Haunted Melody – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
A wistful, emotive ballad. The melody is beautiful, but haunted with pain.
- Leadsheets $1.49 /ea
All selected items will be available for download after purchase.
- Recording: Roland Kirk - We Free Kings
- Recorded on: August 16, 1961
- Label: Mercury (MG 20679)
- Concert Key: F
- Style: Ballad
- Manzello, Tenor Sax - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
- Piano - Richard Wyands
- Bass - Art Davis
- Drums - Charli Persip
- jazzleadsheets.com customer Kirk Abe and his trio: Terrigal Burn, piano; Jack J. Hanan, bass; Kirk Abe, drums
When it returns to the ballad feel on the last C section out, it really sings. Our audio excerpt begins right at the head and goes through the first A section.
Rahsaan's three-horn arrangement/performance skills are also featured in Three For The Festival.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Aug 7, 1935 – Dec 15, 1977
With a stritch dangling below his knees, manzello and tenor sax hanging from his neck and a hodgepodge of various homemade instruments, Roland Kirk was a surreal, innovative and inspiring saxophonist who was intensely serious about music. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he became blind at an early age. Taking up an assortment of instruments early on, he began playing tenor sax professionally in R&B bands by the age of 15. Infatuated by the manzello (saxello soprano) and stritch (straight alto saxophone), he reshaped the saxes so he could play all three simultaneously, evident in his first recording in 1956, "Triple Threat." By 1960 he had incorporated the siren whistle into his solos, and by 1963 had mastered circular breathing. Even while playing two or three saxophones at once, Kirk's music was powerful jazz with a strong feel for the blues. Read more...