In the Dark

The term “musical genius” is over-used to the point of absurdity these days, but if it ever applied to anyone at all then that man was Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I saw a version of his Serenade to a Cuckoo on TV last night and it made me realize I haven’t posted nearly enough of Kirk’s music on this blog, so here’s a different version; only a part of the one I saw last night is available on Youtube. This version, followed on this clip by an abrupt edit into another number, was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972.

Kirk was one of the few jazz musicians of the “modern” era to win wide acclaim outside his own genre: Jimi Hendrix idolized him, for example. And who wouldn’t? He could play umpteen instruments, often several of them at the same time, with a joyous creative energy that would have been wonderful to experience in a live performance. As well as playing just about every wind instrument under the Sun, he was also adept at the difficult art of circular breathing, i.e. in through the nose and out through the mouth in such a way that air is kept moving through the instrument continuously. Kirk could play for as long as 20 minutes without apparently pausing for breath. His extraordinary technique is almost enough to make any aspiring saxophonist give up altogether. But Kirk was never just a technician – he had a wonderful musical imaginative, peppered with originality and wit. And for those people who think modern jazz takes itself far too seriously, this is so obviously full of fun I hope you change your mind. Above all, just bask in the wonder that was Roland Kirk.

This entry was posted on May 12, 2013 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Jazz with tags Jazz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.