Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Aces Back To Back '1998

Tracks list

Whether or not the four individual albums packaged with in Aces Back to Back are
among Rahsaan Roland Kirks finest is of no consequence. The fact that they have
been assembled in a package that offers the listener a sense of Kirks
development and continuity is the issue here. And in this way, Aces Back to Back
is a supreme collection. The four albums included - Left & Right, Rahsaan
Rahsaan, Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle, and Other Folks Music - date
from 1968 to 1976 and chart dimensional growth of Kirks completely original
music. Theres the outsider wizardry of Left & Right that melds the innovations
of John Coltrane and Scott Joplin across an entire range of highly experimental
yet wonderfully human music. Guests included Roy Haynes, Alice Coltrane, Julius
Watkins, and many others in a band that ranged from a quartet to a full
orchestra. Then there are the nine musicians who appear on Rahsaan Rahsaan,
among them avant violinist Leroy Jenkins. Here, from the margins comes Kirks
preaching and poetry and also yielded the classics The Seeker and Baby Let Me
Shake Your Tree. The fact that they open and close the album, respectively,
reveals not only Kirks diversity, but also his commitment to a universal black
music. Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle is Kirks meditation on orchestral
music juxtaposed against folk and R&B forms. Form the opening Salvation and
Reminiscing, where the string section carries a monadic theme into microtonal
territory, Kirk uses the ugliness to achieve great beauty which is fully
realized when he combines a revved-up version of Balm in Gilead with a section
of Ralph Vaughn Williams Pastoral Symphony on Seasons. Finally, with the issue
of Others Folks Music, Kirk contributes only one composition, a beautiful
meditation entitled Water for Robeson and Williams. The rest is made up of the
music of Charlie Parker (Donna Lee), Kirks then pianist Hilton Ruiz (Arrival),
Frank Foster (Simone), and others. This is a loose, roughneck record where Kirk
uses the harmonics of others to transform his own into something that would make
the music itself larger than any of its individual parts. In all for the price
tag, this is a solid buy, revealing the most misunderstood innovator in the
history of jazz.


Tracks:

CD 1: Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Left & Right (1968):
01. Black Mystery Has Been Revealed
02. Expansions
03. Ladys Blues
04. IX Love
05. Hot Cha
06. Quintessence
07. I Waited for You
08. A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing


CD 2: Rahsaan Roland Kirk & The Vibration Society - Rahsaan Rahsaan (1970):
01. The Seeker
02. Satin Doll
03. Introduction
04. Medley
05. Sweet Fire
06. Introduction
07. Baby Let Me Shake Your Tree


CD 3: Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle (1973):
01. Salvation and Reminiscing
02. Seasons
03. Celestial Bliss
04. Saxophone Concerto


CD 4: Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Other Folks Music (1976):
01. Water for Robeson and Williams
02. Thats All
03. Donna Lee
04. Simone
05. Anysha
06. Samba Kwa Mwanamke Mweusi
07. Arrival

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