We Free Kings by Rahsaan Roland Kirk (CD, Oct-1990, Verve)

After coming to know & love the work of a mature artist, it's almost always rewarding, albeit a trifle odd (maybe even artificial) to examine the youthful work of that artist, to look for hints of the greatness to come. The CD re-issue WE FREE KINGS, despite its publication date, actually represents a very young RR Kirk, before he added the Rahsaan to his name for public consumption. What was he then? Very competent, tonally way ahead of many of reed-men, never dull, and yet -- well, those are hardly characteristics to engage most people's attention decades after the recording was made. It's not until Track Seven (out of a total of ten), the title tune, that there's any real sample of the wondrous goofiness & freedom that grew & grew as the years passed. What a great spirit, what a great talent! And what a surprise to the larger world! At the time of these early recordings (1961), Kirk was under contract to Mercury, a good, but hardly pioneering company; around the same time, he was getting the occasional mention in super-square publications like TIME. I was in high-school then, and I remember those things, though it was only years later that I came to admire Kirk. In 1961, I would have thought of this as glorified Lounge Music. Well, meanwhile I'm sure he was glad of the money, & the good press -- but how much more was waiting, already known to an inner circle, but virtually unknown to that larger world which would subsequently have so few years to enjoy him live. Rejoice that his recorded legacy survives, and for those who have to have it all, there's this little collection.
It's well-known that Kirk could poke all sorts of instruments into his mouth & seem to play an entire reed-section all at-once. In that spirit, I want to say two things which may seem contradictory yet certainly aren't: every recording by Rahsaan Roland Kirk is interesting, yet those who seek the later, poetic, swinging visions could easily live without this one. And yet I'm glad to have it . . . To use one of his own favourite phrases, there are bright moments here -- and hey, we can all use as many of those as we can get, right? -- Second Baron