The Case of the Three Sided Dream

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Do you want subtitles for any video? -=[ ai.OpenSubtitles.com ]=- 2 00:00:16,617 --> 00:00:20,053 ("Making Love Affair Hours") 3 00:00:20,053 --> 00:00:23,922 - This tune, ladies and gentlemen, is a, 4 00:00:26,158 --> 00:00:28,660 some time you'd be sitting 'round your house with 5 00:00:30,161 --> 00:00:33,131 musicians that really know how to stretch 6 00:00:35,099 --> 00:00:37,200 and really don't miss nothin'. 7 00:00:39,202 --> 00:00:41,338 When nothin' ain't there they just go on 8 00:00:41,338 --> 00:00:43,572 and go in to whatever they wanna go into. 9 00:00:43,572 --> 00:00:47,410 If you ain't got no piano they'll get a washboard 10 00:00:47,410 --> 00:00:49,677 and make music. 11 00:00:50,979 --> 00:00:53,348 If you ain't got no drum they'll get a phone book. 12 00:00:54,749 --> 00:00:58,786 So, this is some things we used to do 13 00:01:00,421 --> 00:01:02,388 which is me and the piano player. 14 00:01:06,058 --> 00:01:07,826 I used to make money out of tune some time 15 00:01:07,826 --> 00:01:08,925 at them house parties. 16 00:01:30,579 --> 00:01:35,349 - To know Rahsaan is to know 17 00:01:35,349 --> 00:01:40,087 of his early exploration of sound. 18 00:01:40,087 --> 00:01:42,522 How as a little boy, 19 00:01:42,522 --> 00:01:47,526 he took a garden hose and cut it 20 00:01:49,228 --> 00:01:52,464 and used it as a trumpet 21 00:01:53,865 --> 00:01:58,869 trying to make music with a garden hose. 22 00:01:59,269 --> 00:02:01,405 ("Moon Indigo") 23 00:02:01,405 --> 00:02:06,209 To know Rahsaan Roland Kirk 24 00:02:07,076 --> 00:02:12,080 is to understand what it must have been 25 00:02:12,147 --> 00:02:17,151 for a young teenager going to New York 26 00:02:18,552 --> 00:02:22,289 to play music, jazz music, 27 00:02:24,557 --> 00:02:28,361 not just a young teenager, 28 00:02:29,496 --> 00:02:32,698 but a blind young man. 29 00:02:34,166 --> 00:02:36,033 Picture the courage. 30 00:02:38,136 --> 00:02:43,139 To know of his rudimentary, 31 00:02:43,907 --> 00:02:47,777 understanding of sound. 32 00:02:51,914 --> 00:02:55,817 He knew the power of sound, 33 00:02:57,218 --> 00:03:00,455 the physics of sound, 34 00:03:00,455 --> 00:03:04,691 knowing that you could move the air 35 00:03:06,059 --> 00:03:10,396 with sound, you could make notes with sound, 36 00:03:10,396 --> 00:03:14,065 you could move people with sound. 37 00:03:24,708 --> 00:03:27,744 It was his everything, 38 00:03:28,645 --> 00:03:31,814 his one and only reality. 39 00:03:31,814 --> 00:03:34,442 Sound was his life. 40 00:03:37,305 --> 00:03:40,000 Charlie Parker invented "bebop", 41 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:44,426 John Coltrane created a brand new linear vocabulary 42 00:03:44,426 --> 00:03:46,589 on the saxophone. 43 00:03:47,521 --> 00:03:52,513 Rahsaan did things harmonically, melodically, 44 00:03:53,943 --> 00:03:58,003 sonically, physically that have never, 45 00:03:58,003 --> 00:04:02,995 never been seen or heard before or since. 46 00:04:05,457 --> 00:04:09,617 To know him is to know a man who was a trickster, 47 00:04:09,617 --> 00:04:14,143 who was outspoken, who was political, 48 00:04:15,141 --> 00:04:20,133 driven, loving, concerned, real, 49 00:04:21,863 --> 00:04:26,456 a man who had an agenda, many agendas 50 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,083 but could also laugh. 51 00:04:32,046 --> 00:04:37,037 Above all, he was a man who was in tune 52 00:04:38,535 --> 00:04:40,366 with his surroundings. 53 00:04:43,393 --> 00:04:48,384 I can still hear him say, "Everything can be music 54 00:04:49,051 --> 00:04:52,578 "if it is developed and cultivated, 55 00:04:52,578 --> 00:04:55,206 "from the hum of the sun to things 56 00:04:55,206 --> 00:04:57,602 "happening down here on earth." 57 00:05:12,045 --> 00:05:13,775 - Roland, when did all this begin? 58 00:05:13,775 --> 00:05:15,605 How old were you when you first decided 59 00:05:15,605 --> 00:05:18,934 to play an instrument and which instrument was it? 60 00:05:18,934 --> 00:05:21,396 - Well, I started out on trumpets. 61 00:05:21,396 --> 00:05:24,391 Well, actually I started bugle when I was about 62 00:05:24,391 --> 00:05:28,218 six or seven years old because I wanted to be a bugle boy 63 00:05:28,218 --> 00:05:32,211 at the summer camp I used to go to with my parents. 64 00:05:32,211 --> 00:05:35,605 And then from the bugle I went to trumpet, 65 00:05:35,605 --> 00:05:39,332 then it was decided by one 66 00:05:39,332 --> 00:05:42,993 of the family doctors that I shouldn't play trumpet. 67 00:05:44,791 --> 00:05:48,084 I was quite young so I let them influence my thinking. 68 00:05:48,084 --> 00:05:50,048 I was about nine years old. 69 00:05:50,946 --> 00:05:53,109 And then one day I heard, 70 00:05:54,274 --> 00:05:57,369 when I was about 11 or 12 or something like that, 71 00:05:57,369 --> 00:06:01,561 I heard one of my friends playing a C-melody saxophone 72 00:06:01,561 --> 00:06:04,956 and I got quite interested in it. 73 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:10,313 I went over to his house every other day and playing on it. 74 00:06:11,645 --> 00:06:13,974 I just got interested in the saxophone. 75 00:06:15,206 --> 00:06:16,437 This time we'd like to feature 76 00:06:16,437 --> 00:06:17,700 our beautiful reed section 77 00:06:17,700 --> 00:06:19,565 who seems to be very straight 78 00:06:19,565 --> 00:06:23,158 and very sparkling tonight, the reed section. 79 00:06:24,156 --> 00:06:26,020 The reed section has managed to stay together 80 00:06:26,020 --> 00:06:27,851 for the last 20 years. 81 00:06:29,580 --> 00:06:31,478 All together in one mouth. 82 00:06:32,543 --> 00:06:34,772 They like to play something by Duke Ellington 83 00:06:34,772 --> 00:06:37,434 which the reed section has really done very beautifully. 84 00:06:41,062 --> 00:06:44,547 ("Moon Indigo") 85 00:08:43,554 --> 00:08:45,951 - Rahsaan will play anything. 86 00:08:45,951 --> 00:08:47,648 He could play a garden hose, 87 00:08:47,648 --> 00:08:50,976 he'd play a wood block, or a coconut, 88 00:08:50,976 --> 00:08:55,735 or an oboe, or a baritone saxophone, 89 00:08:55,735 --> 00:09:00,726 or a recorder or a plastic kid's flute. 90 00:09:01,524 --> 00:09:04,258 I heard him play a calculator one time, 91 00:09:04,258 --> 00:09:06,460 the talking calculator. 92 00:09:08,926 --> 00:09:11,561 Whatever he touched he could make music with it. 93 00:09:11,561 --> 00:09:14,327 - He took everything to extreme. 94 00:09:17,228 --> 00:09:19,428 Everything he could do 95 00:09:19,428 --> 00:09:22,029 he would take it as far as he could take it. 96 00:09:22,029 --> 00:09:24,963 - Rahsaan was aware of the fact that if he extended himself 97 00:09:24,963 --> 00:09:26,629 he could use parts of his brain 98 00:09:26,629 --> 00:09:29,464 that people normally don't use. 99 00:09:29,464 --> 00:09:31,531 I think we even have medical doctors 100 00:09:31,531 --> 00:09:32,998 to state the fact that people only use, 101 00:09:32,998 --> 00:09:34,898 how much of their brain? 102 00:09:34,898 --> 00:09:35,832 Small amount or-- 103 00:09:35,832 --> 00:09:37,599 - Small amount. 104 00:09:37,599 --> 00:09:38,898 Do you think he was using more? 105 00:09:38,898 --> 00:09:41,000 - Yes, I know he was. 106 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,368 Well endowed. 107 00:09:47,301 --> 00:09:48,401 I think for the first time 108 00:09:48,401 --> 00:09:51,935 in Western history of music, 109 00:09:53,202 --> 00:09:55,636 as far as reeds are concerned, 110 00:09:55,636 --> 00:09:58,403 I think this might be the first time 111 00:09:58,403 --> 00:10:01,471 that you will hear this kind of thing going on. 112 00:10:03,738 --> 00:10:08,739 It's splitting the mind in two parts. 113 00:10:08,972 --> 00:10:10,172 Woo! 114 00:10:10,172 --> 00:10:11,673 You know what I mean? 115 00:10:11,673 --> 00:10:14,741 It's like making one part of your mind say, 116 00:10:14,741 --> 00:10:18,607 "Oo Bla Dee," and make the other part of your mind say, 117 00:10:18,607 --> 00:10:19,974 "What does he mean?" 118 00:10:26,109 --> 00:10:28,176 In other words there's two different melodies. 119 00:10:28,176 --> 00:10:31,343 We're gonna play that old apple pie melody for you, 120 00:10:32,311 --> 00:10:34,077 "Sentimental Journey." 121 00:10:35,378 --> 00:10:37,745 And that real debatable melody, 122 00:10:37,745 --> 00:10:40,345 they say that Dvorak was a black man, 123 00:10:42,312 --> 00:10:44,647 but the white people say he's a white man. 124 00:10:46,047 --> 00:10:47,547 What do you say? 125 00:10:47,547 --> 00:10:49,347 I say I don't give a damn. 126 00:10:58,082 --> 00:11:01,916 So first, you'll hear the one old apple pie melody 127 00:11:01,916 --> 00:11:04,550 and then you'll hear the other melody 128 00:11:04,550 --> 00:11:06,084 from the New World Symphony 129 00:11:06,084 --> 00:11:08,817 and then we're gonna put 'em together. 130 00:11:08,817 --> 00:11:11,285 And if you don't hear both of 'em 131 00:11:11,285 --> 00:11:13,019 at the same time, simultaneously, 132 00:11:13,019 --> 00:11:15,086 that means altogether in one mouth 133 00:11:15,086 --> 00:11:17,086 you better go get an ear examination. 134 00:11:55,228 --> 00:11:57,728 - Now by the time you were 15 you were already 135 00:11:57,728 --> 00:12:00,162 working professionally as a saxophonist. 136 00:12:00,162 --> 00:12:02,954 Now how long after this did you get this idea 137 00:12:02,954 --> 00:12:05,113 of the multi-instrumental technique 138 00:12:05,113 --> 00:12:07,572 and where did the idea come from? 139 00:12:07,572 --> 00:12:11,957 - Well, the idea came from a whole lot of different dreams 140 00:12:11,957 --> 00:12:16,941 that I was having that I'd be so flustrated after I practice 141 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:21,062 day in and day out and I'd lay down and have these dreams. 142 00:12:21,062 --> 00:12:24,816 I'd hear different instruments simultaneously. 143 00:12:24,816 --> 00:12:27,474 And then one of the dreams is quite clear 144 00:12:27,474 --> 00:12:31,992 because it showed me playing two instruments simultaneously. 145 00:12:31,992 --> 00:12:36,212 So, after that I set out to find the instruments 146 00:12:36,212 --> 00:12:39,568 that I heard in my dreams by looking in antique shops 147 00:12:39,568 --> 00:12:43,322 and different type of music shops and things. 148 00:12:44,585 --> 00:12:49,569 - He went in search for those instruments in music store, 149 00:12:50,931 --> 00:12:53,556 in the basement in Ohio 150 00:12:53,556 --> 00:12:55,317 and he found them. 151 00:12:58,972 --> 00:13:02,793 His dreams, I guess you would say, 152 00:13:02,793 --> 00:13:05,418 dictated part of his life. 153 00:13:05,418 --> 00:13:08,674 - And everything he did emanated from that. 154 00:13:12,494 --> 00:13:17,247 He really was about being himself 155 00:13:18,144 --> 00:13:21,200 which is what any great artist is, 156 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:24,191 but not at the expense of the tradition. 157 00:13:24,191 --> 00:13:28,510 He didn't do that with the three horns just to be different. 158 00:13:28,510 --> 00:13:30,636 It's something that he heard in a dream. 159 00:13:30,636 --> 00:13:34,756 - His religion was the religion of dreams. 160 00:13:36,617 --> 00:13:38,710 I never asked him what that meant 161 00:13:38,710 --> 00:13:43,695 and when he's being interviewed from time to time, 162 00:13:45,853 --> 00:13:49,177 that was one of the favorite questions and it's like, 163 00:13:51,369 --> 00:13:53,927 "Rahsaan, what is your religion?" 164 00:13:53,927 --> 00:13:56,917 And he's like, "The religion of dreams." 165 00:14:00,939 --> 00:14:04,560 Rahsaan Roland Kirk, 166 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:09,544 I command you to go to sleep and dream. 167 00:14:11,604 --> 00:14:13,664 Oh dream ohh. 168 00:14:13,664 --> 00:14:15,292 What am I gonna dream about? 169 00:14:15,292 --> 00:14:17,451 I can dream in life. 170 00:14:17,451 --> 00:14:18,681 I'm trying to wake up and live 171 00:14:18,681 --> 00:14:19,844 and make some money off of dreams 172 00:14:19,844 --> 00:14:22,269 that people been making off my dreams. 173 00:14:22,269 --> 00:14:24,928 People enjoy everything I dream about. 174 00:14:24,928 --> 00:14:25,991 Electricity? 175 00:14:25,991 --> 00:14:27,387 No good. 176 00:14:27,387 --> 00:14:28,848 You know I ain't gonna go for nothing like that. 177 00:14:28,848 --> 00:14:30,958 I pull the plug out you and then what's gonna be happening? 178 00:14:30,958 --> 00:14:32,498 Ain't nothing gonna be happening to you-- 179 00:14:32,498 --> 00:14:34,039 We are the ones had been waking up the world. 180 00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:36,348 You don't want me to go to sleep, pull the plug out of you 181 00:14:36,348 --> 00:14:37,588 and you'd be dead. 182 00:14:37,588 --> 00:14:38,726 Are you talking to me? 183 00:14:38,726 --> 00:14:40,467 I got a computer at home that's mean 184 00:14:40,467 --> 00:14:42,275 that was invented back in 1930 something. 185 00:14:42,275 --> 00:14:44,786 You know the piano row, you're scared that-- 186 00:14:44,786 --> 00:14:47,197 How hip is a computer? 187 00:14:47,197 --> 00:14:49,407 I went by somebody's house, 188 00:14:49,407 --> 00:14:51,249 a woman was making love to a computer 189 00:14:51,249 --> 00:14:52,722 but she didn't have no-- 190 00:14:52,722 --> 00:14:54,831 I'm gonna pull the plug out of you. 191 00:14:54,831 --> 00:14:58,476 ("Satin Doll") 192 00:16:30,294 --> 00:16:33,742 Rahsaan Roland Kirk, 193 00:16:33,742 --> 00:16:38,330 I command you to wake up 194 00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:40,540 and stop dreaming. 195 00:16:40,540 --> 00:16:41,945 Hey! 196 00:16:41,945 --> 00:16:44,189 Dreamin'? 197 00:16:44,189 --> 00:16:46,031 Dreamin' about what? 198 00:16:46,031 --> 00:16:49,781 - He thought about dreams as either motivators 199 00:16:49,781 --> 00:16:52,058 or inspiration. 200 00:16:52,058 --> 00:16:55,875 I know he said he heard the name Rahsaan in that dream. 201 00:16:55,875 --> 00:16:59,425 - Rahsaan was born Ronald Theodore Kirk. 202 00:16:59,425 --> 00:17:04,447 And I don't know when he changed his name to Roland Kirk, 203 00:17:04,648 --> 00:17:09,671 but I believe that that was the result of dreams. 204 00:17:09,804 --> 00:17:12,603 And then subsequently when I knew him as Roland Kirk 205 00:17:12,603 --> 00:17:16,566 he then changed his name to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, 206 00:17:16,566 --> 00:17:19,364 but mostly he wanted to be known as Rahsaan 207 00:17:19,364 --> 00:17:22,528 and that was definitely from dreams. 208 00:17:23,894 --> 00:17:28,590 His explanation of it was that he had heard in a dream 209 00:17:28,590 --> 00:17:33,254 something about roaming sound and Rahsaan, Rahsaan, 210 00:17:33,254 --> 00:17:37,484 people calling Rahsaan and so he changed his name. 211 00:17:37,484 --> 00:17:39,781 It wasn't something that he took 212 00:17:39,781 --> 00:17:41,747 to marketing people to evaluate, 213 00:17:41,747 --> 00:17:43,779 what impact it would have on his record sales 214 00:17:43,779 --> 00:17:45,444 or his name recognition. 215 00:17:45,444 --> 00:17:48,409 It was something that he intuitively felt 216 00:17:48,409 --> 00:17:50,773 was the right thing to do and he did it 217 00:17:50,773 --> 00:17:52,871 as he did many other things that way. 218 00:17:52,871 --> 00:17:56,735 ("Lunatic Danzo") 219 00:18:11,325 --> 00:18:14,289 - If you play six or more jazz instruments at the same time, 220 00:18:14,289 --> 00:18:15,722 then you do run the risk of being thought of 221 00:18:15,722 --> 00:18:18,919 as being more of a showman than you are a musician. 222 00:18:18,919 --> 00:18:21,850 But Rahsaan Roland Kirk is used to that kind of comment. 223 00:18:21,850 --> 00:18:23,915 He's blind, he comes from Ohio. 224 00:18:23,915 --> 00:18:25,948 And if you watched him in action at Ronnie Scott's club, 225 00:18:25,948 --> 00:18:27,413 where he's playing at the moment, 226 00:18:27,413 --> 00:18:29,578 then it's quite clear that he's using all those instruments 227 00:18:29,578 --> 00:18:32,876 not just as a gimmick but out of a sort of frustrated desire 228 00:18:32,876 --> 00:18:34,142 to get through to the audience 229 00:18:34,142 --> 00:18:36,472 on as many different levels as possible. 230 00:18:36,472 --> 00:18:40,175 Here he is now playing with the Vibration Society. 231 00:18:40,175 --> 00:18:41,908 ("Serenade to a Cuckoo") 232 00:18:41,908 --> 00:18:45,244 - This is one of our compositions we're proud of playing, 233 00:18:45,244 --> 00:18:49,004 "Serenade to a Cuckoo." 234 00:20:50,074 --> 00:20:52,376 - He was criticized for some things 235 00:20:52,376 --> 00:20:54,310 'cause I think he was misunderstood. 236 00:20:54,310 --> 00:20:56,911 The dirty word was he used gimmicks. 237 00:20:56,911 --> 00:20:58,178 He hated that. 238 00:20:58,178 --> 00:21:01,747 And I don't think that he was gimmicky. 239 00:21:01,747 --> 00:21:04,515 I think that he was, 240 00:21:05,950 --> 00:21:09,351 he mainly wanted to be felt 241 00:21:09,351 --> 00:21:13,020 and he wanted the audience to feel him. 242 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:17,789 And quite often, I think, it's just like 243 00:21:17,789 --> 00:21:19,156 if you were trying to get the attention 244 00:21:19,156 --> 00:21:22,491 of a little four year old and you shake 'em. 245 00:21:22,491 --> 00:21:24,760 He constantly did that to the audience 246 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:26,559 and I just think that's the way he was. 247 00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:30,362 He commanded the audience's attention 248 00:21:30,362 --> 00:21:34,930 and some of the things that he did were outside the box. 249 00:21:36,065 --> 00:21:38,799 It wasn't the way the usual jazz musician dealt. 250 00:22:51,603 --> 00:22:54,304 When people misunderstood him 251 00:22:54,304 --> 00:22:57,974 or ill-defined his actions, 252 00:22:59,175 --> 00:23:03,176 he was hurt and disturbed, 253 00:23:03,176 --> 00:23:06,410 very vulnerable hourly. 254 00:23:07,578 --> 00:23:10,239 Sometimes he seemed like he's almost crying out, 255 00:23:10,239 --> 00:23:12,667 I don't mean he'd cry like a baby, 256 00:23:12,667 --> 00:23:14,930 but he's like, "Man, they did this and that," 257 00:23:14,930 --> 00:23:17,924 and, "And they said," he was very. 258 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,180 Do you think you have been evaluated honestly 259 00:23:23,180 --> 00:23:26,273 and accepted as the genius you are in music 260 00:23:26,273 --> 00:23:28,269 or the people relate to it in a different way 261 00:23:28,269 --> 00:23:29,667 you're playing some of the instrument? 262 00:23:29,667 --> 00:23:34,291 - Well through a certain thinking, 263 00:23:35,122 --> 00:23:37,450 certain businessman thinking, 264 00:23:39,346 --> 00:23:41,974 for many years just me playing two 265 00:23:41,974 --> 00:23:44,335 and three instruments simultaneously 266 00:23:46,764 --> 00:23:50,490 it was like a laughing board for a while. 267 00:23:51,421 --> 00:23:52,919 You see what I mean? 268 00:23:52,919 --> 00:23:56,112 And people used to think that it was this like a gimmick. 269 00:23:57,309 --> 00:24:02,299 And through many years and many years have passed 270 00:24:02,533 --> 00:24:06,557 and people like Yusuf Lateef and myself 271 00:24:06,557 --> 00:24:10,150 and the late great Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, 272 00:24:12,478 --> 00:24:15,207 I feel that we were some of the people 273 00:24:15,207 --> 00:24:20,196 that bought this thing about 274 00:24:21,460 --> 00:24:24,121 playing many, many instruments. 275 00:24:24,121 --> 00:24:27,947 And when they see me year after year 276 00:24:27,947 --> 00:24:31,239 and now that I'm here and my music 277 00:24:32,304 --> 00:24:35,198 it's hard for them to say that it's a gimmick anymore 278 00:24:35,198 --> 00:24:38,425 because it has influenced many, many people. 279 00:24:38,425 --> 00:24:42,379 ("Seasons") 280 00:25:40,730 --> 00:25:44,782 - Rahsaan was looking for a bass player 281 00:25:44,782 --> 00:25:48,309 and he asked me if I would be interested and I said yes. 282 00:25:48,309 --> 00:25:50,548 And he invited me to come up. 283 00:25:50,548 --> 00:25:52,822 I came up and I told him who I was 284 00:25:52,822 --> 00:25:55,952 and I stuck out my hand, touched his hand 285 00:25:55,952 --> 00:25:58,323 and shook his hand. 286 00:25:58,323 --> 00:26:03,034 And then when we began to play 287 00:26:03,034 --> 00:26:06,231 I asked something silly like, 288 00:26:06,231 --> 00:26:10,085 "Mr. Kirk, where is the music?" 289 00:26:10,975 --> 00:26:15,917 And everyone fell out because, including him, 290 00:26:16,016 --> 00:26:17,696 there wasn't any music. 291 00:26:17,696 --> 00:26:20,629 I went up there and I had my bath of fire, 292 00:26:20,629 --> 00:26:25,570 everything that I did I had to do from ear by ear 293 00:26:25,834 --> 00:26:27,546 off the top of my head. 294 00:26:27,546 --> 00:26:29,129 And that was the beginning of me playing 295 00:26:29,129 --> 00:26:31,698 with Mr. Rahsaan Roland Kirk. 296 00:26:31,698 --> 00:26:37,398 ("Stepping Into Beauty") 297 00:26:41,285 --> 00:26:44,350 Just to give you an idea about where Rahsaan 298 00:26:44,350 --> 00:26:46,919 was coming from in terms of his blindness, 299 00:26:46,919 --> 00:26:50,115 back in those days there was a place in Manhattan 300 00:26:50,115 --> 00:26:55,057 called the East, it was a theater, Filmore East, 301 00:26:55,222 --> 00:26:58,648 and Miles was there, Santana was there, 302 00:26:58,648 --> 00:27:01,053 all the groups and Rahsaan Roland Kirk was there. 303 00:27:02,602 --> 00:27:06,030 In his dressing room he would ask us 304 00:27:06,030 --> 00:27:08,374 to turn the lights off. 305 00:27:15,740 --> 00:27:20,866 He wanted us to experience what he was experiencing. 306 00:27:24,940 --> 00:27:26,772 Hey, how you doin'? 307 00:27:29,286 --> 00:27:30,982 - And then some people were walking and said, 308 00:27:30,982 --> 00:27:32,238 "Why is it dark in here? 309 00:27:32,238 --> 00:27:33,256 "What's going on?" 310 00:27:33,256 --> 00:27:35,023 And he was, "Sit down. 311 00:27:35,023 --> 00:27:36,652 "You're scared, aren't you?" 312 00:27:40,555 --> 00:27:43,204 - I used to go to Rahsaan's room sometime 313 00:27:43,204 --> 00:27:45,002 and he would have his glasses off. 314 00:27:45,002 --> 00:27:49,484 Now, you know how we have the pupil here in our eye? 315 00:27:50,944 --> 00:27:54,033 His both eyes were like, 316 00:27:54,033 --> 00:27:56,070 it's kinda like blue. 317 00:27:56,070 --> 00:27:57,868 Because you know what happened at birth. 318 00:27:57,868 --> 00:28:01,365 The nurse put too much silver nitrate in his eye 319 00:28:01,365 --> 00:28:04,590 and as a result he lost his sight. 320 00:28:05,914 --> 00:28:09,074 - Those eye drops, either they were too harsh for his eyes 321 00:28:09,074 --> 00:28:12,601 at the time and that was why he became blind 322 00:28:12,601 --> 00:28:15,928 and it actually end up burning the cornea of his eyes. 323 00:28:15,928 --> 00:28:17,691 So that even in the future, 324 00:28:17,691 --> 00:28:20,718 as medical technologies advanced, even he wanted, 325 00:28:20,718 --> 00:28:24,378 it was called cornea replacement, 326 00:28:24,378 --> 00:28:26,474 that that would not be a possibility. 327 00:28:26,474 --> 00:28:28,435 - They put the wrong medicine in his eyes 328 00:28:28,435 --> 00:28:33,426 and back in those days there wasn't no 1800 lawyers, 329 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:35,289 there wasn't no cornea transplants 330 00:28:35,289 --> 00:28:37,884 and all that kind of stuff and it's just, 331 00:28:37,884 --> 00:28:39,814 "Sorry boy," that's it. 332 00:28:41,476 --> 00:28:44,304 They sent him home and he had to live with it. 333 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,096 Are you saying something? 334 00:28:52,355 --> 00:28:56,342 ("The Inflated Tear") 335 00:30:13,826 --> 00:30:17,185 - So much of your music has traveled throughout the world 336 00:30:17,185 --> 00:30:20,213 and a lot of people have enjoyed it, yet at the same time 337 00:30:20,213 --> 00:30:22,641 you are blind or sightless, 338 00:30:22,641 --> 00:30:25,469 as you put it you don't see too good. 339 00:30:25,469 --> 00:30:27,598 And I wonder if you had any particular hassles 340 00:30:27,598 --> 00:30:29,328 about being blind or do people 341 00:30:29,328 --> 00:30:33,187 just sort of treat you normally in everyday life? 342 00:30:33,187 --> 00:30:35,688 - Well, Ellis, I wish I could say 343 00:30:35,688 --> 00:30:37,556 that they treated me normal. 344 00:30:37,556 --> 00:30:40,291 I mean people that don't know me. 345 00:30:40,291 --> 00:30:43,293 They seem to have a superior type thing 346 00:30:43,293 --> 00:30:45,060 when they approach me. 347 00:30:46,295 --> 00:30:51,297 They seem to feel that because they see on this, 348 00:30:54,932 --> 00:30:56,933 what they call planet, planet earth, 349 00:30:56,933 --> 00:31:00,200 I call it plantation earth, they feel that 350 00:31:01,035 --> 00:31:03,336 since they can see certain things 351 00:31:03,336 --> 00:31:06,871 that these things are not open to me to see also 352 00:31:06,871 --> 00:31:09,873 and that's where we have the clash. 353 00:31:13,441 --> 00:31:16,777 If I'm with someone they'll ask the person, 354 00:31:16,777 --> 00:31:17,978 "Does he want this," 355 00:31:17,978 --> 00:31:22,813 or, "Can he pick up his drink to drink," 356 00:31:22,813 --> 00:31:24,114 and things like this. 357 00:31:24,114 --> 00:31:27,649 In other words, instead of talking right to me 358 00:31:27,649 --> 00:31:31,117 they seem fit or seem like their eyes are telling them 359 00:31:31,117 --> 00:31:33,218 to talk to the person that's with me 360 00:31:33,218 --> 00:31:36,187 and sometimes that person that's with me 361 00:31:36,187 --> 00:31:38,721 doesn't know how my mind is thinking, you understand? 362 00:31:38,721 --> 00:31:43,390 So to me I feel like it's disrespect to me 363 00:31:43,390 --> 00:31:46,592 as being a man 'cause that's what I am, 364 00:31:46,592 --> 00:31:51,594 a man first and a man that doesn't see too well second. 365 00:31:52,963 --> 00:31:55,597 Problems, problems, freeze! 366 00:31:56,531 --> 00:31:58,932 They don't know what's happening. 367 00:32:24,012 --> 00:32:28,613 - It's still almost a miracle 368 00:32:28,613 --> 00:32:31,249 of what he could do 369 00:32:31,249 --> 00:32:35,217 and you lose sight of the fact that he is not seeing. 370 00:32:36,185 --> 00:32:41,198 What I'm trying to say is in a world where people 371 00:32:41,331 --> 00:32:46,345 who have sights and other abilities 372 00:32:46,412 --> 00:32:48,985 and have they used it? 373 00:32:49,887 --> 00:32:52,561 Do we use the gifts we have? 374 00:32:55,535 --> 00:33:00,314 I saw him as a person who just used his gifts 375 00:33:00,314 --> 00:33:03,924 in such a positive and meaningful way 376 00:33:03,924 --> 00:33:08,837 that was infectious for other people. 377 00:33:13,917 --> 00:33:14,953 - Yes. 378 00:33:18,261 --> 00:33:19,398 Come on. 379 00:33:22,807 --> 00:33:24,846 Come on y'all, come on y'all. 380 00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:32,766 We just have to do it for New Orleans. 381 00:33:32,766 --> 00:33:34,338 This belongs to you. 382 00:33:34,338 --> 00:33:36,276 This belongs to you. 383 00:33:36,276 --> 00:33:38,113 Don't go nowhere. 384 00:35:06,746 --> 00:35:10,991 - Rahsaan was, in my lifetime, the person I knew, 385 00:35:10,991 --> 00:35:14,265 he was the champ for what we call circular breathing. 386 00:35:14,265 --> 00:35:18,143 And circular breathing is an ancient technique, 387 00:35:18,143 --> 00:35:21,886 it goes back to Africa before the written word. 388 00:35:22,822 --> 00:35:27,835 Musicians in India circular breathe for thousands of years. 389 00:35:28,035 --> 00:35:31,610 It's probably tens of thousands of years old. 390 00:35:33,215 --> 00:35:36,658 Nobody has actually written down when it was invented 391 00:35:36,658 --> 00:35:41,537 but needless to say it's before the written word. 392 00:35:41,537 --> 00:35:45,967 And it involves being able to hold a note simultaneously, 393 00:35:45,967 --> 00:35:48,133 you take a quick breath through your nose 394 00:35:48,133 --> 00:35:53,130 while you expel the air that's in your mouth cavity. 395 00:36:04,556 --> 00:36:05,788 And you can keep the air going 396 00:36:05,788 --> 00:36:07,587 for as long as you wanna do it. 397 00:36:07,587 --> 00:36:09,485 And it's a rhythm, you just inhale and exhale 398 00:36:09,485 --> 00:36:11,384 at the same time, it's a rhythm. 399 00:36:11,384 --> 00:36:15,848 And once you feel the rhythm you just deal with it. 400 00:36:16,814 --> 00:36:21,145 ("Volunteered Slavery") 401 00:38:39,821 --> 00:38:41,219 With circular breathing, 402 00:38:41,219 --> 00:38:43,585 Rahsaan could do it with a full tone. 403 00:38:44,918 --> 00:38:48,548 And he could control the dynamics 404 00:38:48,548 --> 00:38:53,545 and he did it to extend his musical thought 405 00:38:53,877 --> 00:38:56,743 not just to try and get the. 406 00:38:57,643 --> 00:39:05,637 I mean he could do whatever he wanted with it. 407 00:39:09,535 --> 00:39:12,565 I've seen him hold a note to great effect, 408 00:39:12,565 --> 00:39:15,997 but I've also seen him just playing music 409 00:39:15,997 --> 00:39:20,527 for like nonstop and it was stream of consciousness. 410 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:23,858 Piano players can do that, string players can do that 411 00:39:23,858 --> 00:39:27,222 but usually wind players have to stop and take a breath 412 00:39:27,222 --> 00:39:30,082 but he didn't. 413 00:41:01,861 --> 00:41:04,593 I'll tell you one experience I had. 414 00:41:04,593 --> 00:41:08,190 There was this song we used to play "Down By The Riverside", 415 00:41:08,190 --> 00:41:10,822 and he build it up and he build it up and he build it up 416 00:41:10,822 --> 00:41:13,153 and then at the end of it he'd hold this note 417 00:41:13,153 --> 00:41:15,952 for a long time and while he's holding it, 418 00:41:15,952 --> 00:41:17,584 the drum would be going off 419 00:41:17,584 --> 00:41:20,748 and he'll too be going crazy and stuff. 420 00:41:23,881 --> 00:41:25,745 He was circular breathing of course. 421 00:41:28,577 --> 00:41:36,106 I could circular breathe, so I do it too but, 422 00:41:39,803 --> 00:41:43,133 somehow I got my rhythm messed with the breathin' 423 00:41:43,133 --> 00:41:46,032 and I stopped and I took a breath and I came back in again 424 00:41:46,032 --> 00:41:49,596 and he reached over and took the horn down 425 00:41:49,596 --> 00:41:53,161 and he kept playing and finished the song. 426 00:41:53,161 --> 00:41:57,988 And then afterwards he said, "Once you're out, you're out. 427 00:41:57,988 --> 00:42:01,018 "You can't come back in like that." 428 00:42:01,018 --> 00:42:02,449 I said, "Oh okay." 429 00:42:02,449 --> 00:42:05,147 So, the next night we played a song 430 00:42:06,811 --> 00:42:08,342 and for some reason the lighting 431 00:42:08,342 --> 00:42:11,538 was a little different that night. 432 00:42:15,401 --> 00:42:19,663 I started breathing and I really listened to him 433 00:42:21,726 --> 00:42:24,224 and I could hear his breathing. 434 00:42:24,224 --> 00:42:29,217 And I put my breathing in sync with his 435 00:42:29,417 --> 00:42:31,915 and all of a sudden I must've held that note 10 minutes 436 00:42:31,915 --> 00:42:33,978 and I didn't feel a thing. 437 00:42:33,978 --> 00:42:36,708 And I could feel his aura come out 438 00:42:37,607 --> 00:42:41,170 and cover me too, and I could feel his energy. 439 00:42:41,170 --> 00:42:43,667 He pulled me inside of his energy 440 00:42:43,667 --> 00:42:46,630 and then we were both breathing at the same time. 441 00:42:46,630 --> 00:42:50,892 And I was aware of it but I wasn't in control of it. 442 00:42:50,892 --> 00:42:54,454 It was really kinda, I won't say creepy, it was beautiful, 443 00:42:54,454 --> 00:42:56,851 but it was deep, it wasn't something 444 00:42:56,851 --> 00:42:58,483 that you could learn in school. 445 00:42:58,483 --> 00:43:01,246 It's not academic. 446 00:43:01,246 --> 00:43:03,210 It was some other stuff. 447 00:43:03,210 --> 00:43:07,139 And a lot of moments like that happened. 448 00:43:38,102 --> 00:43:41,331 - He always fumes with his environment. 449 00:43:41,331 --> 00:43:44,094 There was no separation between him 450 00:43:44,094 --> 00:43:46,225 and his instruments or personnel. 451 00:43:47,424 --> 00:43:50,519 Everything was kinda glued together. 452 00:43:50,519 --> 00:43:54,749 Therefore, he had a passport to go wherever he wanted to go. 453 00:43:54,749 --> 00:43:58,111 There were no barriers and self-imposed barriers, that's it. 454 00:43:58,111 --> 00:43:59,942 And no self-imposed barriers. 455 00:43:59,942 --> 00:44:02,638 If they were there, it weren't there because of him. 456 00:44:03,904 --> 00:44:07,167 And if it was up to him there would be no barriers 457 00:44:07,167 --> 00:44:09,696 and he'd do whatever he wanted to do. 458 00:44:09,696 --> 00:44:13,226 - There was always something he was seeking 459 00:44:13,226 --> 00:44:18,054 within his mind as far as in relationship to sound. 460 00:44:18,054 --> 00:44:21,382 - Rahsaan would listen to like a bus horn, 461 00:44:22,415 --> 00:44:24,012 a screeching tire, 462 00:44:26,576 --> 00:44:28,806 any kind of sound. 463 00:44:28,806 --> 00:44:32,202 It seemed like he would follow the way 464 00:44:32,202 --> 00:44:34,898 and then at night he would be on one of the horns 465 00:44:34,898 --> 00:44:38,328 trying to duplicate that sound that he heard. 466 00:44:38,328 --> 00:44:42,256 That's how important sound was to Rahsaan Roland Kirk 467 00:44:42,256 --> 00:44:45,053 because he saw through his ears. 468 00:44:46,384 --> 00:44:50,279 - His room was filled with music. 469 00:44:50,279 --> 00:44:52,642 It was wall-to-ceiling records. 470 00:44:52,642 --> 00:44:56,205 An organ, a piano, saxophones, all kinds of horns 471 00:44:56,205 --> 00:44:58,501 that he tried and then blew. 472 00:44:58,501 --> 00:45:02,130 - I remember one time when he said, "Come on up. 473 00:45:02,130 --> 00:45:04,561 "I wanna play some records for you." 474 00:45:04,561 --> 00:45:08,522 So, we went upstairs and he said, "Go on and sit down." 475 00:45:08,522 --> 00:45:13,049 And I went and sat in the easy chair and he closed the door 476 00:45:13,049 --> 00:45:15,114 and of course it was dark in the room, 477 00:45:15,114 --> 00:45:16,713 he didn't bother to turn the lights on 478 00:45:16,713 --> 00:45:19,641 'cause he didn't need to see. 479 00:45:19,641 --> 00:45:21,706 He knew where everything was. 480 00:45:21,706 --> 00:45:25,001 And he played records for me in the dark. 481 00:45:33,624 --> 00:45:37,718 When we were listening, in between cuts he'd say, 482 00:45:37,718 --> 00:45:38,916 "You hear that?" 483 00:45:38,916 --> 00:45:40,249 I said, "What?" 484 00:45:40,249 --> 00:45:43,177 He said, "There's someone out in the alley, 485 00:45:43,177 --> 00:45:46,074 "down out the window in the garbage can. 486 00:45:46,074 --> 00:45:48,338 "Someone's rattling the garbage can." 487 00:45:48,338 --> 00:45:51,900 And I could faintly hear it, if I stopped to really listen. 488 00:45:53,232 --> 00:45:54,941 But I wouldn't have noticed it 489 00:45:54,941 --> 00:45:57,251 if he hadn't brought it to my attention. 490 00:45:57,251 --> 00:46:00,534 So he was aware of everything through sound. 491 00:46:00,534 --> 00:46:01,806 I mean we used to joke and I'd say, 492 00:46:01,806 --> 00:46:04,250 "He could hear around the corner." 493 00:46:05,826 --> 00:46:08,805 - Always listening, always listening. 494 00:46:27,562 --> 00:46:32,587 Sound is something like a eyesight to me. 495 00:46:34,729 --> 00:46:36,672 - He might be listening to throat singers 496 00:46:36,672 --> 00:46:39,486 from the Mongolian, wherever. 497 00:46:39,486 --> 00:46:42,735 - Trees whistling, wind whistling through the trees, 498 00:46:42,735 --> 00:46:45,274 birds singing, dogs barking. 499 00:46:45,274 --> 00:46:46,778 - Didgeridoo. 500 00:46:46,778 --> 00:46:49,317 He turned me on to the sound of that Australian didgeridoo 501 00:46:49,317 --> 00:46:52,959 from the Aboriginal people, the original Australians. 502 00:46:58,973 --> 00:47:02,815 The Australian wild dog called the dingo 503 00:47:02,815 --> 00:47:04,352 that you're seeing now. 504 00:47:06,256 --> 00:47:09,264 He had records of whales singing. 505 00:47:11,769 --> 00:47:15,430 He had records of birds singing and frogs 506 00:47:15,430 --> 00:47:18,556 and all the sounds of nature. 507 00:47:18,556 --> 00:47:21,784 Waves have rhythm, insects have tremendous rhythm. 508 00:47:23,613 --> 00:47:28,837 He was in tune with all these sounds. 509 00:48:31,551 --> 00:48:32,916 Oh yes. 510 00:48:34,678 --> 00:48:36,774 You better get out of here. 511 00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:42,596 I don't want no moment. 512 00:48:43,728 --> 00:48:45,524 Can't use no millionaire. 513 00:48:59,996 --> 00:49:02,958 - And he could find music no matter where it was at. 514 00:49:02,958 --> 00:49:06,550 And he could find it in any aspect of life. 515 00:49:06,550 --> 00:49:08,680 - Does that extend to you, say using your nose 516 00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:10,976 to play an instrument? 517 00:49:10,976 --> 00:49:12,573 - See, they still laugh at that 518 00:49:12,573 --> 00:49:15,600 but you see, nose still is a part of your, 519 00:49:16,499 --> 00:49:18,228 it's still a faculty. 520 00:49:18,228 --> 00:49:21,023 And I think of people that'd be out, 521 00:49:23,518 --> 00:49:25,914 the native people, the African people, 522 00:49:25,914 --> 00:49:30,007 they use anything that's possible 523 00:49:30,007 --> 00:49:32,635 to get to whatever's got to be done 524 00:49:32,635 --> 00:49:34,830 with a music instrument. 525 00:49:34,830 --> 00:49:38,457 I feel that the nose is there and it's creating air 526 00:49:38,457 --> 00:49:43,447 so why should it just be a thing that can't make music? 527 00:49:45,244 --> 00:49:46,774 Talk about it. 528 00:49:46,774 --> 00:49:49,934 ("Talk (Electric Nose)") 529 00:49:59,284 --> 00:50:00,980 What you say, nose? 530 00:50:02,344 --> 00:50:06,170 We're gonna feature the nose at this time. 531 00:50:08,500 --> 00:50:12,558 And to us, the nose is very close. 532 00:50:13,956 --> 00:50:18,115 The nose knows, yes. 533 00:50:20,277 --> 00:50:23,670 And these days the nose has to go through 534 00:50:23,670 --> 00:50:27,130 a whole lot of stuff, pollution. 535 00:50:28,827 --> 00:50:33,818 And the nose is one of the last things you take care of. 536 00:50:36,047 --> 00:50:39,473 I mean some of y'all give the nose some good 537 00:50:43,832 --> 00:50:46,959 samplings every now and then. 538 00:50:46,959 --> 00:50:50,021 But basically nose don't have too much foo. 539 00:50:51,617 --> 00:50:53,148 When you go out you don't say, 540 00:50:53,148 --> 00:50:54,812 "Well I got to get this." 541 00:50:54,812 --> 00:50:57,016 You don't go out everyday just to find 542 00:50:57,016 --> 00:50:59,620 something for your nose, you know what I mean? 543 00:50:59,620 --> 00:51:03,294 And then, damn, I mean the police get on your case 544 00:51:03,294 --> 00:51:06,033 if they find too much funny stuff for your nose. 545 00:51:09,806 --> 00:51:13,613 So I mean, y'all relate to Jimmy Durante's noise 546 00:51:13,613 --> 00:51:15,283 because it's big. 547 00:51:16,486 --> 00:51:18,155 But y'all gonna relate to my nose 548 00:51:18,155 --> 00:51:20,159 because my noise can talk about it. 549 00:51:22,797 --> 00:51:27,573 So, we're gonna have y'all see what y'all been missin' 550 00:51:27,573 --> 00:51:31,581 by not using your nose in the right way. 551 00:51:31,581 --> 00:51:36,389 You know what I mean? 552 00:51:54,791 --> 00:51:55,960 - He was a miscellaneous. 553 00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:58,331 He's in a category by himself. 554 00:51:58,331 --> 00:52:01,604 There was nobody else, there was no real, 555 00:52:02,638 --> 00:52:04,944 it was into terms of traditional. 556 00:52:04,944 --> 00:52:06,947 He was different. 557 00:52:07,916 --> 00:52:09,352 Everybody else is playing one horn, 558 00:52:09,352 --> 00:52:11,221 they'd take a solo, they sit down and they don't talk. 559 00:52:11,221 --> 00:52:12,757 He was very political. 560 00:52:15,463 --> 00:52:18,936 Yeah, he would talk about anything. 561 00:52:20,238 --> 00:52:22,344 He talked a lot. 562 00:52:22,344 --> 00:52:26,751 That was a big part of his presentation, he talked a lot. 563 00:52:26,751 --> 00:52:28,785 Miles doesn't say anything, 564 00:52:28,785 --> 00:52:31,252 Sonny Rollins doesn't say anything, 565 00:52:31,252 --> 00:52:33,453 Horace Silver doesn't say anything, 566 00:52:33,453 --> 00:52:35,553 Dizzy Gillespie would say something 567 00:52:35,553 --> 00:52:39,721 but most people didn't talk and he talked a lot. 568 00:52:41,154 --> 00:52:44,588 - Well you have to be a gypsy in this country 569 00:52:44,588 --> 00:52:48,822 to make money and especially when you're black. 570 00:52:48,822 --> 00:52:52,222 You got to travel all over the damn land to dig. 571 00:52:54,456 --> 00:52:56,557 I'm not bitter about it, it's bittersweet. 572 00:52:58,557 --> 00:53:00,024 - When you're dealing with music, 573 00:53:00,024 --> 00:53:02,092 like you call it Black Classical Music, 574 00:53:02,092 --> 00:53:04,492 do you consider gospel and rhythm and blues? 575 00:53:04,492 --> 00:53:05,691 - Yes. 576 00:53:06,891 --> 00:53:10,560 All of it is beautiful black music to me. 577 00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,660 And for us to be put in a box 578 00:53:13,660 --> 00:53:18,561 this is one of the biggest thing that has hurt us 579 00:53:18,561 --> 00:53:21,561 by saying, "Well, so and so is playing rock, 580 00:53:21,561 --> 00:53:23,795 "and so and so is playing folk rock 581 00:53:23,795 --> 00:53:28,796 "and she's doing the gypsy dance." 582 00:53:30,563 --> 00:53:34,464 Like I feel that we all are playing 583 00:53:34,464 --> 00:53:35,798 what people know as jazz, 584 00:53:35,798 --> 00:53:38,164 but I call it black classical music. 585 00:53:40,432 --> 00:53:43,666 And for us to standby and let these businessmen 586 00:53:43,666 --> 00:53:46,633 program us and put us in little boxes 587 00:53:46,633 --> 00:53:48,633 it keeps us from being together, 588 00:53:48,633 --> 00:53:52,066 it keeps us from not working in certain clubs 589 00:53:52,066 --> 00:53:54,634 and it just keeps everything messed up. 590 00:54:15,505 --> 00:54:17,872 - The number of musicians that were older 591 00:54:17,872 --> 00:54:21,239 or little older than me they didn't like the word jazz. 592 00:54:23,373 --> 00:54:26,641 I heard Max Roach didn't like it, 593 00:54:26,641 --> 00:54:29,308 Duke Ellington and Rahsaan Roland Kirk 594 00:54:29,308 --> 00:54:30,707 they didn't like those words. 595 00:54:30,707 --> 00:54:33,575 I think that's why Rahsaan coined the word 596 00:54:33,575 --> 00:54:35,742 black classical music. 597 00:54:35,742 --> 00:54:40,443 - He's wanting to make sure that jazz had a place 598 00:54:40,443 --> 00:54:43,344 as classical music. 599 00:54:43,344 --> 00:54:46,811 And he would trace that back in history. 600 00:54:48,012 --> 00:54:51,113 The early music, the music of the drums 601 00:54:51,113 --> 00:54:54,913 and music that came here, the spirituals, 602 00:54:54,913 --> 00:54:58,714 the gospel, the blues. 603 00:54:58,714 --> 00:55:02,081 He could tell you a lot about the blues. 604 00:55:03,016 --> 00:55:06,850 - I hear the roots of African-American music 605 00:55:06,850 --> 00:55:09,250 in Rahsaan's music. 606 00:55:09,250 --> 00:55:12,450 Just as I hear it in Ray Charles' music. 607 00:55:12,450 --> 00:55:17,451 That soulfulness, that connection to community 608 00:55:17,451 --> 00:55:19,385 and to their blackness. 609 00:55:20,919 --> 00:55:24,486 - This tune is called Blacknuss. 610 00:55:33,222 --> 00:55:36,956 A piano has 52 white notes and 36 black notes. 611 00:55:39,024 --> 00:55:43,157 And on this tune we featured nothing but the 36 black notes. 612 00:55:47,859 --> 00:55:50,325 In this case, the black notes are on top. 613 00:55:52,193 --> 00:55:54,960 And if you wanna join in with us on this, 614 00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:58,794 the words are B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S. 615 00:56:02,129 --> 00:56:06,062 ("Blacknuss") 616 00:56:22,432 --> 00:56:26,501 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 617 00:56:27,734 --> 00:56:31,768 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 618 00:56:32,901 --> 00:56:37,269 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 619 00:56:38,302 --> 00:56:42,604 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 620 00:56:43,771 --> 00:56:48,738 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S, yes 621 00:56:48,738 --> 00:56:53,173 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 622 00:56:53,173 --> 00:56:54,173 Thank you. 623 00:56:54,173 --> 00:56:58,408 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 624 00:56:59,641 --> 00:57:02,509 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 625 00:57:02,509 --> 00:57:21,679 ♪ Blacknuss. 626 00:57:26,048 --> 00:57:30,382 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 627 00:57:31,581 --> 00:57:35,983 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 628 00:57:36,916 --> 00:57:41,316 ♪ B-L-A-C-K-N-U-S-S 629 00:57:42,217 --> 00:57:46,118 ♪ B-L-A-C-K, blacknuss. 630 00:57:48,053 --> 00:58:07,189 Black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black. 631 00:58:10,924 --> 00:58:15,925 - Rahsaan thought that jazz didn't get its just due 632 00:58:17,059 --> 00:58:19,826 on TV particularly. 633 00:58:19,826 --> 00:58:24,226 - The major issue was that the great musicians of the day 634 00:58:24,226 --> 00:58:26,860 were not on TV, nobody would know who they were. 635 00:58:26,860 --> 00:58:28,795 There were all these commercial musicians, 636 00:58:28,795 --> 00:58:31,064 there was all this rock and roll on TV, 637 00:58:31,064 --> 00:58:34,065 but the artists creating the real energy 638 00:58:34,065 --> 00:58:36,964 for creative, intelligent music 639 00:58:36,964 --> 00:58:40,500 not just geared to excite teenagers 640 00:58:42,501 --> 00:58:44,334 they weren't getting the exposure. 641 00:58:44,334 --> 00:58:47,170 And if they weren't on film, 50 years from now 642 00:58:47,170 --> 00:58:49,236 they might not be known at all. 643 00:58:49,236 --> 00:58:51,872 - I think his main point was just 644 00:58:51,872 --> 00:58:55,206 having jazz be more appreciated in our own country 645 00:58:55,206 --> 00:58:58,275 because it is our true art form here in this country. 646 00:58:58,275 --> 00:59:03,277 - So, hence, as you know, it's what started 647 00:59:03,643 --> 00:59:06,945 the Jazz and People's Movement to see 648 00:59:06,945 --> 00:59:11,648 if he could make a difference in jazz being on television. 649 01:00:04,236 --> 01:00:08,138 - Rahsaan's idea was that we would buy whistles 650 01:00:08,138 --> 01:00:10,439 and we would give them to our group 651 01:00:10,439 --> 01:00:13,340 and we would get them into the TV show. 652 01:00:13,340 --> 01:00:16,576 And at a certain point there'd be a signal, 653 01:00:16,576 --> 01:00:19,709 he would give the signal, and we would all 654 01:00:19,709 --> 01:00:21,878 simultaneously start blasting our whistles 655 01:00:21,878 --> 01:00:23,711 so that the show couldn't go on. 656 01:00:23,711 --> 01:00:24,812 And then that would lead to 657 01:00:24,812 --> 01:00:26,679 "Why are these people doing that?" 658 01:00:26,679 --> 01:00:29,147 And that's when there would be a discussion, 659 01:00:29,147 --> 01:00:31,548 which wouldn't be on the air of course 660 01:00:31,548 --> 01:00:33,049 'cause they would stop their cameras, 661 01:00:33,049 --> 01:00:35,350 but the discussion would be about this problem 662 01:00:35,350 --> 01:00:38,085 and what can be done to rectify it. 663 01:00:39,352 --> 01:00:41,286 All right. 664 01:00:41,286 --> 01:00:44,219 - The first TV show that we decided, 665 01:00:44,219 --> 01:00:46,585 for whatever reason, I don't remember why, 666 01:00:46,585 --> 01:00:49,484 to disrupt was the Dick Cavett Show. 667 01:00:49,484 --> 01:00:50,951 I keep having odd experiences-- 668 01:00:50,951 --> 01:00:54,416 - And we had a fairly large group in the audience. 669 01:00:55,281 --> 01:00:56,848 Trevor Howard was the actor 670 01:00:56,848 --> 01:00:59,681 who was being interviewed by Dick Cavett. 671 01:00:59,681 --> 01:01:01,781 And we were all in the audience trying to, 672 01:01:01,781 --> 01:01:03,379 wondering who's gonna be the one 673 01:01:03,379 --> 01:01:04,847 to stand up and start this thing. 674 01:01:04,847 --> 01:01:08,978 And I think Dick Cavett says to Trevor Howard, 675 01:01:08,978 --> 01:01:12,244 asks him something about how he's liking being in New York 676 01:01:12,244 --> 01:01:13,577 and Trevor Howard says, 677 01:01:13,577 --> 01:01:16,343 "Well, I don't like it so much anymore." 678 01:01:16,343 --> 01:01:18,410 And Dick Cavett asks him, "Why is that?" 679 01:01:18,410 --> 01:01:20,642 And he says. 680 01:01:20,642 --> 01:01:22,842 - "There's so few places left where you can go 681 01:01:22,842 --> 01:01:24,841 and hear some good jazz music." 682 01:01:24,841 --> 01:01:26,606 So, that was the signal. 683 01:01:29,940 --> 01:01:33,572 So everybody stood up and started blasting away 684 01:01:33,572 --> 01:01:36,138 on their whistles and the show was stopped. 685 01:01:36,138 --> 01:01:40,636 And my images of Dick Cavett kind of 686 01:01:40,636 --> 01:01:43,403 running around the stage holding his ears. 687 01:01:45,268 --> 01:01:49,817 It shocked the stations. 688 01:01:49,817 --> 01:01:53,867 The Civil Rights movement was, not in its beginning 689 01:01:53,867 --> 01:01:58,150 but it was in its prime, I would say, at that time. 690 01:01:58,150 --> 01:02:01,603 It was a period where people were celebrating 691 01:02:01,603 --> 01:02:04,258 their roots and their cultural heritage 692 01:02:04,258 --> 01:02:08,308 and it was a beautiful time in America in that sense. 693 01:02:08,308 --> 01:02:10,134 People being together and determined 694 01:02:10,134 --> 01:02:12,657 to make something happen and proud. 695 01:02:13,586 --> 01:02:17,902 Because there was this climate of change and uproar 696 01:02:17,902 --> 01:02:21,189 in America the news took this very seriously, 697 01:02:21,189 --> 01:02:22,285 the news shows. 698 01:02:22,285 --> 01:02:24,741 And the first disruption that we did, 699 01:02:24,741 --> 01:02:27,663 it was the first item on the 11 o'clock news, 700 01:02:27,663 --> 01:02:29,355 there was no cable then. 701 01:02:29,355 --> 01:02:33,339 So, the major network news was 702 01:02:33,339 --> 01:02:35,564 channel 2, 4 and 7 that's what people watched. 703 01:02:35,564 --> 01:02:37,489 That's all that really was. 704 01:02:37,489 --> 01:02:41,307 And so here, you put on the news and the first item 705 01:02:41,307 --> 01:02:43,033 on channel two before they would go 706 01:02:43,033 --> 01:02:44,893 into the war dead in Vietnam 707 01:02:44,893 --> 01:02:46,952 and all the major news issues was 708 01:02:46,952 --> 01:02:50,470 a group of black artists disrupts the Dick Cavett Show. 709 01:02:50,470 --> 01:02:53,458 And I don't know what they thought were gonna do 710 01:02:53,458 --> 01:02:56,412 but we were kinda portrayed as militants 711 01:02:56,412 --> 01:02:59,002 and once it was known that there was this group 712 01:02:59,002 --> 01:03:02,289 and that we had done this and it was of course expensive, 713 01:03:02,289 --> 01:03:04,679 the show had to be stopped. 714 01:03:04,679 --> 01:03:06,880 I don't know if the guests were rebooked or whatever 715 01:03:06,880 --> 01:03:10,080 but nobody wanted us to do this to them. 716 01:03:10,080 --> 01:03:15,080 So, I think largely to avoid being disrupted 717 01:03:15,180 --> 01:03:20,181 we started hearing back from and hearing from shows 718 01:03:20,280 --> 01:03:23,280 taking an interest in these musicians. 719 01:03:23,280 --> 01:03:26,515 And one of those shows was the Ed Sullivan Show. 720 01:03:42,349 --> 01:03:46,983 The Ed Sullivan staff had planned for us 721 01:03:46,983 --> 01:03:48,916 on to play "Ma Cherie Amour" 722 01:03:48,916 --> 01:03:52,683 which was a very accessible, understandable, 723 01:03:52,683 --> 01:03:54,151 nice piece of music. 724 01:03:54,151 --> 01:03:59,050 And that they felt that their audience would relate to. 725 01:04:00,317 --> 01:04:03,518 But Rahsaan had in mind 726 01:04:04,484 --> 01:04:07,985 had an entirely different story in mind. 727 01:04:07,985 --> 01:04:12,051 - Famous jazzman Rahsaan Roland Kirk has assembled 728 01:04:12,051 --> 01:04:15,420 some of the top Black Classical Jazz artists in the country 729 01:04:15,420 --> 01:04:17,018 and here they are. 730 01:04:17,018 --> 01:04:19,086 So, let's have a very particularly warm welcome for them. 731 01:04:29,853 --> 01:04:32,521 - True black music will be heard tonight. 732 01:04:32,521 --> 01:04:35,454 We want you to get into it with us out in the audience. 733 01:04:35,454 --> 01:04:36,554 Don't let them wave the sign. 734 01:04:36,554 --> 01:04:37,487 You just get into it. 735 01:04:37,487 --> 01:04:39,053 Kajumba! 736 01:04:49,790 --> 01:04:51,522 Roy Haynes on the drums. 737 01:04:58,589 --> 01:05:00,557 Did you hear Roy Haynes on the drums? 738 01:05:15,158 --> 01:05:18,758 True artist playwright and saxophonist, Archie Shepp. 739 01:05:24,159 --> 01:05:26,392 Charles Mingus on the bass fiddle. 740 01:05:26,392 --> 01:05:27,659 Mr. Charles Mingus. 741 01:05:56,529 --> 01:06:00,462 ("Haitian Fight Song") 742 01:09:16,146 --> 01:09:20,413 - Back in 1970, '71, jazz was still 743 01:09:20,413 --> 01:09:23,748 underrepresented in terms of just numbers. 744 01:09:23,748 --> 01:09:26,547 how many people play in the Tonight Show, 745 01:09:26,547 --> 01:09:30,315 or, who's on staff at CBS? 746 01:09:31,548 --> 01:09:35,915 All those kind of things because it was still a problem. 747 01:09:38,016 --> 01:09:42,382 There was still many racial problems still going. 748 01:09:43,515 --> 01:09:46,383 He was a fighter and he just wanted to feel 749 01:09:46,383 --> 01:09:51,249 that he did all he could to open things up. 750 01:09:52,116 --> 01:09:54,016 - That was wonderful. 751 01:09:54,016 --> 01:09:56,150 Wonderful, wonderful. 752 01:09:57,217 --> 01:09:58,551 Wonderful, wonderful. 753 01:09:58,551 --> 01:10:01,496 - The country went through a change as far as 754 01:10:02,367 --> 01:10:05,346 the number of faces you see on TV, 755 01:10:05,346 --> 01:10:09,095 I mean people African-Americans and all that 756 01:10:09,095 --> 01:10:11,540 and sitcoms and all that. 757 01:10:11,540 --> 01:10:15,893 Yes, you might say it could be attributed to him directly 758 01:10:15,893 --> 01:10:18,972 but every little bit helped. 759 01:10:18,972 --> 01:10:24,697 ("Freaks For the Festival") 760 01:10:28,915 --> 01:10:31,225 ♪ Uh uh uh uh uh dun um look 761 01:10:31,225 --> 01:10:31,896 ♪ Look at it 762 01:10:31,896 --> 01:10:32,832 ♪ Look at it 763 01:10:32,832 --> 01:10:34,473 ♪ Look at it uh uh look at it 764 01:10:34,473 --> 01:10:35,878 ♪ Look at it 765 01:10:35,878 --> 01:10:37,586 ♪ Up in the sky 766 01:10:39,663 --> 01:10:41,068 ♪ Who is it 767 01:10:42,943 --> 01:10:44,584 ♪ It ain't Superman 768 01:10:44,584 --> 01:10:47,329 ♪ It ain't Superfly 769 01:10:47,329 --> 01:10:48,869 ♪ It's Superself 770 01:10:51,715 --> 01:10:53,623 Yeah, everybody. 771 01:10:55,664 --> 01:10:56,904 Aaaah! 772 01:10:56,904 --> 01:10:58,042 Yeah! 773 01:11:01,992 --> 01:11:06,164 - Rahsaan was really on his way 774 01:11:06,164 --> 01:11:10,036 to the next level of his music, 775 01:11:10,036 --> 01:11:13,073 whatever that would've been. 776 01:11:14,142 --> 01:11:18,214 He had signed what was a really decent contract 777 01:11:18,214 --> 01:11:22,119 with Warner Brothers Records 778 01:11:22,119 --> 01:11:27,258 and so I think there was nowhere to go but up. 779 01:11:43,214 --> 01:11:47,753 The Tuesday before Thanksgiving 1975, 780 01:11:47,753 --> 01:11:50,689 I don't remember the date, but Thanksgiving 781 01:11:50,689 --> 01:11:54,695 is significant because he loved holidays. 782 01:11:54,695 --> 01:11:56,464 And we had just had dinner, 783 01:11:56,464 --> 01:11:59,368 Rahsaan had been in the city that day 784 01:11:59,368 --> 01:12:03,072 and he had come home and we had had dinner 785 01:12:03,072 --> 01:12:04,708 and he went upstairs. 786 01:12:04,708 --> 01:12:08,540 The girls and I were still in the kitchen, 787 01:12:08,540 --> 01:12:12,105 I guess we were clearin' the dishes off or what have you 788 01:12:12,105 --> 01:12:17,103 and I heard a noise and I was like, "God, what was that?" 789 01:12:18,635 --> 01:12:21,700 And then that's when the dog started barking 790 01:12:21,700 --> 01:12:23,533 and barking and barking. 791 01:12:24,565 --> 01:12:25,999 We had a Doberman pinscher 792 01:12:25,999 --> 01:12:29,164 and a little yappy Yorkshire terrier, 793 01:12:29,164 --> 01:12:34,162 then I decided to go upstairs and see. 794 01:12:34,395 --> 01:12:39,392 And when I got up there Rahsaan was on the floor 795 01:12:39,460 --> 01:12:42,558 between the bed and the wall. 796 01:12:42,558 --> 01:12:45,789 "Rahsaan, Rahsaan," I started screamin'. 797 01:12:45,789 --> 01:12:49,754 Some things you just know, I immediately knew 798 01:12:49,754 --> 01:12:51,653 what had just happened. 799 01:12:51,653 --> 01:12:53,551 And then I screamed to Yolanda. 800 01:12:53,551 --> 01:12:54,915 "Come help me get Rahsaan up! 801 01:12:54,915 --> 01:12:57,578 "Come help me get Rahsaan up!" 802 01:12:57,578 --> 01:13:00,773 We called 911. 803 01:13:00,773 --> 01:13:04,368 And so the ambulance came and the dogs 804 01:13:04,368 --> 01:13:08,528 are barkin' like crazy and pure chaos. 805 01:13:23,339 --> 01:13:26,035 - If you've expressed yourself through music 806 01:13:26,035 --> 01:13:29,929 your entire life, okay? 807 01:13:29,929 --> 01:13:32,484 Every day of your life and this the path 808 01:13:32,484 --> 01:13:35,869 that you've chosen to walk down and to do 809 01:13:35,869 --> 01:13:38,791 and all of a sudden you can't do it anymore, 810 01:13:38,791 --> 01:13:40,648 what are you supposed to do? 811 01:13:40,648 --> 01:13:44,764 - You sat by the bedside and hoped the doctors 812 01:13:44,764 --> 01:13:48,181 can perform a miracle, that's what you do 813 01:13:48,181 --> 01:13:50,538 'cause Rahsaan couldn't talk 814 01:13:50,538 --> 01:13:55,218 but then finally gradually, I don't remember at what point, 815 01:13:56,081 --> 01:14:00,129 his speech was slurred, slurred speech is a good thing 816 01:14:00,129 --> 01:14:03,050 when you've had a stroke. 817 01:14:03,050 --> 01:14:05,539 He couldn't move his legs. 818 01:14:05,539 --> 01:14:06,966 Why is it a good thing? 819 01:14:08,791 --> 01:14:12,873 - That means that there is movement and progress. 820 01:14:13,802 --> 01:14:18,781 He couldn't move his legs and finally he could move his leg, 821 01:14:19,279 --> 01:14:23,693 all of that is just like, "Whoopee, let's throw a party!" 822 01:14:23,693 --> 01:14:25,187 You know what I mean? 823 01:14:25,187 --> 01:14:30,037 And so that's how you recover gradually 824 01:14:30,037 --> 01:14:35,020 and in his case as much as the recovery was going to be, 825 01:14:35,716 --> 01:14:39,968 and as you know he didn't fully recover from it, 826 01:14:39,968 --> 01:14:44,243 but at least his speech became very audible 827 01:14:44,243 --> 01:14:48,553 like the old Rahsaan, he just didn't have use of that hand 828 01:14:48,553 --> 01:14:53,161 to play his instrument as he had previously. 829 01:14:54,230 --> 01:14:56,734 - Most of us just assumed he wouldn't be able 830 01:14:56,734 --> 01:14:58,205 to play anymore. 831 01:14:58,205 --> 01:15:03,215 He became thin, he looked weak, frail. 832 01:15:05,085 --> 01:15:08,625 - I actually thought that when he had the stroke 833 01:15:09,827 --> 01:15:12,333 that it was all over. 834 01:15:12,333 --> 01:15:16,941 And we went up to see him in the hospital and everything 835 01:15:16,941 --> 01:15:19,579 and we laughed and talked and whatnot 836 01:15:19,579 --> 01:15:21,851 and told him, "You can't keep a good man down," 837 01:15:21,851 --> 01:15:23,488 and all kind of stuff like that. 838 01:15:23,488 --> 01:15:25,091 And he was up there saying, 839 01:15:25,091 --> 01:15:26,661 "Well I'll be back, don't worry." 840 01:15:50,574 --> 01:15:55,551 He had his horn modified and remodified. 841 01:15:55,551 --> 01:15:58,223 So, whatever notes that he could hit on the bottom 842 01:15:58,223 --> 01:16:00,429 he could hit on the top with one hand. 843 01:16:00,429 --> 01:16:04,136 - I just marveled at how he picked up, 844 01:16:04,136 --> 01:16:08,379 readjusting his instruments so he could go on playing 845 01:16:08,379 --> 01:16:11,652 how he played with the one hand 846 01:16:11,652 --> 01:16:15,126 and still made good music. 847 01:16:15,126 --> 01:16:18,367 - He wasn't gonna let a stroke stop him or anything else. 848 01:16:18,367 --> 01:16:20,672 And if you look at his career 849 01:16:20,672 --> 01:16:23,011 and of course we know the answer 850 01:16:23,011 --> 01:16:26,551 he marched on. 851 01:16:26,551 --> 01:16:30,033 ("I Loves You, Porgy") 852 01:16:59,889 --> 01:17:03,559 - Most saxophones they have four buttons here, 853 01:17:03,559 --> 01:17:07,495 little finger presses to deal with the low notes. 854 01:17:07,495 --> 01:17:11,198 Well he had four more buttons made up here 855 01:17:11,198 --> 01:17:14,700 to do what these four fingers do. 856 01:17:14,700 --> 01:17:19,270 And so with this little finger he was doing 857 01:17:19,270 --> 01:17:21,505 what these four fingers were doing. 858 01:17:21,505 --> 01:17:24,608 So, these three fingers were playing normal 859 01:17:24,608 --> 01:17:27,510 and then this little finger was working over time. 860 01:17:27,510 --> 01:17:30,479 And I used to watch him and he'd be playing 861 01:17:30,479 --> 01:17:34,749 and I've never seen that kind of saxophone played before. 862 01:17:37,016 --> 01:17:41,553 It blew my mind to the point where I forget to play 863 01:17:41,553 --> 01:17:43,655 and I said, "Oh shoot, I'm supposed to be playing." 864 01:17:43,655 --> 01:17:55,397 And I'd pick up my horn and come in. 865 01:17:59,767 --> 01:18:01,568 It was astounding. 866 01:18:02,469 --> 01:18:05,805 He just created a way so that he could still play. 867 01:18:05,805 --> 01:18:09,612 ("Goodbye Pork Pie Hat") 868 01:18:20,349 --> 01:18:23,118 - And so he started performing and traveling. 869 01:18:23,118 --> 01:18:27,988 And he would sit facing the audience in a way 870 01:18:27,988 --> 01:18:30,023 where they would see the hand that was working 871 01:18:30,023 --> 01:18:31,390 and the other hand would be here 872 01:18:31,390 --> 01:18:33,893 because he expressed to me that he felt 873 01:18:33,893 --> 01:18:35,527 that they would feel cheated if they knew 874 01:18:35,527 --> 01:18:41,965 he was only playing with one hand. 875 01:18:45,902 --> 01:18:49,104 - At some point, his doctors had told him 876 01:18:49,104 --> 01:18:54,108 that he would have to go to dialysis three times per week 877 01:18:54,575 --> 01:18:59,011 but he still continued to perform. 878 01:18:59,011 --> 01:19:04,015 In spite of dialysis, Rahsaan would go to work, 879 01:19:04,282 --> 01:19:07,417 say he had dialysis this morning, 880 01:19:07,417 --> 01:19:09,986 and he was working at the Vanguard, 881 01:19:09,986 --> 01:19:13,155 he would go and where he got all the energy I don't know 882 01:19:13,155 --> 01:19:18,158 but he justified all logic, all medical information 883 01:19:19,826 --> 01:19:21,261 and what have you. 884 01:19:21,261 --> 01:19:24,263 And I think that was all because of his really, really 885 01:19:24,263 --> 01:19:27,899 strong determination to do whatever it was 886 01:19:27,899 --> 01:19:31,168 that he decided he wanted to do. 887 01:19:33,337 --> 01:19:38,340 ♪ He put all of his soul into a tenor saxophone 888 01:19:39,708 --> 01:19:42,577 ♪ He had his way of talking 889 01:19:42,577 --> 01:19:46,213 ♪ 'Twas a language of his own 890 01:19:46,213 --> 01:19:49,281 ♪ Life's story love and glory 891 01:19:49,281 --> 01:19:52,985 ♪ If you listen when he plays it for you 892 01:19:52,985 --> 01:19:57,988 ♪ Now listen and listen and dig it 893 01:19:59,356 --> 01:20:02,525 ♪ Can you dig it 894 01:20:03,559 --> 01:20:07,629 ("Theme For The Eulipions") 895 01:20:09,930 --> 01:20:11,866 ♪ You wouldn't forget him either 896 01:20:11,866 --> 01:20:13,933 ♪ If you had met him where I met him 897 01:20:15,235 --> 01:20:18,237 ♪ Talkin' about desolation 898 01:20:18,237 --> 01:20:22,373 ♪ No desolation is a railroad station 899 01:20:22,373 --> 01:20:25,742 ♪ 'Round about 2 am on a week night 900 01:20:26,710 --> 01:20:30,579 ♪ When you walk into desolation like that 901 01:20:30,579 --> 01:20:35,583 ♪ And suddenly out of nowhere comes a warm song 902 01:20:37,384 --> 01:20:39,753 ♪ You aren't about to forget it 903 01:20:40,786 --> 01:20:42,355 ♪ This is the first time though 904 01:20:42,355 --> 01:20:45,190 ♪ That I've heard him at an airport 905 01:20:45,190 --> 01:20:47,492 ♪ I know he moves along the piers 906 01:20:48,859 --> 01:20:53,863 ♪ He calls himself a journey agent a Eulipion 907 01:20:55,898 --> 01:20:59,201 ♪ Says his friends the poets and the artists 908 01:20:59,201 --> 01:21:02,770 ♪ And musicians are Eulipions too 909 01:21:03,703 --> 01:21:05,872 ♪ Hey listen 910 01:21:05,872 --> 01:21:08,574 ♪ Listen to his tune 911 01:21:08,574 --> 01:21:12,944 ♪ He calls it his duty free gift for the traveler 912 01:21:36,228 --> 01:21:39,697 - One day I received a phone call from a guy 913 01:21:39,697 --> 01:21:42,232 who worked at the Village Vanguard 914 01:21:44,668 --> 01:21:47,169 and I couldn't really make out what he was saying. 915 01:21:47,169 --> 01:21:49,805 I was hearing sobbing and other sounds 916 01:21:49,805 --> 01:21:51,706 on the other side of the phone. 917 01:21:55,575 --> 01:22:00,146 And the guy said, "You mean you haven't heard?" 918 01:22:03,882 --> 01:22:07,985 - The night before Rahsaan died, he performed 919 01:22:07,985 --> 01:22:12,989 at a college in Bloomington, Indiana. 920 01:22:14,456 --> 01:22:15,991 - He was quiet that night. 921 01:22:15,991 --> 01:22:19,060 He was kinda distant that I could tell something was up. 922 01:22:19,060 --> 01:22:22,295 But, man, he played really powerful. 923 01:22:22,295 --> 01:22:26,265 Man, the spirit was just incredible, man. 924 01:22:27,499 --> 01:22:32,403 And the next morning, 925 01:22:32,403 --> 01:22:34,871 we were supposed to go to Chicago. 926 01:22:34,871 --> 01:22:39,875 - We were just about to pull off from the hotel 927 01:22:41,576 --> 01:22:45,212 and I just noticed Rahsaan was squirmin' around, 928 01:22:45,212 --> 01:22:49,048 kinda just being a little restless. 929 01:22:49,048 --> 01:22:51,584 There were always signs whether he said anything or not. 930 01:22:51,584 --> 01:22:56,587 I knew signs of something if something is not right. 931 01:22:57,021 --> 01:23:00,090 I'm behind the driver, Rahsaan's sitting 932 01:23:00,090 --> 01:23:03,593 on the passenger side so I leaned from here to there 933 01:23:03,593 --> 01:23:05,561 and I touched him on the back and I was like, 934 01:23:05,561 --> 01:23:07,396 "Rah, Rah!" 935 01:23:07,396 --> 01:23:08,796 And he said, "Hmm." 936 01:23:08,796 --> 01:23:10,598 I'm like, "What's the matter?" 937 01:23:10,598 --> 01:23:12,265 And he said, "Hmm." 938 01:23:12,265 --> 01:23:14,167 That was it. 939 01:23:14,167 --> 01:23:17,470 He just laid his head back and I knew, 940 01:23:17,470 --> 01:23:19,202 I've never seen anyone die before, 941 01:23:19,202 --> 01:23:20,468 I knew he was dead. 942 01:23:20,468 --> 01:23:23,799 You just absolutely know. 943 01:23:23,799 --> 01:23:26,064 And of course I started screamin' 944 01:23:26,064 --> 01:23:28,162 and the young man that was drivin' 945 01:23:28,162 --> 01:23:33,159 he took like he was low jet flying. 946 01:23:34,425 --> 01:23:38,856 ♪ If there were no song 947 01:23:42,387 --> 01:23:47,217 ♪ You would have this song 948 01:23:50,082 --> 01:23:54,246 ♪ To give warmth at night 949 01:23:58,177 --> 01:24:02,708 ♪ And to keep you strong 950 01:24:06,172 --> 01:24:10,402 ♪ It would make love a guess 951 01:24:14,366 --> 01:24:18,596 ♪ Spinning round and round 952 01:24:22,294 --> 01:24:27,258 ♪ And when meteors fall 953 01:24:30,323 --> 01:24:35,320 ♪ Love would reach the ground 954 01:24:38,318 --> 01:24:42,315 ♪ If there were no moon 955 01:24:46,513 --> 01:24:50,710 ♪ To control the tides 956 01:24:54,440 --> 01:24:59,104 ♪ There would be these notes 957 01:25:02,568 --> 01:25:07,166 ♪ As the sail goes by 958 01:25:10,597 --> 01:25:15,028 ♪ We would make song the gift 959 01:25:15,028 --> 01:25:17,825 ♪ Like I said this is the first time though 960 01:25:17,825 --> 01:25:20,524 ♪ That I've seen him at an airport 961 01:25:20,524 --> 01:25:23,555 ♪ I know he moves along the piers 962 01:25:23,555 --> 01:25:28,551 ♪ Calls himself a journey agent a Eulipion 963 01:25:30,151 --> 01:25:34,048 ♪ Calls his friends the poets the artists 964 01:25:34,048 --> 01:25:37,179 ♪ Musicians journey agents too 965 01:25:38,146 --> 01:25:43,059 ♪ Calls this his duty free gift for the traveler 966 01:26:13,789 --> 01:26:17,337 ("Fly Town Nose Blues") 967 01:26:47,667 --> 01:26:48,800 Oh yeah. 968 01:26:51,365 --> 01:26:53,897 Come on, step down to earth. 969 01:26:53,897 --> 01:26:57,894 Just me and you both, when I count to four 970 01:26:57,894 --> 01:27:01,625 just me and you both give the people a message 971 01:27:01,625 --> 01:27:04,823 that everyone in the universe will understand. 972 01:27:04,823 --> 01:27:06,289 You know what I mean? 973 01:27:06,289 --> 01:27:08,554 One of them simple message. 974 01:27:12,085 --> 01:27:18,236 One, two, three, four. 975 01:27:19,305 --> 01:28:19,857 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm