Rahsaan Roland Kirk

This week's episode of WNPM is about Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the brilliantly original multi instrumentalist, best known for playing three reed instruments simultaneously, often accompanied by additional, literal, bells and nose-whistles.  It features music from throughout his career, and ends with the story of the Jazz and People's Movement, the protest organization Kirk founded to try to get access to the mass media for jazz musicians.  I read excerpts from the JPM's manifesto, and play a recording of perhaps the peak of its activities, a performance on the final episode of the Ed Sullivan show, where Kirk brought Archie Shepp, Roy Haynes, and Charles Mingus to perform a blistering rendition of Mingus' Hatian Fight Song, a beautiful, if a little overblown, moment in musical and cultural history.  Enjoy!