It does seem that Kirk’s records improve in chronological sequence, each latest recording being a bit better than the one which went before. Largely, this is no exception, but there are points here with this statement with which I would argue.
As usual, on the straightforward numbers, Kirk is vital, creative and of course singularly original. He is matched by Jaki Byard, a pianist of great versatility, who also manages to play some perfect stride piano, notably on Pres and Fats. Davis and Jones fit well into Kirk’s free and easy jam session style. Once In A While is a good example of Kirk’s mastery of the ballad idiom, and he uses a full tenor tone which is warm and hot.
My carping comes from the tracks Rip and Slippery, where tape-recorded sounds make up parts of the performance – to me a pointless gimmick which only spoils otherwise excellent music. And Kirk’s description of how he wrote Slippery is hardly convincing to the listener, except as an experiment: ‘The head is written off a computer. I used the cycle of notes from a computer I once heard to make the line.’
However, the rest of the LP is more than adequate compensation. All the Kirk battery is represented, with notable flute on Dream, and a good evocation of Lester Young, Bechet and Byas on the appropriate tracks. He doesn’t copy these men, using their work only as a point of departure for his own creations. As he once pointed out, copyists make no progress, and are stuck with someone else’s style until they can abandon it.
As if three horns at once wasn’t difficult enough, Kirk combines oboe with tenor and strich on Dream. If he can incorporate the oboe, with its fiendish and dissimilar embouchure, into his reed section, then I am convinced that he must be able to suck lemons, blow eggs, crack walnuts and chew gum simultaneously.
Discography
No Tonic Pres; Once In A While; From Bechet, Fats And Byas; Mystical Dream (18 min) – Rip, Rig And Panic; Black Diamond; Slippery, Hippery, Flippery (18 min)
Roland Kirk (ten / manzello / strich / siren / castanets / oboe); Jaki Byard (p); Richard Davis (bs); Elvin Jones (d). January 13, 1965.
(Limelight SLML 4015 32s.)
