We Free Kings

We Free Kings is a studio album by the jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk, released on Mercury Records in January 1962.^[1][2][3] His group works through a set of bluesy post-bop numbers, including a highly regarded version of Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice".^[4] The title track, a Kirk composition, is a variation on the Christmas carol "We Three Kings".

We Free Kings
Studio album by Roland Kirk
Released	January 1962 (1962-01)[1][2][3]
Recorded	August 16–17, 1961
Genre	Jazz
Length	38:40
Label	Mercury
Roland Kirk chronology
Kirk's Work (1961) We Free Kings (1962) Domino (1962)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
DownBeat	[5]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[6]
New Record Mirror	[7]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[8]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[9]

Reception

The AllMusic review by Lindsay Planer calls the album "among the most consistent of his early efforts. The assembled quartet provides an ample balance of bop and soul complements to Kirk's decidedly individual polyphonic performance style. His inimitable writing and arranging techniques develop into some great originals, as well as personalize the chosen cover tunes. With a nod to the contemporary performance style of John Coltrane, as well as a measure of his influences — most notably Clifford Brown and Sidney Bechet — Kirk maneuvers into and out of some inspiring situations".^[4]

Track listing

All compositions by Roland Kirk except where noted.

1. "Three for the Festival" – 3:10
2. "Moon Song" (Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston) – 4:23
3. "A Sack Full of Soul" – 4:40
4. "The Haunted Melody" – 3:38
5. "Blues for Alice" (Charlie Parker) – 4:08
6. "We Free Kings" – 4:46
7. "You Did It, You Did It" – 2:29
8. "Some Kind of Love" – 6:11
9. "My Delight" – 4:28

• Recorded in New York on August 16, 1961.

CD editions of the album include a different version of "Blues for Alice" (Parker) - 5:11.

Personnel

• Roland Kirk: tenor saxophone, manzello, flute, stritch saxophone
• Richard Wyands: piano (tracks 3-5 & 9)
• Art Davis: double bass (tracks 3-5 & 9)
• Charlie Persip: drums
• Hank Jones: piano (tracks 1-2 & 6-8)
• Wendell Marshall: bass (tracks 1-2 & 6-8)

References

1. Editorial Staff, Billboard (13 January 1962). "We Free Kings". Billboard Music Week. The Billboard Publishing Co. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
2. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (20 January 1962). "Jazz Pick of the Week" (PDF). Cash Box. The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
3. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (27 January 1962). "January Album Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
4. Planer, Lindsay, AllMusic review
5. DownBeat: April 26, 1962 vol. 29, no. 9
6. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
7. R.L.M. (20 July 1963). "Roland Kirk: We Free Kings" (PDF). New Record Mirror. No. 123. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
8. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 827. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
9. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 119. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.