It's time for a midweek anniversary post about one of my favorites.
He was never satisfied with just one wind or reed instrument in his mouth.
He preferred two or three. Or four.
When he suffered a debilitating stroke in the mid 1970s, he proceeded to modify his arsenal so he could still do it all. With one hand.
He was fascinated with the idea that all the poets and artists and musicians were really benevolent aliens called Eulipions.
One of the more memorable music characters of our lifetimes, he called his diet "porkitarianism".
How someone completely blind like he was could maneuver around a stage and command all those instruments at once is surely a riddle for the scholars of the ages.
When a late 1960s dream he had featured a presence instructing him to change his name, he did so immediately.
He didn't live a very long life, but in terms of impact he definitely made the most of what he got.
Anytime you see a horn person place more than one axe into his mouth at a time, or you become aware of a fleeting sense of happiness as a Bright Moment, it means that Rahsaan Roland Kirk is in some way still here.
He was definitely there 42 years ago today in Paris, when this mindmelting and divinely representative hour-and-three-quarters of primeness was taped for French radio.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk Sextet
Studio 104
Maison de la Radio
Paris, France
11.14.1976
01 The Left Side of Your Mind
02 A Visit from the Blues
03 Steppin’ Into Beauty
04 Sugar
05 Theme for the Eulipions
06 The Man Who Cried Fire
07 Make Me A Pallet On the Floor
08 Creole Love Call
09 This Masquerade
10 There Will Never Be Another You
11 Moody’s Mood for Love
12 Volunteered Slavery
13 Hey Jude
14 Down By the Riverside
15 My Cherie Amour
16 Serenade to a Cuckoo
17 Bright Moments
Total time: 1:46:03
disc break goes after Track 06
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch, clarinet, flute, kazoo, harmonica, vocals, tapes, percussion
Steve Turre - trombone, vocals, percussion
Hilton Ruiz - piano, percussion
Phil Bowler - bass, vocals
John Goldsmith - drums, percussion, vocals
Michael Hill - vocals, percussion
digital capture from two consecutive April 2018 France Musique rebroadcasts
497 MB FLAC/November 2018 archive link
This incredible document was captured from two consecutive nights of rebroadcast over France Musique, which abbreviates very appropriately to FM.
You'll hear something like this rebroadcast on the radio in the country of its origin at roughly the same time the current occupant of the White House comes out as a transman.
Anyway I shall be back here on Saturday with yet another milestone birthday post... if you could read my mind, you'd know who it's gonna be about.
For now, Rahsaan is calling you to the bright moments chronicled in this tremendous concert, recorded on this day in 1976 and still blowing gold.--J.
8.7.1935 - 12.5.1977