Blacknuss

"From its opening bars, with the bass and Rahsaan's flute passionately playing Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," you know this isn't an ordinary Kirk album (were any of them?). As the string section, electric piano, percussion, and guitar slip in the back door, one can feel the deep soul groove Kirk is bringing to the jazz fore here. As the tune fades just two and a half minutes later, the scream of Kirk's tenor comes wailing through the intro of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On," with a funk backdrop and no wink in the corner - he's serious ... [Blacknuss] is Kirk at his most visionary. He took the pop out of pop and made it Great Black Music. He took the jazz world down a peg to make it feel its roots in the people's music, and consequently made great jazz from pop tunes in the same way his forebearers did with Broadway show tunes ... Blacknuss is as deep as a soul record can be and as hot as a jazz record has any right to call itself".

Læs anmeldelse

"Of all the albums [Kirk] made during his relatively short life, 1972's 'Blacknuss' best encapsules Kirk's anarchic musical approach via its riotously inventive mash-up of soul, funk, jazz, blues and gospel elements. Alongside a cache of terrific R&B covers - including a dreamy flute-led take on Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and a febrile deconstruction of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" - Kirk refashions a soft-rock standard, Bread's "Make It With You", into a late-night blues, and offers some striking self-penned numbers, including the rousing, Afro-centric title song. Kaleidoscopic stuff".