Remastered by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s live club gigs were usually engaging, freewheeling affairs, full of good humor and a fantastically wide range of music. The double album Bright Moments is a near-definitive document of the Kirk live experience, and his greatest album of the ’70s. The extroverted Kirk was in his element in front of an audience, always chatting, explaining his concepts, and recounting bits of jazz history. Even if some of his long, jive-talking intros can sound a little dated today, it’s clear in the outcome of the music that Kirk fed voraciously off the energy of the room. Most of the tracks are long (seven minutes or more), demonstrating Kirk’s wealth of soloing ideas in a variety of styles (and, naturally, on a variety of instruments). “Pedal Up” is a jaw-dropping demonstration of Kirk’s never-duplicated three-horns-at-once technique, including plenty of unaccompanied passages that simply sound impossible.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (ts, fl); Ron Burton (p); Henry Pearson (b); Todd Barkan (synth); Joe Habao (perc); Robert Shy (dr)

Side A : 1. Introduction 2. Pedal Up 3. You’ll Never Get To Heaven

Side B: 1. Clackety Clack 2. Prelude To A Kiss 3. Talk (Electric Nose) 4. Fly Town Nose Blues

Side C 1. Talk (Bright Moments) 2. Bright Moments Song 3. Dem Red Beans And Rice

Side D: 1. If I Loved You 2. Talk (Fats Waller) 3. Jitterbug Waltz 4. Second Line J