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Volunteered Slavery

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Volunteered Slavery

| type = Album

| artist = Roland Kirk

| cover = Volunteered Slavery.jpg

| alt =

| released = 1969

| recorded = July 7, 1968;
July 22–23, 1969

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Jazz

| length =

| label = Atlantic

| producer = Joel Dorn

| prev_title = Left & Right

| prev_year = 1968

| next_title = Rahsaan Rahsaan

| next_year = 1970

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{rating|4.5|5}}

| rev4 = Rolling Stone

| rev4Score = (favorable){{cite journal |last=Burks |first=John |date=7 March 1970 |title=Records |journal=Rolling Stone |issue=53 |pages=48 |location=San Francisco |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. }}

| rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=4th|isbn=978-0195313734|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}

|rev3 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

|rev3score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=828}}

}}

Volunteered Slavery is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk containing portions of his 1968 Newport Jazz Festival performance along with studio recordings from July 1969. It was released on the Atlantic label and features performances by Kirk with Rahn Burton, Vernon Martin, Jimmy Hopps and Joseph "Habao" Texidor, Dick Griffin, Charles McGhee, Sonny Brown, Charles Crosby and the "Roland Kirk Spirit Choir".[http://www.jazzdisco.org/roland-kirk/catalog/#atlantic-sd-1534 Rahsaan Roland Kirk discography] accessed 17 August 2009

Critical reception

The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek states: "Volunteered Slavery, with its beat/African chanted poetry and post-bop blues ethos was certainly the first strike in the right direction... Kirk proves that he is indeed the master of any music he plays because his sense of harmony, rhythm, and melody comes not only from the masters acknowledged, but also from the collective heart of the people the masters touched. It's just awesome".Jurek, T. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r69397|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic Review] accessed 17 August 2009.

Track listing

:All compositions by Roland Kirk except as indicated.

  1. "Volunteered Slavery" - 5:43
  2. "Spirits Up Above" - 3:37
  3. "My Cherie Amour" (Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder) - 3:20
  4. "Search for the Reason Why" - 2:07
  5. "I Say a Little Prayer" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - 7:59
  6. "Roland's Opening Remarks" - 0:41
  7. "One Ton" - 5:02
  8. "Ovation and Roland's Remarks" - 1:42
  9. "A Tribute to John Coltrane: Lush Life/Afro-Blue/Bessie's Blues" (Billy Strayhorn/Mongo Santamaría/John Coltrane) - 8:14
  10. "Three for the Festival" - 4:23

:*Recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island, July 7, 1968 (tracks 6–10) and Regent Sound Studios, NYC, July 22 (tracks 2 & 4) and 23 (tracks 1, 3, & 5), 1969

Personnel

References

{{reflist}}

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20100620062537/http://home.uchicago.edu/~narusso/shack/kirk/rk_vol1.html Volunteered Slavery Liner Notes]

{{Rahsaan Roland Kirk}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1969 albums

Category:Atlantic Records albums

Category:Rahsaan Roland Kirk albums

Category:Albums produced by Joel Dorn