Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
On April 4, Hyena Records willl release Brotherman In The Fatherland, a never before released concert recording of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Recorded March 3, 1972, at the Funkhaus in Hamburg, Germany, and originally broadcast on German radio and television, the recordings from this performance have surfaced on the jazz underground from time to time over the years—swapped among tape-traders and rare jazz collectors. With the release of Brotherman In The Fatherland, however, these highly regarded and much-lauded performances from the pristine, high-fidelity “Hamburg ‘72 radio broadcasts” will be officially released for the first time ever.
“Every few years I try to get a new Rahsaan recording into the market, but we’re really selective about what we put out there, so we wait until we feel we have exactly the right recording and performance to be released,” said Brotherman In The Fatherland‘s producer and longtime Kirk friend and collaborator Joel Dorn. “He never got the respect or the credit he was due during his time, but in the years since his death the people who really believed in his genius have managed to expand his audience and garner him some of the critical praise he so deserved.”
On Brotherman In The Fatherland, Kirk is joined by his band of the period featuring Ron Burton on piano, Henry Pete Pearson “Mettathias” on bass, Richie Goldberg on drums and Joe “Habao” Texidor on percussion. The date serves as an exceptional example of Kirk’s tenor saxophone. His bold, muscular tone and inspired expression on the instrument are highlights throughout the concert, including set openers, “Like Sonny” and “Make It With You,” his often played improvisational vehicle “Pedal Up” and a tour de force rendition of John Coltrane’s “Blue Trane.” Another standout is the six minute-plus medley of the Kirk compositions “Seasons” and “Serenade To A Cuckoo,” for which he switches to flute and showcases yet another side of his unending musical oeuvre.
Brotherman In The Fatherland is the third Kirk release on Hyena. The first was a reissue of the “audio scrapbook” The Man Who Cried Fire, which was assembled as a patchwork quilt of various Kirk “live” recordings from different years and varying bands. The second release was Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom, a previously unissued “live” recording from San Diego in 1974.
For more information, go to hyenarecords.com.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
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