Rahsaan Roland Kirk – I Talk With The Spirits
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – The Business Ain’t Nuthin’ But The Blues
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Ruined Castles
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Serenade To A Cuckoo
No matter how deep my depression may get or how it may be affecting me personally, there is one absolute truism in my life these days, and that is that I NEVER miss Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s birthday or posting up an album from his mighty discography on this hallowed day here on Melting Pot. This year’s selection is another one of those Limelight albums that is packaged in an exceptionally distinctive way. In contrast to all of the colors of Rip, Rig & Panic, the packaging for I Talk With The Spirits employs only Black & White. The starkness of the colors does nothing to dim the beauty of the record’s cover. When I thought about posting this record today, it had been a while since I’d looked at this record, and I thought that I just had a regular edition, without the special packaging emblematic of this series.
But then I noticed the almost imperceptible crease that ran across the picture of Rahsaan. Flip that over and the liner notes begin with an essay from Michael Zwerin that describes Rahsaan in the following ways, “…He is all music…there is music emanating from his every pore…the more one listens to Roland the more extraordinary he seems. There are always new experiences for the listener.”
Aside from the gorgeous packaging, what makes this record unique is that it was the first time that Rahsaan had solely played Flute on a recording. “Spirits” includes what might be Rahsaan’s most well-known track (at least to those who don’t consider themselves fans of his music already) “Serenade To A Cuckoo,” a track that was a major influence on Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and many others in the British scene. As famous and familiar as that song is, it’s not even remotely the best or most memorable track on the album, at least not to my ears. The title track, described as “elegiac” in the liner notes has an almost otherworldly quality to it. The same can be said of “Ruined Castles,” one of the shorter, but most affecting pieces on the album. It’s always fascinating to me hearing Rahsaan’s music and the many broad and diverse textures and tones that he brought out in his recordings. Listening to these selections I hear sounds I’d never heard before, even though I’ve had some version of this record for over 25 years now. As Zwerin mentioned, there is always some new experience to discover, and that is just part of the reason that he remains my favorite musician of all-time and the patron saint of Melting Pot…Bright Moments!