release date: 28.11.2025 on Resonance Records
SEEK & LISTEN: LIVE AT THE PENTHOUSE, AN EXUBERANT UNRELEASED 1967 RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK DATE, ARRIVES FROM RESONANCE RECORDS ON RSD BLACK FRIDAY!
Expansive Package, Also Available on CD December 5, Includes Notes by Biographer John Kruth and Novelist Mary Cobb, Memories from Bassist Steve Novosel, Appreciations from James Carter and Steve Turre and More….
Fresh bright moments will be added to the discography of the extraordinary Rahsaan Roland Kirk with Resonance Records’ November 28 release of Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse, a two-LP set of jubilant previously unreleased 1967 performances by the jazz genius. The Kirk package, an exclusive RSD Black Friday release produced in cooperation with Dorthaan Kirk of the musician’s estate and Jim Wilke and Charlie Puzzo, Jr., of the Penthouse, continues a long association between the Seattle club the Penthouse and Resonance co-president and album producer Zev Feldman, who has issued hitherto unheard albums by Les McCann, the Three Sounds, and Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio on the label. Sonically restored and remastered by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab, Seek & Listen was pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Le Vinylist in Quebec, Canada. The album will also be released on CD on December 5.
The collection finds Kirk in typically freewheeling and ebullient form, blazing through a generous set of originals like “Now Please Don’t You Cry Beautiful Edith” and interpretations ranging from an expansive Duke Ellington medley to Bobbie Gentry’s then-recent hit “Ode to Billie Joe.” His astounding double-blowing playing and circular breathing technique on an arsenal of horns is supported by pianist and longtime accompanist Rahn Burton, bassist Steve Novosel, and drummer Jimmy Hopps.
The Resonance release includes extensive notes on the date by Kirk biographer John Kruth, recollections from Novosel and trombonist Steve Turre, reflections on the musician’s career by saxophonists James Carter and Chico Freeman, and more.
© Tom Copi
Feldman says, “For years, whenever I’ve wanted to listen to some Rahsaan Roland Kirk, I’ve put on these recordings, which I heard for the first time around 2010 or 2011, when I first started speaking with Jim and Charlie. They are full of so much energy, passion and charisma that Rashaan magically creates. It is playing at a monumentally high level.”
Wilke recalls, “I had never seen Roland Kirk before, but I was very familiar with his recordings and I was impressed that he was interested in these unusual instruments, like the manzello and the stritch; he was a real master and student of the woodwind family. So I had great admiration for him as a scholar, as well as a musician.” Puzzo adds, “To see these live sets of recordings from the Penthouse — in this case, performances by the incredible Rahsaan Roland Kirk — become available now on vinyl and CD is a dream come true.”
Kirk’s widow Dorthaan says, “Rahsaan’s true legacy is his music. He made a whole lot of people happy through his music. His music is going to live on. I’m always amazed at the young people who have continued to discover him over the years.”
Summing up Kirk’s jaw-dropping talents, Kruth writes, “Roland Kirk was both a great and greatly misunderstood musician, a brilliant multi-instrumentalist who expressed himself through a homemade sonic tool kit that included tenor sax, the manzello, and the stritch (aka the stritchaphone), a straight Buescher Eb alto saxophone to which he added a French horn bell, creating a monstrous-looking horn that resembled a medieval vacuum cleaner. He also was a hell of a clarinet player, winning the DownBeat poll in that category year after year.”
Looking back, Novosel says, “The whole time I was with Roland, it was a trip because you never knew what was going to happen. He played with such spontaneity. We never had any music to read. I learned all the songs on the bandstand, just playing for the first time. That’s how I learned. I never knew what was coming up. It was different every night and I just reacted to it.”
“Rahsaan was unique,” Carter says. “What he was able to do was unbelievable. He could not only play three horns at once and sound like a saxophone section, he could also alternate between two horns and sound like two different people trading phrases. He’d switch from manzello to tenor and back seamlessly. Or he would play the head of the tune on two horns and then switch roles and play an incredible solo on one horn.”
Turre, who served in Kirk’s ‘70s band, says, “I got from Rahsaan the idea that jazz music in particular is something that brings all people together. If your spirit was right, he was there for you. He could tell just by the tone of a person’s voice whether their spirit was right or not….He wasn’t deceived by visual distractions; he would feel the spirit. He was deep.”
With a savvy understanding of the sources of Kirk’s music, novelist May Cobb writes, “Perhaps no other musician has lived more fully in the world of sound. He heard music in car honks and train whistles. Shattering glass, police sirens and chirping birds were at home in his compositions. He played everything that crossed his path, beginning with the water hose he picked up at age four, and he’d go on to master over forty instruments, some of which he fabricated himself. He played music, because he had to.”
In addition to Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse, Resonance will also issue Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate, an explosive, previously unissued 1963 Kirk performance at the titular New York club, as a two-LP RSD Black Friday set.
Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University for “Best Album Notes”) that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance’s catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Tawanda, Eddie Daniels, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www.ResonanceRecords.org