Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Blues for Alice [Alternate Take]
2. Blues for Alice
3. My Delight
4. Haunted Melody
5. Sack Full of Soul
6. We Free Kings
7. Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year
8. Moon Song
9. Some Kind of Love
10. Three for the Festival
11. You Did It, You Did It

Disc 2:

1. Get Out of Town
2. Rolando
3. I Believe in You
4. Where Monk and Mingus Live/Let's Call This
5. Domino
6. E.D.
7. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
8. Someone to Watch over Me
9. Termini's Corner [#]
10. When the Sun Comes Out [#]
11. Ad Lib (Hip Chops) [#]
12. Stitt's Tune
13. I See With My Third "I"
14. Medley: If I Had You/Alone Together/For Heaven's Sake
15. Afternoon in Paris
16. Lady "E"

Disc 3:

1. Meeting on Termini's Corner
2. Domino
3. Time
4. 3-In-1 Without the Oil
5. Stritch in Time
6. Lament
7. Breath in the Wind
8. Land of Peace
9. Lonesome August Child
10. Limbo Boat
11. Hay Ro
12. Waltz of the Friends

Disc 4:

1. This Is Always
2. Reeds and Deeds
3. Song of the Countrymen
4. Ecclusiastics
5. By Myself
6. Roland Speaks
7. Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
8. Variations on a Theme of Hindemith
9. I've Got Your Number
10. Between the Fourth and the Fifth Step
11. April Morning
12. Get in the Basement
13. Abstract Improvisation

Disc 5:

1. Narrow Bolero [#]
2. Narrow Bolero
3. My Heart Stood Still [#]
4. No Title, No. 1
5. Mood Indigo [#]
6. Cabin in the Sky
7. On the Corner of King and Scott Streets

Disc 6:

1. Monkey Thing
2. Will You Still Be Mine? [#]
3. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) [#]
4. We'll Be Together Again [#]
5. Mingus-Griff Song
6. Mood Indigo
7. Medley: Rock-A-Bye Baby/Nearness of You/No Title No. 3 [#]
8. Half a Triple [#]

Disc 7:

1. Japan [#]
2. Japan [#]
3. Japan [#]
4. Berkshire Blues
5. Dirty Money Blues
6. Dirty Money Blues [#]
7. Ad Lib (Hip Chops) [#]
8. Things I Love
9. Petite Fleur
10. March on, Swan Lake
11. Tears Sent by You
12. My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice
13. Gifts and Messages
14. Hip Chops
15. Blues for C & T
16. Where Does the Blame Lie
17. Vertigo Ro
18. Jive Elephant [#]

Disc 8:

1. I Talk With the Spirits
2. Serenade to a Cuckoo
3. Medley: We'll Be Together Again/People from "Funny Girl"
4. Ruined Castles
5. Trees
6. Fugue'n and Alludin'
7. Django
8. My Ship
9. Quote from Clifford Brown
10. Business Ain't Nothin' But the Blues

Disc 9:

1. No Tonic Press
2. From Bechet, Byas and Fats
3. Slippery, Hippery, Flippery
4. Black Diamond
5. Rip, Rig and Panic
6. Once in a While
7. Mystical Dream
8. Walk on By
9. Juarez
10. Shaky Money
11. Ebrauqs
12. Raouf
13. Nothing But the Truth
14. Safari
15. It's All in the Game
16. And I Love Her

Disc 10:

1. Taste of Honey
2. Dyna-Soar [#]
3. Soul Bossa Nova
4. Comin' Home Baby
5. Days of Wine and Roses
6. Moon River
7. Dreamsville
8. (I Love You and) Don't You Forget It
9. Charade
10. Peter Gunn Theme
11. I Had a Ball
12. Addie's at It Again

Disc 11:

1. Stritch in Time [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256117 in Music
• Released on: 1991-07-01
• Number of discs: 10
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
It's hard to fathom today, but Roland Kirk was considered a gimmick for much of his early career. For sure, the man was a cagey character, which certainly didn't help his reputation. People were bemused by the way he played multiple horns simultaneously, including some horns that he invented himself. His style wasn't easy to pin down, either, so fluent was he in every jazz idiom. These factors help explain why folks were confused... but what exactly were they listening to? Even without his idiosyncrasies, Kirk would have been a memorable, innovative, inspiring tenor saxophonist, full of fire, tenderness, wit, and soul. And there was so much more: he remains one of the most compelling, hard-swinging, blues-drenched flute players in jazz history; his altolike stritch and his soprano-like manzello were capable of great beauty on his beloved ballads; his use of multiple horns included complex, luminous arrangements. In short, Kirk was master of all trades, and this 10-CD set captures him in a wide variety of settings recorded for Mercury from 1961 through 1965.

There are numerous quartet sessions with top-level pianists: Hank Jones, Richard Wyands, Wynton Kelly, Andrew Hill, Harold Mabern, and Jaki Byard, who, along with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Elvin Jones, helped craft Kirk's masterpiece, Rip Rig and Panic. There are two discs' worth of live material from a Copenhagen club date featuring Tete Montoliu and special guest Sonny Boy Williamson (!), plus a handful of oddities ranging from full orchestras to an obscure organ quartet to a tenor summit with Tubby Hayes and James Moody. With all of the oddities and obscurities here, not all of this box is up to snuff. But most of it is outstanding, filled with crafty improvisations, lasting original compositions, and the various eccentricities that made Rahsaan what he was. This set reminds us that, for all his creativity, all his knowledge, all his experimentation, all his passion, Roland Kirk had fun playing music. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

It's your Call...
The problem with these large, expensive box sets is that by the time you'd consider buying it, you're a big fan and have most of the contents, then it's a decision on whether to be an obsessive completist or not...This set contains amongst its 11 disks at least 3 super-great albums (We Free Kings, Domino and Reeds and Deeds) and two masterpieces (Rip, Rig and Panic and I Talk With Spirits). You could buy these separately as they are still in print. So what else do you get? Well, the Live in Copenhagen album which is out of print. This live recording swells to 2 cd's of great music in the box set, some of the best of which was never released. You get some very pleasing singles that never appeared on albums as well, not to mention the "bonus" disk of a good performance at the Newport Jazz festival. About the only downside is the last half of disc 9 which covers the Latin album that is out of print and probably should remain so; and disk 10 which is devoted to some dreadful Quincy Jones stuff that is hideously dated and only features Kirk as a sideman. Despite these two exceptions the set is a solid 5 stars, just too much awesome stuff here. Of course there are the obligatory alternate takes that are not a necessity. So, you can buy 5 individual albums and kick yourself for missing out on everything else once you're hooked, or you can buy the box...it's your call.

Classic Kirk, the underrated genuis
Roland Kirk could play several wind instruments at once and could be quite a showman. He was also highly eccentric. However, he was not a gimmick master, but an authentic jazz orginal (ask Charles Mingus), who was as deep into the music as one could get. Kirk was an inspired soloist on several instruments (one at a time or several together!), a master of circular breathing, and developed a style of playing flute in which he sings through the instrument. This was copied by many afterwards (remember Jethro Tull?), but Kirk pioneered it--and did it better than anyone else!

This set features much of his early work and is generally outstanding. The pieces where is he backed by Elvin Jones on drums are exceptional. Some of the Quincy Jones material (where he plays pop tunes) seem to put Kirk out of his element. The live recordings (about two CDs worth) have rather poor fidelity.

Today, August 7, is Kirk's birthday. He died in 1977, only in his early 40s. He may have been blind, but he shed much light in the world of music. No one has yet appeared to match his originality or creativity.

Douglas Groothuis

Just pay the man and you'll be happy.
I can't add too much to the grammaphone review except to say that I looked REAL HARD at this cd for over two years before I bought it and never felt like my life was complete without it. When I did finally buy one used I realized that I should have just bought it when I first saw it 'cause that was two more years I could have been enjoying this GREAT Collection. Just get it now and don't make the mistake of waiting. Then get as many others as you can on atlantic and other labels and don't stop. Rahsaan is like no other.