Mosaic's Miraculous Roland Kirk Box Set

In a truly just world every Jethro Tull fan would know and appreciate Rahsaan Roland Kirk but as with Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones, these things take time. If you don't know Kirk's music and you're a Tull fan you surely know his "Serenade To A Cuckoo" covered by Ian Anderson on his debut Tull album This Was.

Anderson's "serenade" was a devilish, almost manic cover. Kirk's original is more whimsical and sly—almost "Pink Panther" Mancini-ish. That's not surprising since Kirk's work is humor-filled. He injects comic musical and vocal asides throughout these albums but especially on the first of the four, I Talk With the Spirits a happy confection of an album on which the multi-instrumentalist plays only flute. First issued on Limelight label in 1964, it's a breezy, fun-filled musical romp—so much so that by this point in Kirk's career, what with his playing three instruments simultaneously, many wrote him off as a novelty act. Wrong!

Kirk's breathy technique and his vocalizing while playing were wholly appropriated by Anderson who of course took the train to a very different station.

On this record made at the famous Nola's Penthouse studio Kirk plays three flutes (not simultaneously), backed by pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Michael Fleming and drummer Walter Perkins, with additional support from vibraphonist Bob Moses and vocalist C.J. Albert on a set of mostly originals. A standout is a cover of John Lewis's stately "Django" but honestly there's nothing that's less than a standout on this dreamy record that in some ways sounds like what The Incredible String Band might produce were it a jazz duo. Listen to the 1:17 second "Ruined Castles".

The sound of the original Limelight (a division of Mercury Records) was at best "okay". It sounded like a great recording locked in a sonic cage. Trust me when I tell you that Ryan K. Smith's remaster from the original tape opens the door and throws away the key! It's nothing short of miraculous, particularly the sound of the somewhat distance cymbals. Holy crap!

Kirk's second album Rip, Rig and Panic takes things in an altogether different direction as you might imagine, with backing by Jaki Byard on piano, Richard Davis on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. This one, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs, NJ studio January 13th, 1965 features Kirk on tenor sax, manzello (a Spanish soprano sax variant with a bent, flared bell), stretch (a straight alto sax with a large bell), castanets and a siren.

This album was my Kirk introduction thanks to a review in, I think, Stereo Review way back when, and it was a shocker. With Jones propulsion at work the set is off to a raucous start with "No Tonic Pres", a Lester Young tribute that has a line with no key resolution (thus the "no tonic" in the title). Rudy's piano sound is better than on the early Blue Notes but still not his strong suit with over modulation throughout. Byard breaks into some old fashioned stride-like key pounding, Kirk hits the castanets and the siren and you have both light-hearted fun and a pure strip-tease of an ending.

This album is a swinging, hard-boppish romp throughout with Kirk showing his"novelty detractors" that he was a serious player. He proves to be a superb balladeer on a cover of "Once in a While" and his multiple instrument playing on the bridge demonstrates that it's not a gimmick.

Another tribute tune "From Bechet, Byas and Fats" has Kirk at his serpentine sax best and by this point Rudy has Byard's pounding down in terms of where to set the levels but the piano sound remains the sonic weak point in an otherwise well-recorded set. If you have an original you'll hear the same tape dropout here near the conclusion of "Mystical Dream". Whatever caused it was there from the start and there was no going back into the studio for a fix.

Side two begins with the title tune on a moody, atmospheric experimental roll until the ensemble cuts in where it becomes somewhat more conventional in both mood and construction but it's still "way out" there in the best sense of the phrase. Rudy gets a "Blue Note" drum sound from Elvin, pushing the reverb across the room. The song ends with what sounds like a musical fist fight and a swirl of unidentified sounds.

"Black Diamond" is a lilting waltz number with Kirk on his manzello and Byard hitting block chords producing the effect of maybe Brubeck quartet on acid?

On "Slippery, Hippery, Flippery" Kirk employs pre-recorded, manipulated electronic sounds to add to his studio adventurousness: Spike Jones, meets Frank Zappa meets Roland Kirk (and with "Wild Goose" thrown in I will add Mickey Katz!). The tune concludes one of Kirk's recorded high points.

Again Smith's remastering works sonic miracles compared to the original Limelight. Yes, the overmodulated piano now is in all too clear relief but its worth it to get such great tonality and spaciousness from everything else.

The final two albums are not up to the high bar set by the first two and delve into more commercial realms but they are still worthwhile. Slightly Latin recorded at Capitol Studios, NY and issued on Limelight sounds at times something like Roland Kirk Meets Esquivel. Kirk's cover of "Walk On By" is a winner and his take on "And I Love Her" is equally effective.

Now Please Don't You Cry Edith another Van Gelder recording, this time for Verve and produced by Creed Taylor is also in a more commercial vein but Kirk's take on "What's It All About Alfie"? alone is worth the price of admission. Different than Sonny's but equally mesmerizing.

Four LPs superbly mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling from the original analog tapes and pressed by QRP in Salina, Kansas will set you back $99 complete with excellent booklet in a box. This one, limited to 3500 copies is sure to eventually join the Mosaics going for big bucks online and in used record stores.

Highly recommended!

Music Direct Buy It Now

COMMENTS
PeterPani's picture

I bought Ella & Duke at the Cote D'Azur (3 LPs) several months ago. Having some of the material on original records I quickly gave up listening to the Mosaic set. It was bright, loss of all the magic in Ellas voice. It left me with the impression that a lot of digital cleaning must have been done to the original tapes (on their homepage Mosaic did not claim that all the processes from tape to record cutter are processed analog only...). So, good news, that the Kirk box sounds fine! Never-the-less I may stay cautious regarding Mosaic.

Michael Fremer's picture

In the early Mosaic days they did cut from digital sources but that hasn't been the case in a very long time including the Ella & Duke to which you refer. I forget who mastered it (I am at AXPONA and don't have access to my records obviously) but I'm fairly certain it was all analog... I'll check when I get home.

Paul Boudreau's picture

Cut from early '80s digital (1983 was their debut, I think)?  That's not good news.

Michael Fremer's picture

What was?

Paul Boudreau's picture

"In the early Mosaic days they did cut from digital sources but that hasn't been the case in a very long time including the Ella & Duke to which you refer."

I interpreted that to mean that early Mosaic LPs were digitally sourced, although that could mean a number of things.  Since Mosaic began in 1983...

More detail would be greatly appreciated.

PeterPani's picture

Dear Michael. You might be right. Still, I wonder. Why - on god's earth? - does a Record Company that uses an AAA chain for reproducing from the vaults does not make this fact absolutely clear on their webpage??? There buyers shall be audiophiles, so I would assume that - if they are using AAA - they should use the triple AAA for offensive advertising at least on their AAA-records. My sad experience is that every time a company claims "mastered from the original tapes", but does not clearly and officially state that they used a full analog chain that the reason for not doing so is a digital processing or cutting in the chain. Regarding the Ella & Duke, I own some r2r material (playing on Studer tube racks) and vinyl material (playing via my beloved Ortofon Jubilee into all tube amplification) from that sessions. Yesterday I played the material once again to get assure once more. The mosaic box of Ella & Duke sounds digital. Maybe it is not digital - It could also be that solid state amplification/procession sat somewhere in their chain. The recording is very well done and I can recommend it for lovers of crystal clear sound, whose listening pleasure do not depend on rhythm and sound stage depth enveloping you in the mellow sound of Ellas spirit.

Michael Fremer's picture

The booklet of that set says "tape transfers by Malcolm Addey". And mastering by Kevin Gray. So in that case it's obvious that Kevin cut from a digital source but probably that was the only way they could reissue this for one reason or another.  Mosaic has been cutting all analog for many years now...

jazz's picture

Althought to me it wasn't obvious by the mention of tape transfers (could you tell why?) I recognized a somehow worse sound than on most others (even if not digital sounding like in the early days of digital.

Could you tell which other Mosaic Releases are cut from digital to your knowledge?

Paul Boudreau's picture

In the liner notes of the 2008 2CD UK reissue of "This Was," Ian Anderson discusses learning to play the flute in 1967-68, saying:

"When Jeffrey Hammond (then at Art college in London) heard my faltering playing in the early months of 1968, he introduced me to the music of Roland Kirk, and I found a ready influence to further shape my relationship with the instrument."

detroitvinylrob's picture

A copy is on the way to me. Thanks Mikey for the fine review, as always.

Happy Listening!

daveming3's picture

Everything MF says about this release (musically, sonically) is right on.

Although as a teenager I was already listening to "jazz" (Miles, Coltrane), the Jethro Tull version of Serenade to a Cuckoo was also my window to discovering Rahsaan, whose music became a major part of my life as a listener and a musician.

The music here can and does speak for itself - even Slightly Latin, which is dismissed as a more "pop" offering (and maybe it is, but in the best sense of the word) is great, because it's still pure Rahsaan. Sonically? Wow. Apparently these recording are just as MF says -- "a great recording[s] locked in a sonic cage". Well, this music is out of the cage and it comes roaring out at you on this release. Thank you Mosaic - you earned my $100 on this one!

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