Volunteered Slavery

One of Roland Kirk's very best albums, 1969's VOLUNTEERED SLAVERY is a half-studio, half-live smorgasbord that comes closer than possibly any of his dozens of other releases to capturing all of his many musical sides. Opening with the classic call-and-response soul jazz title track, side one features two brilliant pop covers, Stevie Wonder's "Ma Cherie Amour" and a scorching reinterpretation of Bacharach-David's "I Say a Little Prayer," reworked into a eulogy for the recently slain Bobby Kennedy. Between those two comes the brief but stirring "Search for the Reason Why," a gospel-tinged hippiesque singalong that in lesser hands might sound drippy. Side two, recorded at 1968's Newport Jazz Festival, is built around the brilliant "Tribute to John Coltrane," a three-song medley that pays tribute without imitation, and the legendary "Three for the Festival," Kirk's wild yet controlled solo played simultaneously on three different reed instruments. This is a jazz classic.