Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936-1977) 来自美国俄怀俄州,出生后没多久就失明,他在俄怀俄州立盲人学校就读, 12 岁便在校园组的乐团玩萨克斯风与黑管, 15 岁拥有属於自己的乐团,在俄怀俄州表演. 　　 　　
16 岁的某天他梦到自己可以一次玩三个乐器,隔天他跑到乐器行试遍了所有的簧管乐器,后来老板带他到地下室,那里有一些二手的乐器,他发现两支西班牙军乐队使用过的萨克斯风,一支叫做 stritch,是中音萨克斯风的一种,另一支叫 manzello,外型有点像中音萨克斯风,但听起来像高音 (萨克斯风). 　　 　　
Kirk 把它们买下来,再加上一支高音萨克斯风练习,同时吹奏三项乐器,有时稍微不协调,结果就变得很刺耳,这种吹奏方式十分具有特色,也让 Roland Kirk 的音乐丰富化了,有时他也会使用雾号,口笛等乐器,让表演更具戏剧张力. 　　 　　
1956 年 Kirk 制作首张专辑,却没被大众注意, 1960 年透过 Ramsey Lewis 帮忙, Kirk 在厂牌 Cadet 旗下录音,马上引起争论,大家都觉得他在耍噱头, Kirk 为自己辩解,说他演奏的每个声音都其来有自,当他在演奏时,脑子会出现雾号与其他声音,他知道自己在做什麼. 　　 　　
事实上, Kirk 对传统爵士乐了解甚透,也知道早期的音乐,例如 Jelly Roll Morton (与 Fats Waller),他们将汽笛,哨子,人声与汽车喇叭等声音加入作品中,成为相当特殊的音效.对 Kirk 来说,爵士音乐就是 black classical music,他承继了 black classical music 狂野,不屈服的精神,从这角度而言,他就是 pure - Kirk 的作品中几乎看不到任何早期欧洲音乐的影子.
1961 年 Kirk 与 Charles Mingus 工作了 4 个月,且出现在 Mingus 的专辑 Oh Yeah 里,与他一同到加州巡回的结果,是名声逐渐在国际乐坛间传开,与 Mingus 的工作合约到期后,便开始踏入欧洲,在西德的 Essen jazz festival 活动里独奏, 1963 年起 Kirk 便固定与他的四重奏出国表演,第一个固定表演的场所是 Ronnie Scott 的 Jazz Club, 60 年代后期到 70 年代初期, Kirk 的乐团 Vibration Society 在美国,加拿大,欧洲,澳洲,纽西兰的各大 club,现场音乐会与主要的音乐节里表演. 其实光听 Roland Kirk 一个人表演,就有四重奏的感觉了,没有四重奏至少也有三重奏,说他是萨克斯风的超技乐手,一点也不恭维. 　　 　　
导演 Dick Fontaine 拍的一支 短片 Sound (1966-67),里面出现的人物包括有 Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Cage 与 David Tudor.. 等 　　 　　
1967 年 4 月 Roland Kirk 在录完专辑 Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith 后便来到 Atlantic,到了 11 月 Kirk 决定带著他的四重奏乐团 (钢琴 Ron Burton, 贝斯手 Steve Novosel,鼓手 Jimmy Hopps) 透过蓝调与 60 年代中期传统式的 groove 来表达内省的,深沉的,细长的氛围. 　　 　　
同年 11 月 Roland Kirk 首次在 Atlantic 唱片旗下发行专辑 The Inflated Tear (后来又在相同厂牌发行另外两张响叮当的专辑 Blacknuss 与 Volunteered Slavery),这张专辑一推出时并没被注重,连制作人 Joel Dorn 与老板 Neshui Ertegun 都对 The Inflated Tear 没有抱持太多期待. 　　 　　
Kirk 在这张专辑一人演奏了笛,黑管,萨克斯风,哨子,还有上述过的 strich 与 Manzello 等乐器,发展出属於自己的声音,尤其是当这些乐器同时被吹奏的时候,马上引来爵士乐迷的齐声躂伐,说他耍噱头,不过随后这群批判者在听完压抑又高雅的 Black and Crazy Blues,令人眩晕的 Creole Love Call,灵魂深处的 The Inflated Tear,随风飘逸的抒情小品 Fly by Night 后,对他的作品如痴如醉,爱恨交加.
结果发行后第一年 The Inflated Tear 就卖了超过 1 万张,这个数字超乎 Kirk 想像,也是他始料未及的 梦,他对爵士的涉猎与专业在这张专辑中表露无遗,对於想了解他的乐友来说, The Inflated Tear 是一张指标性的入门专辑.
Volunteered Slavery 专辑於 1968 年到 1969 年 间录制,音乐风格偏向非洲诗歌与后咆勃,蓝调,参与录制的乐手分别是小号手 Charles McGhee,伸缩小号手 Dick Griffin,风琴手 Mickey Tucker,贝斯手 Vernon Martin,鼓手s Jimmy Hopps, Charles Grady 和 Sony Brown.
Volunteered Slavery 光以字面来看恐让人朝性变态的方向产生荒谬联想,原因就出在於 Slavery 这个字上,不过这里所指的奴隶,指的是非洲裔美国公民长久被歧视而遭受到不公平的待遇.这张专辑的命名,只是 Roland Kirk 的机伶和小小的恶作剧罢了.
从他在歌曲中夸饰说著: If you wanna know how it is to be free/ You got to spend all day in bed with me 就可欣赏他的幽默方式. 　　 　　
Kirk 不只一次透过这种诙谐嘲讽的方式传达心中对於黑人人权观感的愤怒,如果你还听过他的其他歌曲如 Inflated Tear 或 Black Mystery Has Been Revealed. 　　 　　
暗潮汹涌的旋律首先透过简短的萨克斯风声音,接著听到 Kirk 重复吟唱著: Oh, volunteered slavery has got me on the run / Oh, volunteered slavery has got me havin\' fun,让人回想起黑人音乐一应一答的独特合唱方式, Sun Ra 的专辑 Space Is The Place 和 Outer Spaceways Incorporated 也有相同特色.
当 Kirk 用次中音萨克斯风二重奏时,其他团员想办法让整个 groove 获得延伸,然后逐渐点燃情绪,巧妙地增加聆听者的感受力, Kirk 狡猾地在歌曲某段落引用 Hey Jude 的和弦并不令人意外,他总是大方的公开赞扬 Beatles 和 the Animals 的音乐对现代音乐有广大的影响力. 　　 　　
Spirits Up Above 以蓝调方式激烈喊唱,非常具有灵魂味道, Kirk 演奏 Burt Bacharach 与 Hal David 制作的经典歌曲 I Say a Little Prayer,及向 John Coltrane 致敬的歌曲 Afro Blue, Lush Life, Bessie\'s Blues,虽然朗朗上口的旋律就可达到百万销售成绩,同时还扣人心弦,不过透过他的演奏,可能就需要愿意接受新事物的听众,才能了解其诠释方式, Kirk 将黑人音乐演奏出独一无二的版本,将这些歌曲推向更崇高的境界,这是需要对音乐历史透彻知悉,同时还要兼备音乐素养与演奏技巧的大师,才有办法完成任务. 　　 　　
1975 年, Rahsaan Roland Kirk 因中风关系导致半身麻痹,依靠惊人的意志力,他使用单手吹奏 - 带著这个属於萨克斯风手的梦靥 + 天敌般的疾病出国巡回,到音乐节里演出,还出现在电视节目上, 1977 年因为二度中风, Rahsaan Roland Kirk 不幸辞世,享年 41 岁.
Kirk 不仅受到大众喜爱,连音乐家也对他欣赏不已.他并没有闭门造车,完全让自己投入於整个爵士乐史,从早期的纽澳良,透过 swing 与 bebop,经历 60 年代的抽象爵士,与 70 年代的 avant-garde.整个音乐生涯中 Kirk 录制了许多向自几己敬爱的音乐人致敬的歌曲,这些人是 Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Sidney Bechet, Don Byas, Roy Haynes, Charles Mingus, Clifford Brown, Barney Bigard 与 John Coltrane. 　　 　　
Kirk 通晓爵士乐史,我们却无法对他的音乐或他个人下定义,既非传统乐手,亦非完全极端的前卫,即便到了 90 年代,他的音乐听起来丝毫没有过时的感觉,因为 Kirk 总是在平常热衷於聆听与学习,他的天份启发许多年轻乐手,除了乐手身份外,他也是优秀的制作人,最为人道的歌曲有 From Bechet, Byas and Fats, No Tonic Pres, Bright Moments, Let Me Shake Your Tree, The Inflated Tear.
J.E. Berendt 说 Roland Kirk 身上有街头艺人狂放粗野般的特质,同时又具有现代爵士乐家的纤细敏感, Michael Ullman 则说听过他的音乐 Shine On Me 就彷佛见到上帝,病痛能不药而愈,人死也能复生.
Does Your House Have Lions: The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology 这套 2cd 精选辑收录 Kirk 於 1961 年至 1976 年间的作品,也几乎是他全部音乐生涯中最精华的创作,共有 31 首,长达 137 分钟,内容包括全方位的爵士,流行 / 灵魂,福音与 hard bop.
这张合辑对 Roland Kirk 迷来说并不讨喜,辛苦收集每一张 Kirk 的专辑,结果其精华一下子都在这里出现,再者既然称为精选辑,歌曲编排方式没有按照年份逐一排列,还将录音室作品与现场表演的录音穿插编排.
这是专辑制作人 Joel Dorn 的本意,要大家抛开鎡铢计较的挑剔,全心进入 Kirk 多采多姿的音乐世界, Does Your House Have Lions 被 all music 评选为 Roland Kirk 发行所有合辑中评价最高的,对於专业的唱片收藏家来说,也许他们会把这张精选辑拿在手上,望著里面的曲目口水直流,但又因为信奉『合辑的价值不及於专辑』这样的教规,只好依依不舍的再把它摆回架上,不过对於从未接触过 Roland Kirk 音乐的新乐友们,这下子可有福了.

by Chris Kelsey
Arguably the most exciting saxophone soloist in jazz history, Kirk was a post-modernist before that term even existed. Kirk played the continuum of jazz tradition as an instrument unto itself; he felt little compunction about mixing and matching elements from the musics history, and his concoctions usually seemed natural, if not inevitable. When discussing Kirk, a great deal of attention is always paid to his eccentricities — playing several horns at once, making his own instruments, clowning on stage. However, Kirk was an immensely creative artist; perhaps no improvising saxophonist has ever possessed a more comprehensive technique — one that covered every aspect of jazz, from Dixieland to free — and perhaps no other jazz musician has ever been more spontaneously inventive. His skills in constructing a solo are of particular note. Kirk had the ability to pace, shape, and elevate his improvisations to an extraordinary degree. During any given Kirk solo, just at the point in the course of his performance when it appeared he could not raise the intensity level any higher, he always seemed able to turn it up yet another notch.

Kirk was born with sight, but became blind at the age of two. He started playing the bugle and trumpet, then learned the clarinet and C-melody sax. Kirk began playing tenor sax professionally in R&B bands at the age of 15. While a teenager, he discovered the manzello and stritch — the former, a modified version of the saxello, which was itself a slightly curved variant of the B flat soprano sax; the latter, a modified straight E flat alto. To these and other instruments, Kirk began making his own improvements. He reshaped all three of his saxes so that they could be played simultaneously; hed play tenor with his left hand, finger the manzello with his right, and sound a drone on the stritch, for instance. Kirks self-invented technique was in evidence from his first recording, a 1956 R&B record called Triple Threat. By 1960 he had begun to incorporate a siren whistle into his solos, and by 63 he had mastered circular breathing, a technique that enabled him to play without pause for breath.

In his early 20s, Kirk worked in Louisville before moving to Chicago in 1960. That year he made his second album, Introducing Roland Kirk, which featured saxophonist/trumpeter Ira Sullivan. In 1961, Kirk toured Germany and spent three months with Charles Mingus. From that point onward, Kirk mostly led his own group, the Vibration Society, recording prolifically with a range of sidemen. In the early 70s, Kirk became something of an activist; he led the Jazz and Peoples Movement, a group devoted to opening up new opportunities for jazz musicians. The group adopted the tactic of interrupting tapings and broadcasts of television and radio programs in protest of the small number of African-American musicians employed by the networks and recording studios. In the course of his career, Kirk brought many hitherto unused instruments to jazz. In addition to the saxes, Kirk played the nose whistle, the piccolo, and the harmonica; instruments of his own design included the trumpophone (a trumpet with a soprano sax mouthpiece), and the slidesophone (a small trombone or slide trumpet, also with a sax mouthpiece). Kirk suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1975, losing movement on one side of his body, but his homemade saxophone technique allowed him to continue to play; beginning in 1976 and lasting until his death a year later, Kirk played one-handed.