Roland Kirk

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, I remember seeing posters for the Cream and Santana bills and doing double-takes.

Zoinks!

[jazzbo]

The man was a unique force. I mean he could play two different melodies simultaneously on two different instruments. Once you get past the weird sound of those multiple instruments and listen into what he's playing (and how he's playing it, which includes circular breathing and long long long phrases!) it just gives you a feeling that no other horn playing really can.

I won't even begin to fathom how he could do that and MORE (such as also playing percussion!). To me he's like a higher life form.

[Hot Ptah]

Original Love, Staple Singers, and Roland Kirk Tour Poster from their April 18, 1968 concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco and April 19 and 20 at the Winterland.

ebay]

does anybody have any information about this concert?

I don't know, but that is one hell of an odd lineup.

I remember thumbing through a Fillmore book and a number of similarly odd gigs seemed to be programmed there. Apparently they liked to mix-and-match genres in their billing.

I wasn't there by any means, but I have read more than once that Bill Graham liked to include older bluesmen and jazz artists on his bills at the Fillmore. Miles Davis played on a bill at the Fillmore with Crosby Stills Nash and Young, I recall.

[BFrank]

The man was a unique force. I mean he could play two different melodies simultaneously on two different instruments. Once you get past the weird sound of those multiple instruments and listen into what he's playing (and how he's playing it, which includes circular breathing and long long long phrases!) it just gives you a feeling that no other horn playing really can.

I won't even begin to fathom how he could do that and MORE (such as also playing percussion!). To me he's like a higher life form.

PLUS.....he was blind.

And he managed to keep playing at a relatively high level after suffering a debilitating stroke in his later years.

Amazing.

[Jim Alfredson]

If you don't get Rashaan, then you don't get raw, unfettered expression in it's most pure form.

[king ubu]

What a sorry assed thread... sorry to derail it even further, BM - I have no clue who these other acts are (ok, ok, I've certainly heard the Staple Singers here and there) and even less of an idea how you could locate any tapes. I share your love for Rahsaan, though, that's for sure! And I have to look up that Wolfgang's Vault thread now, I'm clueless what that is...

[AllenLowe]

well, Kirk was no Wynton Marsalis -

[king ubu]

no definitely not - he couldn't play like Satchmo, like Little Jazz, like Diz, Fats, Brownie, Miles, Hubbard, Woody...

but hell, there's one reason he couldn't: he played just like Kirk, and that's good enough for me!

[Hot Ptah]

Not to derail this thread further, BUT....

Rahsaan Roland Kirk could also play in traditional and avant garde jazz styles quite convincingly when he was playing just one horn and playing the song "straight". He was a very substantial musician. His multiple horns, nose flute playing and other exotic aspects to his art were added to a solid musical foundation.

For a beginner I might suggest Charles Mingus' "Oh Yeah" and Jaki Byard's "The Jaki Byard Experience."

I wonder if there is a bit of a generation gap here. For listeners who were following music when Kirk was still alive, an idea like playing more than one horn at once fit in well with the creative spirit of the times, when musicians were trying out all sorts of new things. Kirk's multi-horn playing was notable, but not the most unusual thing around at the time, by a long shot.

Since the mid-1980s or so, jazz has become much more buttoned down, so that someone trying out something wild and different is pooh-poohed in judgmental, hushed tones by a certain segment of the jazz audience.

[BeBop]

I only met the man twice, and only briefly at that. My opinion here:

Everything/most of what he did was to fulfill his creative vision. Sometimes that vision required two saxophones. Or a nose flute. Or a siren. Or humming into his flute.

Whatever it takes, I grant the man the right to explore his vision. He was an artist, not (necessarily/primarily) a technician.