{"title":"Rahsaan Roland Kirk","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRoland Kirk discovered the manzello and stritch in a pawnshop as a teenager, two obscure saxophones that nobody in jazz was playing, and figured out how to reshape all three of his horns so he could finger them simultaneously while sustaining a drone on a third. The simultaneous multi-horn technique is what most people know about Kirk, and it is genuinely remarkable, but it can obscure the more important point: he was one of the most historically literate musicians in jazz, a man who kept Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington in regular rotation alongside Coltrane and the contemporary avant-garde, and believed all of it belonged to a single tradition he called \"Black Classical Music.\" Born Ronald Theodore Kirk in Columbus, Ohio in 1935 and blind from the age of two, he was playing R\u0026amp;B on weekends with the Boyd Moore band at 15 before moving to Chicago and recording his debut under his own name in 1960. He added \"Rahsaan\" to his name in 1970 after hearing it in a dream, as he had previously rearranged the letters of his first name from \"Ronald\" to \"Roland\" after another. His Mercury years from 1961 to 1965, particularly \"We Free Kings\" (1961) and \"Rip, Rig and Panic\" (1965) with Jaki Byard, Richard Davis and Elvin Jones, represent some of the finest and most underrated jazz recorded in that period. His Atlantic catalogue, from \"The Inflated Tear\" (1967) through \"Volunteered Slavery\" (1969) and \"Blacknuss\" (1972), pushed further into soul, gospel and political terrain without losing any of the technical ambition. In November 1975 he suffered a massive stroke that paralysed his right side. He modified his instruments to play one-handed and kept performing until a second stroke killed him in Bloomington, Indiana, on December 5, 1977, aged 42.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rahsaan-roland-kirk-the-return-of-the-5000-lb-man-1976-japanese-warner-bros-vinyl-lp","title":"Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Return Of The 5000 Lb. Man (1976 Japanese Warner Bros. Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"1061\" data-end=\"1214\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: EX\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSleeve\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: VG+\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObi:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur grading system explained \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRahsaan Roland Kirk - \u003cem\u003eThe Return Of The 5000 Lb. Man\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1976 Japanese Warner Bros. (P-10230W, Warner-Pioneer Corporation)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKirk played tenor saxophone, flute, harmonica, stritch and vocals across these seven tracks, and the material he chose to cover says as much about him as his own writing. \"Loving You\" is Minnie Riperton's pop hit, taken on flute with Arthur Jenkins on keyboards and Billy Butler on guitar in a reading that strips Riperton's original to its melodic core. \"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,\" Mingus's tribute to Lester Young, gets Kirk's own lyrics sung over Fred Moore's washboard, Hank Jones on piano and Milt Hinton (the most recorded bassist in jazz history) walking alongside. \"Giant Steps\" closes the album with Frank Foster's arrangement of Coltrane's most technically demanding composition, Betty Neals adding lyrics to a melody most musicians struggle to play as an instrumental, Kirk tearing through the changes on tenor while the vocal ensemble sings behind him. \"Sweet Georgia Brown\" is a duo between Kirk's unaccompanied tenor and an audience that was apparently in the studio. \"I'll Be Seeing You\" features Trudy Pitts on organ with Kirk in a quieter, more reflective mood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Theme for the Eulipions\" opens the album and is Kirk at his most expansive. Nine minutes, with Maeretha Stewart delivering Neals's spoken text, Kirk's harmonica sitting alongside Hilton Ruiz's piano, Howard Johnson's tuba, Romeo Penque's oboe and baritone, and Charlie Persip's drums, the whole thing building through sections that shift between soul, free jazz and something closer to theatrical performance. \"Eulipion\" was Kirk's term for people whose consciousness had expanded beyond ordinary limitations. Joel Dorn co-produced with Kirk. Bob Liftin recorded and mixed at Regent Sound Studios. Kirk arranged five of the seven tracks himself; Frank Foster arranged the two bookends (\"Theme for the Eulipions\" and \"Giant Steps\"). In November 1975, shortly after these sessions, Kirk suffered a massive stroke that paralysed his right side. He modified his instruments to play with one hand and continued performing until a second stroke killed him in December 1977. This is the 1976 Japanese pressing on Warner Bros. P-10230W, made by Warner-Pioneer Corporation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Warner Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43740318564411,"sku":null,"price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_7578.jpg?v=1783060105"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/rahsaan-roland-kirk.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}