By Don Berryman

Two live albums by brilliant multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk containing never-before heard performances, one from the east coast and the other from the west: Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate and Seek and Listen: Live at the Penthouse, are each being released by Resonance Records as 2-LP sets exclusively for Record Store Day on Friday, November 28th, (CD and digital release will follow in December). Both albums were transferred from the original tapes and restored and mastered by Matthew Lutthans. They were produced by Zev Feldman and are being released in cooperation with Kirk’s widow, Dorthaan Kirk, of the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Estate.

Rahsaan’s circular breathing technique allows him to hold a note almost indefinitely and that, and his ability to play multiple instruments simultaneously, is showcased in both of these releases. Saxophonist James Carter’s essay in the notes says, “Rahsaan was unique, What he was able to do was unbelievable. He could not only play three horns at once and sound like a saxophone section, he could also alternate between two horns and sound like two different people trading phrases. He’d switch from manzello to tenor and back seamlessly. Or he would play the head of the tune on two horns and then switch roles and play an incredible solo on one horn.” John Kruth writes, “Roland Kirk was both a great and greatly misunderstood musician, a brilliant multi-instrumentalist who expressed himself through a homemade sonic tool kit that included tenor sax, the manzello, and the stritch (aka the stritchaphone), a straight Buescher Eb alto saxophone to which he added a French horn bell, creating a monstrous-looking horn that resembled a medieval vacuum cleaner. He also was a hell of a clarinet player, winning the DownBeat poll in that category year after year.”

Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate

The club

The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village, New York. Art D’Lugoff opened the club in 1958. A who’s who of jazz greats performed and recorded there including John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, and many more, In the 1960s, radio DJ and music advocate Symphony Sid hosted a regular Monday night concert at the Village Gate – “Monday Nights at the Gate”. The Vibrations in the Village gig came on a Tuesday just four days after the assasination of JFK, and perhaps sensing the country needed something uplifting, they booked a triple bill of the Rahsaan Roland Quartet with soul singer Gloria Lynne and comic Flip Wilson.

The recording

Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate is a recording of Rahsaan Roland Kirk on November 26, 1963, with pianists Horace Parlan, Mel Rhyne, and Jane Getz, along with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Sonny Brown. It was originally recorded by audio engineer Ivan Berger who was hired for a documentary film on Kirk that was being made. After the concert, the filmmaker passed away, and the tapes remained in storage until now.

The music and release

Having finished recording some dynamite sessions with the Roy Haynes quartet the year before (yielding the hard bop classic Out Of The Afternoon), Kirk was pushing forward performing and recording with his own group in 1963. Horace Parlan who sits in the piano chair for the Vibrations in the Village gig goes on to work with Kirk in 1964 recording together on Gifts And Messages  and I Talk With The Spirits. 

Vibrations in the Village starts at full throttle with  “Jump Up And Down – Fast”  then moves into Mingus’ mixed tempo “Ecclusiastics” which includes Rahsaan’s vocals on politically inspired lyrics. He solos brilliantly on “All The Things You Are” and moves to the flute on the ballad “Laura”. “Blues for Oboe” is another beautiful ballad followed by the upbeat “Minor Blues at the Gate”. “Falling In Love With Love” is another standout for Kirk and Jane Getz sitting in on piano delivers a great solo as well.

The limited-edition 180-gram 2-LP edition includes an extensive booklet with rare photographs from Jan Persson, Tom Copi, Raymond Ross and others, newly-commissioned liner notes by authors John Kruth and May Cobb, and interviews and testimonials from Jane Getz, saxophone icons James Carter and Chico Freeman, trombonist Steve Turre, Adam Dorn – son of long-time Kirk producer and champion Joel Dorn, and others.

Tracklist

SIDE A 

1. Jump Up And Down – Fast (15:34)
2. Ecclusiastics (5:52)

SIDE B

1. All the Things You Are (7:33)
2. We’ll Be Together Again (7:43)

SIDE C

1. My Delight (12:37)
2. Baritone Oboe Blues (10:20)

SIDE D

1. Termini’s Corner (6:28)
2. Falling In Love With Love (5:44)
3. Three For the Festival (6:09)

Seek and Listen: Live at the Penthouse

The club

In 1962 the Penthouse jazz club opened in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood by Charlie Puzzo with a phone dedicated line from the club to radio station KING-FM for a weekly live jazz radio show produced by Jim Wilke. Wilke later hosted Jazz After Hours on KPLU for over 30 years. The Penthouse closed down in 1968 but in that brief span it presented such artists as Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Anita O’Day, and John Coltrane.

For his weekly show, Jim Wilke set up a mixing board near the piano and four microphones on stage. In an NPR interview Wilke said of the recordings “… they were live broadcasts. And I had a studio recorder making a tape of the live broadcast […] the tapes were saved.”  

The music and release

For the 1967 Seek and Listen gig at the Penthouse, Kirk’s rhythm section included pianist and longtime accompanist Rahn Burton, bassist Steve Novosel, and drummer Jimmy Hopps. The same rhythm section would go on the record Roland Kirk – The Inflated Tear two months later for Atlantic. 

The move to Atlantic seemed to coincide with a willingness to embrace popular music, but on his own terms. A few years later he would record his astounding cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” for Blacknuss on Atlantic. The second track on Seek and Listen features a heartfelt tenor solo on Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie” and a funky take of Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe”. Both were popular songs from the top 40 charts. The Duke Ellington medley features Kirk playing three reeds at once sounding like a big band horn section on the “Satin Doll” portion. Next more multi-reed playing as you might expect on “Bagpipe Melody/Happy Days Are Here Again”. “Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith” is poignant and beautiful. It is followed by the bluesy “Making Love After Hours” with Kirk vocalizing through the flute then singing.

The limited-edition 180-gram 2-LP edition includes an extensive booklet with rare photographs from Jan Persson, Tom Copi, Raymond Ross and others, newly-commissioned liner notes by authors John Kruth and May Cobb, and interviews and testimonials from saxophone icons James Carter and Chico Freeman, trombonist Steve Turre, Dorthaan Kirk, and others.

Tracklist

SIDE A

1. The Jump Thing (1:18)
2. Alfie (5:22)
3. Mingus-Griff Song (12:12)

SIDE B

1. Duke Ellington Melody: Everytime We Say Goodbye, I’ve Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good), Sophisticated Lady, Satin Doll (14:31)
2. Bagpipe Melody/Happy Days Are Here Again (8:14)

SIDE C

1. Ode To Billie Joe (12:22)
2. Prelude To A Kiss (7:50)
3. Funk Underneath (4:59)

SIDE D

1. Lovellevelliloqui (7:12)
2. Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith (7:57)
3. Making Love After Hours (4:29)

In summary

These are both great albums – but if you only have a budget for one of the LPs, I’d recommend Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate. It captures a fantastic performance and listening to it almost transports you into that special time and space.

link to original jJazz Police article: https://jazzpolice.com/archives/19720