Biography
Utterly idiosyncratic not only in his sound but in his entire approach to being a musician, Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an enormously influential artist, known for playing multiple styles of jazz and many instruments, but most frequently flute and tenor saxophone. He was born Ronald Kirk (he later altered his given name's spelling and added Rahsaan) in Columbus, Ohio on August 7, 1935 and was blind from the age of two. He was playing professionally by the time he was in his teens, and developed a show-stopping technique of playing two or even three saxes at once, as well as working out the circular breath control that allowed him to play long lines without pausing for air. His first album, Triple Threat, which blended bebop and R&B, was released in 1957. Though he didn't work extensively in other people's bands, he did a significant amount of recording with both Charles Mingus and Quincy Jones in the early to mid '60s, and one of his best known sessions would be Jones' flute-led "Soul Bossa Nova." As a bandleader, Kirk would record prolifically up to the end of his life, but mid-to-late '60s albums like I Talk With the Spirits, Rip, Rig and Panic, and The Inflated Tear are among his most highly regarded. By this time, Kirk's music reflected the influences of everything from free jazz and hard bop to pop and classical music, and his attention-getting performance style incorporated comedic antics and outspoken politics in addition to his aforementioned musical feats. All of this made him as influential to forward-looking rock artists like Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix as he was to jazzers. In 1975 a stroke affected half of his body, rendering him only able to play with one arm, but even this didn't deter him. He continued to perform, and recorded several more albums, the final one being 1977's Boogie Woogie String-Along for Real. On December 5 of that year, Kirk suffered a second stroke in Bloomington, Indiana, which took his life, when he was only 42 years old.
