I Talk With the Spirits [Original recording remastered]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 29, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000AFEU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,512 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much to listen to and feel good!, July 5, 2001

By 

Yves Latorte - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Talk With the Spirits (Audio CD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spirits In Our Midst, May 12, 2006

By 

El Lagarto (Sandown, NH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: I Talk With the Spirits (Audio CD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystifying., July 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: I Talk With the Spirits (Audio CD)

I am lucky to be one of the few people who has this album on its original vinyl. My father purchased it when it came out, so I am quite lucky.

I am mystified by the various instrumental voices of Kirk, no one could put on a visual show like him. He would play 3, 4, or more instruments at once. His songs have all the sophisticated and complicated changes of an excellent composer, but his multiple instrumental assault adds even more layers and sonorous changes.

This is an excellent album and absolutely worth having in your collection. Kirk at a creative peak.