Customer Reviews

Tj Kirk

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never tire of listening to this album. Simply over-the-top funk, with great musicianship and style. This was my intro into Charlie Hunter's music, which is fantastic stuff. Even beyond the gimmick-appeal of Hunter's 8-string guitar (in which he holds down a bass line and hits the chords at the same time), you get masterful stuff. Listen to this album and groove to it. Then chew on this: NO OVERDUBS. That's right, folks: this stuff is organic.

J.K. Kirk does not stand for Captain T. James Kirk. That writen, the Enterprise's Science Officer could have easily filed this otherworldly adventure under cerebral, inventive, rockin', soulful, jazzy, funky and psychedelic. While these guys played the music of "T"helonious Monk, "J"ames Brown and Rahsaan Roland "Kirk," T.J. Kirk was no cover band. These luminaries took great music and reinvented it in a unique way. Three guitar players and a drummer may seem like stringed overkill, but these boys made it work in style. While Charlie Hunter, Will Bernard, John Schott and Scott Amendola have all gone onto lead successful careers, T.J. Kirk was greater than the sum total of its parts. Indeed, "T.J. Kirk" is better than 75% of Charlie Hunter's post T.J. Kirk career. Compared to its sequel "If Four Was One," this debut may be less dynamic but it rocks harder. "T.J. Kirk" probably deserves five stars but the purpose of rating is to sort products. While this is a great recording, the band's other two CDs are stronger. Listen to "T.J. Kirk" and discover the greatest guitar band that you've probably never heard about.

This is an absolutely, unbelievably, grotesquely underappreciated album. It ought to be a best seller. I totally indebted to the friend who gave it to me as a gift.

Four fine young musicians solve the chronic problem of weak original material by recording compositions at the interstice of jazz and R&B by Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk (hence the name T.J. Kirk). The two guitars really mesh (Charlie Hunter is surreal) and they really get inside these compositions in a wonderful way (e.g. quoting JB in Monk's "Humph" and turning Kirk's "Volunteered Slavery" into reggae). Total funk workout.

One of the disks that I inevitably pack when heading off for desert islands. Give it to someone you love.