_{These are the liner notes and tune list from the album, I Talk With The Spirits, released by Roland Kirk on Limelight, 82008. I hope to add other albums as well, so that the words of Kirk and his admirers may be available as well as the sounds.}

I Talk With The Spirits

MRS. KIRK...This album was something special for us in many ways. Roland has had so many requests to do an all flute recording, and we are very happy with this album. Roland tries to make each album different. He doesn't believe in using a set pattern for every one. He finds some way to make music of everything in our house. He is always looking for new instruments. During our visits to Europe, we have spent hours in little curio shops looking for music boxes. This last time we were in Europe we found a wonderful music box. In Japan we found a large steel drum, which was so heavy we had a problem shipping it back to the States--it was 60 lbs. overweight.

ROLAND KIRK...My wife played a great part in this particular album. When I first met her about five years ago in Cleveland, she inspired me to start working on the title tune of this album, I Talk With The Spirits. She knows a lot about music; she has a great understanding and is very sympathetic towards what I am trying to do in my music.. She digs Billie Holiday and has great rapport with music. When I first met her, all of these things were a very strong force and set up an immediate communication between us.

The inspiration that I got from her for Spirits remained with me all these years, and it came back to me so strongly that Sunday when I was on my way to a rehersal for a concert that I was preparing to present at a church. I heard the whole scope of the tune like a choir singing, so having only the flute to express the sound, I conceived the idea while rehearsing with my next door neighbr, Miss C. J. Albert, a very fine singer who has perfect pitch. We had rehearsed together over a period of 3 or 4 months. She was so sympathetic with the flute that the whole thing blended together quite beautifully.

I'd like to mention my personnel on this album. Horace Parlan, my pianist, is one of the best young accompanists in New York. He is very flexible and has a very good ear. I think it is a drag that he is so underrated; he is rarely mentioned in any of the polls. This seems like a great injustice to me.

Micheal Fleming, my bass player, is very enthusiastic about what I am trying to do. He is very adaptable. He has the sound; the next thing he has to do is get things worked out to where he has that freedom thing we are trying to establish with each other.

Steve Ellington, my regular drummer who had been rehearsing with us, did not make this date with us because he was on the Coast aat the time and I didn't want to get into a hassle with the New York musicians' union. I used drummer Walter Perkins on this date because ever since our playing days together in Chicago we have wanted to do an album together.

A lot of thought went into this album. Everyone felt the same way about it that I did. I listened a lot to classical flutists. While not trying to inject classical forms into my music, I have tried to use their approach in this album. I don't think it sounds at all like the flute album you expect to hear.