing. Another was to play the standard transverse flute at the same time as a nose flute.

He played a variety of other instruments, like whistles, often kept a gong within reach, the clarinet, harmonica, English horn, and was a competent trumpeter. He had unique approaches, using a saxophone mouthpiece on a trumpet. He also used many non-musical devices, such as alarm clocks, sirens, or a section of common garden hose (dubbed "the black mystery pipes"). His studio recordings used tape-manipulated musique concrète and primitive electronic sounds before such things became commonplace.

Kirk was a major exponent of circular breathing. Using this technique, he was not only able to sustain a single note for an extended period; he could also play sixteenth-note runs of almost unlimited length, and at high speeds. His circular breathing ability enabled him to record "Concerto For Saxophone" on the Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle LP in one continuous take of about 20 minutes' playing with no discernible "break" for inhaling. His long-time producer at Atlantic Jazz, Joel Dorn, believed he should have received credit in The Guinness Book of World Records for such feats (he was capable of playing continuously "without taking a breath" for far longer than exhibited on that LP), but this never happened.

The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color was a unique album in jazz and popular music recorded annals. It was a two-LP set, with Side 4 apparently "blank", the label not indicating any content. However, once word of "the secret message" got around among Rahsaan's fans, one would find that about 12 minutes into Side 4 appeared the first of two telephone answering machine messages recorded by Kirk, the second following soon thereafter (but separated by more blank grooves). The surprise impact of these segments appearing on "blank" Side 4 was lost on the CD reissue of this album.

He gleaned information on what was happening in the world via audio media like radio and the sounds coming from TV sets. His later recordings often incorporated his spoken commentaries on current events, including Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal. The 3-Sided Dream album was a "concept album" which incorporated of "found" or environmental sounds and tape loops, tapes being played backwards, etc. Snippets of Billie Holiday singing are also heard briefly. The album even confronts the rise of influence of computers in society, as Rahsaan threatens to pull the plug on the machine trying to tell him what to do.

In the album Other Folks' Music the spoken words of Paul Robeson, another outspoken black artist, can be briefly heard.

Legacy and influence

• Virtuoso guitarist Jimi Hendrix "idolized" Kirk, and even hoped to collaborate with him one day. Hendrix performed with Kirk at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London 1967? Hendrix reported in an interview (?reprinted in Guitar Player Magazine?): "I was so scared...I mean, Roland...He told me I should have turned it up..."; also listed by Hendrix as influence in printed music to "Are You Experienced" songbook
• Frank Zappa had been influenced by Kirk's music to a considerable extent early in his career. In the liner notes to his 1966 debut album with The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, Zappa cites Kirk as one of many in a lengthy list of personal musical influences. (Coincidentally, Zappa also cited avant-garde composer Edgard Varese as a musical influence in the album's liner notes, whom Kirk also cited as an influence in the liner notes to his 1965 album, Rip Rig and Panic.) Kirk and Zappa performed live together at least once, at the 1969 Boston Globe Jazz Festival.
• Trombonist Steve Turre was strongly influenced by Kirk's music (and by his use of a conch shell as a second instrument).
• Kirk's technique of humming while playing the flute was adopted later by many other players, including Dave Valentín, Jeremy Steig, Thijs van Leer. Teddy Osei, and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (who covered the Kirk tune "Serenade to a Cuckoo" on Jethro Tull's first album This Was in 1968).
• David Jackson, of Van der Graaf Generator, was also highly influenced by the style and technique of Kirk, and he plays multiple saxophones simultaneously since at least 1969.
• George Braith inherited Kirk's technique of playing multiple saxophones.
• Eric Burdon and War's debut 1970 release Eric Burdon Declares War has a track on it entitled "Roll On Kirk", which is a tribute to Kirk.
• British reed player Dick Heckstall-Smith also emulated Kirk in playing multiple saxophones simultaneously.
• Courtney Pine, a saxophonist from the UK, also uses circular breathing and plays two saxophones at once in live performance.
• Jeff Coffin, solo artist and member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (from 1998 on), plays multiple saxophones simultaneously.
• Thurston Moore wore a Rahsaan Roland Kirk T-shirt for a promo shoot for Sonic Youth's album Goo (1990).
• Hope Clayburn, one-time lead singer and multi-instrumentalist for funky band Deep Banana Blackout, was frequently known to hum and play flute and to sing while playing multiple saxophones at the same time, teasing common themes and soul standards.
• Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist and multi-instrumentalist of Radiohead, acknowledged his respect and love for Kirk's music on the band's blog.
• Drummer Ramon Lopez paid tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk in his 2002 album Duets 2 Rahsaan Roland Kirk, inviting nine different artists (Joëlle Léandre, Thierry Madiot, Harry Beckett, Majid Bekkas, Beñat Achiary...) for nine duets on nine compositions of Kirk's.
• Guitarist Michael Angelo Batio mentioned in an interview with Ultimate Guitar Archive that Kirk's playing of two saxophones at once inspired him to create his "double guitar".
• T.J. Kirk was a San Francisco-based band named after the three artists it tributed: Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Formed by eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter as a side group to his own self-titled and San Francisco-based band, the band's other members include Scott Amendola, Will Bernard, and John Schott.
• Paul Weller cited the Kirk album I Talk with the Spirits (1964) as one of his 'Most Influential Albums' in an interview with The Times.
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk is the namesake of jazz artists Roland and Rahsaan Barber, brothers who play trombone and saxophone respectively.

Discography

As leader

King Records

• 1956: Triple Threat

Argo/Cadet/Chess Records

• 1960: Introducing Roland Kirk

Prestige Records

• 1961: Kirk's Work

Mercury Records

• 1961: We Free Kings
• 1962: Domino
• 1963: Reeds & Deeds
• 1964: The Roland Kirk Quartet Meets the Benny Golson Orchestra
• 1964: Kirk in Copenhagen
• 1964: Gifts & Messages

Limelight Records

• 1964: I Talk with the Spirits
• 1965: Slightly Latin
• 1965: Rip, Rig and Panic

Verve Records

• 1967: Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith

Atlantic Records

• 1965: Here Comes the Whistleman
• 1967: The Inflated Tear
• 1968: Left & Right
• 1969: Volunteered Slavery
• 1970: Rahsaan Rahsaan
• 1971: Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata
• 1972: Blacknuss
• 1972: A Meeting of the Times
• 1973: Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle
• 1973: Bright Moments
• 1975: The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color
• 1976: Other Folks' Music

Warner Bros. Records

• 1976: The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man
• 1977: Kirkatron
• 1977: Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real

Posthumous releases of new material

• I, Eye, Aye: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1972 (Rhino)
• The Man Who Cried Fire (Night)
• Dog Years in the Fourth Ring (32 Jazz)
• Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom (Hyena)
• Brotherman in the Fatherland: Recorded "Live" in Germany 1972 (Hyena)

Compilations

• Hip: Roland Kirk Various Mercury Recordings(Fontana U.K. FJL 114)
• Rahsaan: The Complete Mercury Recordings Of Roland Kirk
• Does Your House Have Lions: The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology
• Simmer, Reduce, Garnish & Serve: compilation from his last three albums
• Talkin' Verve: Roots of Acid Jazz
• The Art of Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• Third Dimension and Beyond combines Triple Threat and Introducing Roland Kirk
• Left Hook, Right Cross combines Volunteered Slavery and Blacknuss
• Aces Back to Back combines Left & Right, Rahsaan Rahsaan, Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle, and Other Folks' Music
• A Standing Eight combines The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man, Kirkatron and Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real
• Only The Best Of Rahsaan Roland Kirk Volume 1 combines Blacknuss, The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color, The Inflated Tear/Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata, Kirkatron, Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real, and Other Folks' Music (7CD)

As sideman

With Jaki Byard

• The Jaki Byard Experience (Prestige, 1968)

With Tubby Hayes

• Tubby's Back in Town (Smash, 1962)

With Roy Haynes

• Out of the Afternoon (Impulse!, 1962)

With Quincy Jones

• Big Band Bossa Nova (Mercury, 1962)
• Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini (Mercury, 1964)
• Walking in Space (CTI, 1969)

With Les McCann

• Live at Montreux (Atlantic, 1972)

With Charles Mingus

• Tonight at Noon (Atlantic, 1961 )
• Oh Yeah (Atlantic, 1962)
• Mingus at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1974)

With Tommy Peltier

• The Jazz Corps Under the Direction of Tommy Peltier (Pacific Jazz, 1967)

Bibliography

• Jones, Quincy (Composer). (1964). Big Band Bossa Nova . Mercury. (Reissued on compact disc by Verve in 1998, 2005)
• Kruth, John: Bright Moments. The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Welcome Rain Publishers, New York 2000 ISBN 1-56649-105-3
• McLeod, Eric (Producer), & Roach, Jay (Director). (1997). Austin Powers: International man of mystery . New Line Home Video
• Kahan, Adam (Filmmaker). (2014). Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Case of the Three Sided Dream . Documentary

[ Source: Wikipedia ]