Talk with the Spirits

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5. Talk With the Spirits

Talk with the Spirits,Mike Longo,Pablo,Bop,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop

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Tracks:

Serenade To A Cuckoo
We'll Be Together Again People (From Funny Face)
A Quote From Clifford Brown
Trees
Fugue'n And Alludin'
The Business Ain't Nothin' But The Blues
I Talk With The Spirits
Ruined Castles
Django
My Ship (From Lady In The Dark)

Amazon.com

Recorded in 1964, I Talk with the Spirits is one of Roland Kirk's most revered, yet scarce, concept albums. It was the first and only time that the innovative multi-instrumentalist would focus entirely on flutes. The result is a bizarre, otherworldly album on which beautiful ballads, blues-inflected vocalization, and iconic humor easily coalesce. Propelled by the supple rhythm section of pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Michael Fleming, and drummer Walter Perkins and special appearances by vocalist Crystal Joy Albert and Bob Moses on vibraphone, Kirk delivers a mixed bag of well-worn classics ("We'll Be Together Again," "People," and "My Ship") plus brilliant originals, like the wonderfully nutty "Serenade to a Cuckoo" and the haunting, Japanese-influenced title track. Although gimmicky and dated at places, this is essential Kirk. --John Murph

Customer Reviews:

Spirits In Our Midst.......2006-05-13

In the interests of full disclosure I should admit that it is difficult for me to be impartial when speaking about Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I met him, I heard him perform numerous times, (all the way from grungy clubs to Carnegie Hall), and I collected his work passionately. With the death of Coltrane, Kirk led the pack of pretenders to the throne, and he was quick to acknowledge his debt.

Sadly, Rahsaan is remembered best for the novelty side of his persona, playing multiple instruments simultaneously, on stage antics, and commentary that was often bawdy, outrageous, and bitter. This is a shame because when you strip away the veneer what remains is sheer virtuosity, Kirk was technically untouchable. He was a tireless student of jazz and his restless need to know and do as much as possible actually caused him to create various hybrid reed instruments. Kirk played whatever he touched; indeed, in his hands everything became an instrument. While it was his rip-snorting tenor sax that put him on the map, he saved his purest poetry and gentleness for that most humble and ancient of all instruments, the flute.

This is what makes I Talk With The Spirits such a special, and highly collectible, CD - it is Kirk's only effort exclusively featuring flute playing. As is always the case with Rahsaan, it's odd and wonderful. Serenade To A Cuckoo is delightfully upbeat, as is Fugue'n and Alludin'. A Quote From Clifford Brown cooks while The Business Ain't Nothin' But The Blues shows you how Kirk can turn the flute into a blues instrument - try that Herbie Mann!

The title track almost embodies the word ethereal, it borders on an out-of-body experience. But then, the entire CD resonates on a serene, celestial frequency - spiritual soul food. Listening to this CD makes you realize that Kirk was perfectly capable of playing with impeccable beauty if he wanted - meaning that his rants of near hysterical outrageousness were not the product of some undisciplined malcontent but rather the expression of precisely what he wanted to say at that moment.

This exquisite CD has been lovingly re-mastered and actually sounds better than the original. Thank you to the folks at Verve for bringing back this must-have masterpiece.

Get the vinyl if you can.......2005-10-14

The music of Roland's I always liked best was 'I Talk with the Spirits', an album exclusively devoted to him playing the flute. Spiritual and lyrical, just a beautiful record. I rescued the LP from the family home and have had it for the last 30 or so years and play it now and again, preferably late at night.

On playing the CD, I find for the first time in my career as a listener that I can detect a difference between the sound of an LP and that of a CD. Pedantic musical types go on about the way digital recordings strip away extraneous, almost inaudible layers of sound, upper and lower harmonics, ambience. Perhaps because this is flute music, full of harmonics that only bats and dogs usually listen to, I actually notice these missing levels on the CD. At times the main flute line sounds artificially pure, but crude and unshaded compared to the LP. There are times when Roland vocalises through the flute: this sounds like wind rushing through wires and leaves, crossed with someone breaking down a door, v. powerful and expressive. But on the CD there is not quite the same range, it is flattened out, and the coarse pungency of the notes is partly lost.

But don't despair! -- this is still a lovely album, and if you haven't the LP for comparison your enjoyment will be unimpaired. It may all be just in my mind...

Tom J

I always suspected he talked to spirits ..........2001-12-08

This is a great album of light 60's lounge-y music, but is still so deep at the same time. Kirk has the remarkable ability to remain private while performing, to the extent that one can't help but know that it's all coming from the purest place. It's universal truth, coming through. Next to that, Horace Parlan on piano, though an able accompanist, sounds formulaic at times (I say this in spite of Kirk's praise of him on the album) which may be why the Clifford Brown number falls flat (although flat for Kirk is still good!). But for someone as exceptional as Kirk, it had to be rare to hear him with musicians who could really stand beside him. Michael Fleming is decent on bass, but mainly stays out of Kirk's way, keeping up his own end. That leaves us with Kirk and his remarkable sounds, able to do his thing unencumbered - the way it should be.

So much to listen to and feel good!.......2001-07-05

Are their musicians like this anymore? With a title like "I Talk With The Spirits", one would imagine that sizable goods were in order. While no one track can speak representatively for the entire effort, not even the title track, one cannot fail to be astonished by the spectrum of moods and ideas that flow through these ten pieces. The experience is uncommonly artistic and uncompromising but never strains the ear or mind. On this album of flute-based sessions, one is in the presence of a very fertile imagination, a setlist genius who touches the many colors of jazz yet delivers it all in a human-sized package. For the presence of cuckoo clock, japanese music box, the numerous moments of extended flute technique (keypad percussion, simultaneous singing and playing, & other extramusical noises), and brief parsings of studio commentary, tags like "gimmicky" and "dated" have been attached by others. But to my ears it is pure time-defying magic. This is jazz plus Rahsaan, he is the extra ingredient that makes music special, to make you feel nothing but good all over, as if you might be in the presence of a weirdly beautiful, but beneficent shaman. As a free-range whole, arranged and executed by a poet's poet, clearly and constantly musical, this album has the mark of unsurpassed integrity. The superb digitally remastered sound is warmly focused and tactile, just the way it should be in the home. Give it up to Rahsaan.

Loving the flutin' talkin' thing.......2000-09-13

This is the best example of Rahsaan's flute work which is the best around. So few flute players worth listening to, and this ain't no Herbie Mann, no. How can anyone possibly play flute and sing at the same time??? no one but rahsaan. He also plays two flutes simultaneously (one nose flute). I am not sure whether he does it on this one or not. I have close to 40 Rahsaan discs and each and every song is unique. Feel free to email me about Rahsaan.

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