Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear (1971 Japanese Atlantic Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: VG+
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: None

Our grading system explained here.
Photo is of the actual item.

Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear | Vinyl LP - 1971 Japanese Atlantic Reissue (P-6045A, Warner Bros.-Pioneer Corporation)

The title refers to Kirk's blindness. As an infant, a nurse gave him an injection that caused his eyes to swell, and he lost his sight. He was two years old. By 1967, when these sessions were recorded, he had been playing professionally for over 15 years and had developed an approach to music that no other musician could replicate. The instrument list on the credits tells part of the story: tenor saxophone, manzello (a modified soprano), stritch (a modified straight alto), clarinet, flute, English horn, whistle, and flexatone. On several tracks he plays two or three instruments simultaneously, breathing circular patterns that let him sustain sound across multiple horns at once. On the flute pieces ("A Laugh for Rory," "Fingers in the Wind") he hums into the instrument while playing it, his voice merging with the notes until the two sounds become inseparable. "The Black and Crazy Blues" opens with a slow, New Orleans-flavoured march that quotes funeral music and early jazz, Kirk playing it with a mixture of solemnity and dark humour. "Many Blessings" runs nearly five minutes of uninterrupted invention. "The Inflated Tear" itself is a concentrated ballad, Burton's piano providing spare, Monk-influenced chords underneath Kirk's tenor. "The Creole Love Call," the one Ellington piece, reaches back to 1927 and Kirk treats it with reverence.

Side B closes with "Fly By Night" (the one track featuring Dick Griffin's trombone alongside Kirk) and "Lovellevelliloqui," a word Kirk invented that sounds like what it describes. Multiple critics have described this record as the most underrated jazz album ever made, which is probably overstating the case but reflects how strongly the album affects the people who find it. Kirk went by "Roland Kirk" at the time of this recording. He added "Rahsaan" after a dream around 1970.

This is the December 1971 Japanese reissue on Atlantic P-6045A, from the Jazz Age series, made by Warner Bros.-Pioneer Corporation.