Roy Haynes Quartet • Out of the Afternoon Impulse!/Analogue Productions A-23
 here are very few recordings I would call perfect, but
this is one of them. Rudy Van Gelder recorded and Bob Thiele of Impulse! produced Out
of the Afternoon, and it reflects the edgier, more modern sound of the label compared
to others that regularly featured Van Gelder recordings. Roy Haynes, 98 years young as I
type this, is one of the most recorded jazz drummers of all time, and not just because of
his longevity. He was the drummer on many of the 20th century's most celebrated recordings
and released dozens of titles as a leader.
And what a supporting cast. Roland Kirk, who later took the name Rahsaan Roland Kirk, was jazz’s most celebrated multi-instrumentalist -- someone who not only can play multiple instruments but who plays several at the same time. His main instruments were tenor saxophone and flute, and he would appear onstage with several instruments hanging from his neck. Blind from the age of two, Kirk died at 42 from a stroke, but he recorded two and a half dozen albums as a leader and a handful as a sideman, mostly with Quincy Jones and Charles Mingus. For this outing, Kirk plays tenor sax, manzello (a modified soprano sax with an upturned bell), stritch (similar to an alto sax), C flute and nose flute. He sometimes plays the first three at the same time. Henry Grimes is on bass and Tommy Flanagan is on piano. Grimes played alongside many of the greatest leaders, including Rollins, Monk and Mingus, before specializing in free jazz. His ability to straddle styles is apparent here. Tommy Flanagan is one of the most-beloved jazz sidemen; he played with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and, for a long time, Ella Fitzgerald. The album is split between Haynes originals and jazz standards. The performances are outstanding throughout and all of the quartet members are at their peak. Two cuts stand out. “Moon Ray,” composed by Artie Shaw and performed by his orchestra, and later recorded by several big-band singers, is transformed into exactly what you might expect from Kirk reimagining Shaw. It is a wild ride. Flip the LP over and the opening cut of side two, Haynes’s composition “Snap Crackle,” with Kirk’s electrifying flute solo, is equally compelling. After hearing this record for the first time, I went down the rabbit hole, collecting every Kirk recording I could find. That added a couple dozen LPs to my shelves, yet none of these has eclipsed Out of the Afternoon, which remains on my short list of records I would hate to be without. This reissue, part of the Acoustic Sounds Series, was remastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. It is enclosed in a deluxe gatefold jacket produced by Stoughton Printing. The Bert Goldblatt photograph on the cover is, if anything, better reproduced than that of the original album. It's gorgeous in every way. I have listened to this music over the years with a
white-label mono original pressing. The session was recorded in stereo and mixed to mono
for that release, and I am won over by the stereo imaging of this reissue. I will not say
that the soundstage is a perfect facsimile of a jazz ensemble, but it is exceptionally
good, with drums in one channel, Kirk in the other, piano dead center and bass a bit to
one side. The tonal color and frequency extension of the reissue are slightly better than
the mono original's, so I will be listening to the Acoustic Sounds version from here on.
This is easily one of the best reissues of the year -- an album of all hits and no misses. |
