Bright Moments: The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk

by John Kruth

The first bioghraphy of the legendary jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, establishes once and for all the brilliant multi-instrumentalist's place n the pantheon of Jazz giants.

Genres: Biography

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few jazz artists are as likely to delight the staunchly skeptical rock and roll fanatic as Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Multiple horns sprouting from his mouth as if he were some mythological messenger-god from the Other Side, additional “weapons” hanging from his person like Christmas ornaments, drunk on racket and beautiful melody, Kirk was anything and everything but boring. Often, he was flat-out unbelievable: besides being clearer-sighted (and that adjective isn’t strictly metaphorical) than most sighted folks, his experiments would have daunted even the early Velvet Underground. Superimpose “Sentimental Journey” on Dvorak’s New World Symphony by playing each melody on two different horns at the same time? No problem. Honor Dr. King with a wildly extrapolated rollercoaster improv on Burt Bacharach’s “I Say a Little Prayer”? Well, why not! Play convincing deep blues on a flute, for Chrissakes, while not only vocalizing through it but using it as a percussion instrument as well? Hell, yeah! Impersonate a sax section all by your lonesome--and sound better than most? Shoot, t’ain’t nothin’at all, y’all. It’s a wonder we’ve had to wait so long for a biography on such a colorful musical legend, but the wait was worth it. John Kruth’s Bright Moments succeeds through the author’s own brave experiment: why not write a biography in the spirit of the man himself, and leave the theory and analysis for Gunther Schuller?

Rather than following Kirk’s life through strict chronology, Kruth, a musician himself and more importantly an avid fan, spins each segment of the book off thematic quotations, many from Rahsaan himself, and lets the man himself, family members, fellow musicians, and producers tell stories that get to the heart of the respective themes. The book is divided into roughly chronological chapters for coherency’s sake, but this never dictates the immediate direction of the narrative. Kruth’s aim is to reveal Kirk’s complex genius (what other kind is there?): blind man vs. visionary, deadly competitor vs. sympathetic advocate, lover of all musics vs. frighteningly discriminating cultural critic, fun-loving prankster vs. harsh taskmaster, multi-gimmicked showman vs. serious jazz innovator. It’s the last of those contradictions that the author examines most closely, and he succeeds in proving that Kirk deserves to be considered, with Coltrane, Mingus, and Coleman, as part of the last wave of jazz zeitgeist-busters.

Kruth writes with an unpretentious enthusiasm. He clearly believes he was lucky to be alive when a titan walked the earth, and his tone is one of wonder and amazement, as is that of the people in Kirk’s life who share their experiences. Not that there’s much hagiography at work; the subject could be an SOB, particularly when invited on stage to jam with other musicians, or when he chose to air his political views from the stage (often with good justification). He didn’t always make the most solid choices in musical direction or support personnel, particularly in the late Sixties, when, of course, his every whim was encouraged, and, amazingly, given his handicap, he seemed always ready to kick someone’s ass. But, as the reader soon realizes, Kirk did perform miracles. One was to take the idea of playing multiple instruments simultaneously (he was not the first, as Kruth takes pains to point out) and, through a serious interest in pure sound, make MUSIC out of it. Another was to navigate through a physical environment that was full of landmines for anyone who was not only black but blind as well as if he were king of all he surveyed, and to do the same with a critical environment in which cultural guardians like Leroi Jones accused him of minstrelsy. He survived a stint in Charles Mingus’ band, seemingly without serious wounds, despite being as bullheaded as its notoriously imperious leader. He managed to have one foot in the avant garde and the other in the mainstream without being ripped up the middle. He managed to integrate wildly disparate elements--showmanship and high art, politics and sheer entertainment, a fondness for both resuscitating tradition and destroying it, melody and noise--if not always into an aesthetically pleasing whole, at least into a distinctly individual musical vision. And, for his last act, when a stroke robbed him of the use of one arm, he taught himself to play multiple instruments with the other. No wonder Kruth chooses to (like Whitman) sing his subject’s feats rather than dryly present them.

As one might already be able to tell, the strength of Bright Moments is that it brilliantly dishes out what all readers of biographies at least secretly want: GREAT STORIES. You can literally open the book to any page and find one. They range from the musical (Kirk summoning birds with a Japanese instrument to which he’d just been introduced; Kirk playing fellow tenor man George Adams’ preceding solo back to him verbatim on the Carnegie Hall stage; his “collisions” with Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart and other rockers) to the extramusical (Kirk's skyjacking arrest(!); his powwow with Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters; his failed Ed Sullivan Show insurrection). But they all hew to one purpose: celebrating a man who never thought of himself as disabled, and whose mission on the planet was to forward the development (and the cause) of “black classical music.”

The book has a few weaknesses. At times, one wishes for a clearer chronology. Also, ideas and even quotations and paragraphs are frequently repeated beyond their call. And Kruth's open enthusiasm sometimes enters the realm of goofiness (even then, the reader may find him quite charming). However, these are acceptable prices to pay in order to write a book that unfolds like a Rahsaan Roland Kirk performance. Bright Moments is a story told with love, spontaneity, and an attention to detail, qualities that will reward not just jazzbos but hardcore rock and rollers as well. If nothing else, Rah’s music is fun--and so is this book.

What follows is a strongly recommended disc/filmography for any readers who are ready to dive into Kirk’s works headfirst.

We Free Kings (Mercury): That rarity of rarities--a perfect album. Kirk composed all but two of the nine songs, and they’re killers. “Three for the Festival” is one the most exciting three-minute records in jazz, and it showcases not only his multi-sax attack but his gutsy (yes, gutsy) flute. “The Haunted Melody” is exactly what its title advertises. “We Free Kings” synthesizes his comfort with any kind of song with his fierce racial pride. As for the covers, he runs Charlie Parker’s micromusical maze “Blues for Alice” as if he built it himself.

I Talk With the Spirits (Limelight) He does. Perhaps the greatest album of flute-playing ever recorded. Oddly, it’s the sole instrument--albeit in three incarnations--that Kirk plays on the record; on Does Your House Have Lions? he’s listed on 27, and that may be an underestimation. Even if you hate the flute, you’ll be intrigued, because Kirk transforms it in ways I’m sure its inventor never imagined. Again, off-the-wall originals (“Serenade to a Cuckoo,” complete with clock, is--for better or worse--responsible for Jethro Tull) vie with unthinkable covers (not only Streisand’s “People,” but “Trees”!) in a feverish competition to blow your ear’s mind.

Rip, Rig and Panic/Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith (Mercury). A bountiful twofer, also composed mostly by the artist. This’ll stretch the listener’s ear more than Kings, ‘cause Kirk ventures into freedom and musique concrete, but he’s in the company of Elvin Jones (fresh out of ‘Trane’s classic quintet), Richard Davis (the bassist on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady), and Jaki Byard (like Kirk a walking encyclopedia of jazz styles and forms) on the former, where most of the fireworks lie. Searing ballads, driving workouts, jolting experiments, all tied together by Kirk’s brass balls and sense of humor.

Does Your House Have Lions? The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology (Atlantic/Rhino): Two discs covering (for the most part) Kirk’s last decade. The 31 cuts compiled by Kirk producer and expert Joel Dorn show everything the man could do and be, and that was a lot. As such, it’s a neat companion piece to Kruth’s book. Features the aforementioned Dvorak/ ”Sentimental Journey” experiment (“Some say Dvorak was a black man,” Kirk jokingly explains in the intro, “I say I don’t give a damn!”), “I Say a Little Prayer,” a bewildering nose-flute expedition, a wild “Old Rugged Cross,” and a surprising pop foray into Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Sound?? (Rhapsody Video) A 30-minute exploration of the title subject that is pure late-’60s. While John Cage drolly explains what the average yokel’s ear is missing (at one point while plummeting down a kiddie slide on a playground), Kirk happily demonstrates, with a blazing live version of “Three for the Festival,” a duet with a wolf at the London Zoo, and an audience participation number in which Rah distributes whistles and everyone joins in. A must!

[Onsetsu Evan Cordes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all over the place. It took some getting used to. It's not your typical chronological biography.

Kirk yielded some great stories to tell, though, for sure, and they're all here. If you can handle the rough-and-tumble storytelling, you'll be the better for it.

[Kurt Gottschalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all kinds of sloppy. There doesn't seem to be a clear system of designating chapters and subchapters and author John Kruth can get five or six sentences into a quote (on occasion) before getting around to giving an attribution. He also (on occasion) stacks three or four quotes from different sources on top of each other in a single paragraph, making it confusing who is saying what. There are certain conventions that readers expect, that make it easier on them, in biography, journalism or critical writing. Kruth is a poet and a fan - not a journalist or an academic. He puts some of his poems and his own stories into the book. He puts other peoples' stories in when they add nothing, seemingly because he feels a kinship with them. In short, this book needed an editor (I'd say a better one but I doubt there was one at all).

The book has been on my shelf for a couple of years but I pulled it down after seeing the dreadful recent Kirk documentary "The Case of the Three-Sided Dream." I guess I don't need to get sidetracked with a movie review here, but that film takes such pains to talk about how Kirk didn't like to be portrayed that it never gets around to anything else. Kruth's book is better than that, and certainly it's a massive figure he's taken on, but it seems short-sighted to treat Kirk almost entirely as a superhero. He lost patience with other people, but did he ever lose patience with his lot in life? Was he ever angry about his blindness (supposedly caused by a negligent nurse administering medicine when he was a child)? Did he lash out at the world, at the people close to him, or did he spend all day every day being a super-survivor overcoming disabilities with ease?

So, yes, the book is imperfect. But it is also a labor of love, and that shines through brightly. While I want to criticize Kruth for talking about himself so much, one of the liveliest sections involves his dogged search for a bootleg of Kirk and Jimi Hendrix playing together in London. Kruth's passion for his subject carries the book and - assuming there are no glaring factual inaccuracies of which I'm unaware - makes it well worth the read.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I’d bought John Kruth’s “Bright Moments” wanting to find out more about this extraordinary artist’s background, and Kruth eloquently portraying Kirk's life and music. Kirk lived a relatively short life, but he sure did accomplish a lot. He worked with other jazz luminaries such as Charles Mingus, Jaki Byard, and Eric Dolphy, and he composed and recorded amazing songs such as "Domino" and "No Tonic Press." Kruth’s biography traces his childhood in Columbus, his early years trying to get attention for his work, his important recordings, as well as his courageous efforts to continue his career after his stroke.

This biography teems with vivid quotes and anecdotes from people who knew Kirk in different stages of his life. Kruth does a great job of explaining how Kirk came up with his unique approach, which often included playing three reed instruments simultaneously. At the same time, Kruth presents the important argument that Kirk did what he did not to be gimmicky, but to express his deep artistic vision. His musical vision expanded beyond music, as evidenced by this quote in the book: “Everything can be music if it’s developed and cultivated. From the hum of the sun to things that are happening down here on earth. The sun sets off a whole lot of vibrations that if people close their eyes enough, they can hear the sun. Sometimes on the tenor I try to get a sun sound.”

If you want to read a biography of a prominent jazz artist such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, or John Coltrane, you have a lot to choose from. As far as I know, Kruth’s “Bright Moments” is the only biography about Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I’m hoping this bio will spur on more research about this great artist, and perhaps the publication of more Kirk biographies.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to give this book more stars - Kirk has been my number 1 musical obsession of the past few years, so a 400-page book on the man's life and career should be a no-brainer. It's packed full of anecdotes and information, but the style is kind of awful! The overly "jazzy" writing style frequently takes you out of the narrative (helpful hint: You DON'T need to come up with a new variation on "said" each time someone says something! "blank blank," Joel Dorn opined. "Blah blah," Dorthaan Kirk confessed. "Boo boo," Hilton Ruiz speculated. That's REALLY irritating!), and it becomes apparent about 50 pages in that interviewees were feeding him variations on the same anecdotes again and again. That he was able to weave a book together from the tangles of collectively similar memories is admirable, but it does taint an otherwise winning book about an amazing individual. As does, it must be mentioned, the frequently over-awed tone of the book. Kruth does a reasonable job of de-mystifying some aspects of Kirk's life, but it's apparent that he's as willing to speed past Kirk's blind spots as the mountain of interview subjects. Since you can't post half-stars here, I'll mention that my 3-star is really a three-and-a-half star. Good, unique in its field, but containing fundamental flaws that can't be ignored. If you're a Kirk fanatic, though, you've got to check it out, stat. (if only because it's the only book on the market of its kind!)

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love Roland Kirk, and as much as I respect the author for the serious work and dedication he put in, this is not the Life and Legacy of RRK more than a bunch of quotes from people who knew the man, in no particular order. The most infuriating fact is that the more I read, the more he seems interesting, but the content just gets thinner and thinner, if that makes sense. I'm now reading it like I'd read a magazine article, while listening to "Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle", and I guess it's okay like that. But now I know one thing: he deserves a real biography. Maybe I was spoilt by Straight Life by Art Pepper which is one of my favourite books ever, regardless of jazz stuff, and to a certain extent Miles Davis' autobiography.

[Ronald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted this to be great. I saw it and I wanted to read this biography of a Jazz legend I so greatly admire. Unfortunately it, in my opinion is poorly written or it seems so. It doesn't read well and that annoyed me to the point of not finishing the book