Rahsaan Roland Kirk Research Paper

Jazz music has seen the light of many great musicians, but not many musicians can hold a candle to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Kirk is arguably one of the most exciting saxophonist soloist in jazz history. Besides being able to play a multitude of instruments, Kirk could play several instruments at the same time, continuously. Kirk made it look effortless, because music came naturally to him. At a young age, Kirk lost his ability to see, music became his playground. Kirk did not let his disability get in the way of his passion for music, it allowed him to feel the music deeper and produce some of the most creative pieces known in Jazz. Early in Kirk’s childhood, back when he was known as Ronnie Kirk, he would dream about new ways to play music. Kirk began to play the trumpet and the bugle.

The store owner would play all sorts of music for Kirk, and expose him to strange instruments and describe them. Here Kirk discovered the "manzello" (a customized adaption of the saxello, which was itself a slightly curved variation of the B flat soprano sax) and the "stritch” (a customized version of a straight alto sax). Kirk created new musical instruments of his own design, the "trumpophone" (a trumpet with a soprano sax mouthpiece), and the "slidesophone" (a small trombone or slide trumpet, also with a sax mouthpiece). Not only would Kirk switch parts of instruments to create new sounds but he would manipulate instruments by bending and twisting them. Kirk also mastered circular breathing, which is a technique that enables a wind player to play continuously without pausing for a breath. In his first recording, a 1956 R&B record called “Triple Threat" for King Records, his self-invented technique of playing all three saxophones at the same time debuted. To accomplish such skill, he played the tenor with his left hand, finger the manzello with his right, and sound a drone on the