Friday Night Video

The Montreux Jazz Festival wraps up tomorrow with two shows by Prince at Stravinsky Auditorium and Simian Mobile Disco at Miles Davis Hall. Not much jazz on the menu. . .

It wasn't always like this. Here's a video of the late Rahsaan Roland Kirk playing "Misty" at Montreux in 1972. Many of Rahsaan's signature techniques are on display here. Talk about breath control - check out his use of circular breathing at around the 2:00-minute mark. By breathing in through his nose while simultaneously expelling air from his mouth, he was able to play incredibly long lines of music without pausing for breath. If you don't realize what he's doing at first, just try humming along with his lines. Check out how he adds a second reed, playing two saxophones simultaneously just for a little extra harmony at around the 3:15 mark. And if he just seems to be showing off for the final two minutes, well, he is - this, after all, is a live performance at a jazz festival, and sometimes you have to showboat a little to impress the crowd.

I had the privilege of seeing Rahsaan play, usually at The Bottom Line in New York City, about a half-dozen times before his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1977, and his album Bright Moments still ranks among one of my all-time favorites of any genre. I've learned much from the man.