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RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK I have never liked the way that Rahsaan Roland Kirk is often treated as a novelty and circus act (as you can guess, neither did he) rather than the completely legitimate, incredibly talented, highly individual artist that he actually was. Dorn’s Kirk release, The Man Who Cried Fire sets the record straight, offering a view of Kirk as one of the most expansive musicians in the jazz canon, right up there with Ellington and Coltrane. Kirk’s music was the living embodiment of the history of jazz, from its pre-jazz heritage in New Orleans marching bands through the development of the blues and early jazz, right through bebop and the avant-garde and on into the soul and R&B work of some of Kirk’s contemporaries in the popular music industry. The opening track, “Slow Blues”, is nothing short of amazing and provides a rare opportunity to hear Kirk on clarinet. In fact, there is more clarinet work here than on any other Kirk recording, which is a blessing by any standard. Kirk also possessed a great sense of humor, as heard on his version of “Bye Bye Blackbird” on which he recounts a conversation with Miles Davis, imitating Davis’ trademark strained whisper of a voice, then proceeds to imitate him musically, playing trumpet with a sax mouthpiece in a dead-on impersonation of the famous muted Miles ballad style. “Multi-Horn Variations” is a prime example of Kirk the simultaneous multi-instrumentalist, and it demonstrates not only how musical he was while playing up to three horns at once, but how the audience responded to it as well. It’s followed by an all-too-brief “Unidentified Tenor Selection.” Kirk was a rousing and gifted tenor saxophonist, a fact he proved very ably on such early albums as Domino, We Free Kings, and The Inflated Tear. He was proud of his work on the instrument and felt that he never really got his due. Listening to this and the aforementioned albums should go a long way toward convincing anyone that Kirk was a world-class tenor man. There’s also a much more incendiary version of Kirk’s flute workout, “You Did It, You Did It” from We Free Kings that shows the passionate nature of his playing. Then there’s an incredible “New Olreans Fantasy” that merges a performance by Kirk with the Olympia Brass Band recorded at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which segues into a live performance of “The Black and Crazy Blues,” a New Orleans-style funeral march. In his introduction, Rahsaan mentions his desire to be cremated upon death, mixed into a bag of “hash and pot, and all his friends smoke it.” Again playing clarinet, Kirk evokes an entire New Orleans street marching band. The collection is rounded out with a honking R&B-style “Night Train, “ a lively performance of “Mr. P.C.” with vocalist Jon Hendricks (listen as Kirk, playing flute, throws in a quote from “Shadrack”), and “A Visit from the Blues”, a performance recorded in Paris two months before Kirk’s death. The Man Who Cried Fire is a fantastic sound documentary on one of jazz music’s most intrepid individualists. Whether you are familiar with the work of Rahsaan Roland Kirk or not, this CD is essential to your collection and will give you much pleasure on repeated listening.
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