Oscar Peterson - A Time for Love: The Oscar Peterson Quartet Live in Helsinki, 1987 (2021/FLAC)

 In 1987, jazz immortal Oscar Peterson led his quartet featuring Joe Pass, Dave Young and Martin Drew, through the final engagement of their 14-concert European fall tour at Helsinki’s famed Kulttuuritalo. A Time For Love captures Peterson’s focus on performing original compositions on the bandstand alongside timeless classics at the pinnacle of the group’s creative stride.

The final gig of a long international tour that began with four concerts in Brazil, this date was the 14th of a European tour that took the quartet all over mainland Europe and Scandinavia. Anyone with any knowledge of jazz knows that the magic of consistent performing only makes the synergy and empathy of an ensemble – both substances this quartet has in mind-blowing quantity – better and better. That always dwarfs the fatigue factor, and sometimes results in sheer magic on a different plane. That’s clearly what happened during this spectacular concert. As Kelly Peterson said: “Performing with joy and vivacity, they determined to make every concert better than the previous one. This night in Helsinki is a glorious example of that” – and a stunning addition to the continuing legacy of this beloved master of music.

The recording is ideally summed up by Green in his liner notes: This live concert recording of Oscar in his epic prime is a heaven-sent time capsule of beauty and serves a glorious addition to the Jazz pantheon itself, a stunning testament to the music for which he honestly, humbly and fearlessly dedicated his life as a peaceful warrior, a hero to us all for the ages. I’m thankful for the gift of this concert and that Oscar’s spiritual music will play on for us today and tomorrow, as we need it more than ever before.

• Oscar Peterson, piano
• Joe Pass, guitar
• Dave Young, double bass
• Martin Drew, drums

01 - Cool Walk 09:07
02 - Sushi 06:57
03 - Love Ballade 10:40
04 - A Salute to Bach (Medley): Allegro / Andante / Bach’s Blues 20:38
05 - Cakewalk 09:17
06 - A Time for Love 08:09
07 - How High the Moon 04:28
08 - Soft Winds 06:03
09 - Waltz for Debby 05:18
10 - When You Wish Upon a Star 04:54
11 - Duke Ellington Medley: Take the “A” Train / Don’t Get Around Much Anymore / Come Sunday / C-Jam Blues / Lush Life / Caravan 18:57
12 - Blues Etude 05:55

Django Reinhardt - Intégrale Django Reinhardt, Volumes 1 - 20 [40 CD, 1996-2005/FLAC)

 

The sprawling Intégrale Django Reinhardt, Volumes 1 through 20 (Frémeaux et Associés) is a massive, amazing tribute to Django Reinhardt’s life.

The basic outline of Django Reinhardt’s remarkable career is familiar to just about anyone who loves the guitar: how he started playing guitar-banjo as a child in the bals musette, the rough, working-class dancehalls of Paris; how he nearly lost his life in a fire that badly burned his left hand; how, in the process of relearning to play guitar with his crippled hand, he developed a mastery of his instrument that still astounds other guitarists; how he formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France with violinist Stephane Grappelli and created the style now known as Gypsy jazz; and how, after filling hundreds of records with his astonishing music, he retired to the little village of Samois, where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1953 at the age of 43.

Vol. 01 - Presentation Stomp (1928-1934)

Vol. 02 - I Saw Stars (1934-1935)

Vol. 03 - Djangology (1935)

Vol. 04 - Magic Strings (1935-1936)

Vol. 05 - Mystery Pacific (1936-1937)

Vol. 06 - Swinging With Django (1937)

Vol. 07 - Christmas Swing (1937-1938)

Vol. 08 - Swing From Paris (1938-1939)

Vol. 09 - H.C.Q.-Strut (1939-1940)

Vol. 10 - Nuages (1940)

Vol. 11 - Swing 42 (1940-1942)

Vol. 12 - Manoir De Mes Rêves (1943-1945)

Vol. 13 - Echos Of France (1946-1947)

Vol. 14 - Django's Dream (1947)

Vol. 15 - Gipsy With A Song (1947)

Vol. 16 - Festival 48 (1948)

Vol. 17 - La Mer (1949)

Vol. 18 - I'll Never Be The Same (1949-1950)

Vol. 19 - Troublant Boléro (1950-1952)

Vol. 20 - Pour Que Ma Vie Demeure (1953)

Stan Kenton And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1940-1947 (5 CD/FLAC)

 

Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.

The Paris All-Stars – Homage To Charlie Parker (1990/FLAC)

 

The city of Paris celebrated bop and the spirit of Charlie Parker with several days of all-star concerts in 1989, highlighted by this performance featuring eight giants who either played with the late alto saxophonist or built upon the foundation of his contributions, though the repertoire doesn't draw exclusively from Parker's recordings. The concert was led by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, with alto saxophonists Phil Woods and Jackie McLean, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Max Roach. Egos are never apparent as the men joyfully support one another and no one goes out of his way to showboat during a solo. Getz is featured in "Warm Valley," Roach is all alone during his three-part "Drummers' Sweet," it's Jackson with the rhythm section in the sentimental "Old Folks," while Heath opens a trio rendition of "Yardbird Suite" with a formidable unaccompanied solo. Dizzy's muted horn is complemented by Jones' spacious piano in a marvelous duet of "Con Alma." Woods and McLean team up for a fun romp through "Cherokee," while everyone returns to the stage for an inspired, smoking interpretation of "A Night in Tunisia," followed by Gillespie's delightful scatting in a burning take of "Oop-Pop-A-Da," which ignites his fellow players. Classical composer Mort Goode's liner notes talk more about the musicians than the performances themselves, so that explains why he didn't catch the bizarre mislabeling of "Steeplechase" as "Birk's Works," or the crediting of Gillespie's "Oop-Pop-A-Da" to Babs Gonzales. Sadly, this A&M CD has been out of print for quite some time, though it is well worth searching for a copy. 

    Alto Saxophone – Jackie McLean, Phil Woods

    Bass – Percy Heath

    Drums – Max Roach

    Piano – Hank Jones

    Tenor Saxophone – Stan Getz

    Trumpet – Dizzy Gillespie

    Vibraphone – Milt Jackson

Recorded June 15, 1989 at La Grande Hale - La Villette, Paris 

1. Steeplechase
2. Warm Valley
3. Drummer's Sweet: The Third Eye/Billy the Kid/The Drum Also Waltzes
4. Old Folks
5. Yardbird Suite
6. Con Alma
7. Cherokee
8. A Night in Tunisia
9. Oop-Pop-A-Da

Charles Tolliver Big Band - Mosaic Select 37 (3 CD, 2011/FLAC)

 

Three recordings, one of them previously unreleased (recorded in Hamburg for NDR), and featuring at least two generation of hard-boppers, including Jon Faddis, Herb Geller, Charles McPherson, George Coleman, Reggie Workman, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath, Clifford Jordan. On the German recording some of the most eminent Americans residents of Berlin, such as Benny Bailey and Alvin Queen, can be heard.

 

The Crusaders - The Golden Years (3 CD, 1992/FLAC)

 Issued in 1992, the first of GRP's Crusaders boxes deliberately limits its reach to a 20-year stretch, stopping just before the crucial departure of drummer Stix Hooper -- hence the arguably apt title The Golden Years. The three discs occasionally give us a good idea of the band's evolution from a fine Texas bop outfit to the soulful groovemeisters somewhat beyond category. 

Disc One roughly documents the transition from the Jazz Crusaders to the Crusaders, with the live "Eleanor Rigby" serving as the pivotal turning point, though some may lament the short weight of material (albeit licensed from Pacific Jazz) from the 1960s. 

Musically, Disc Two is a gas, an uninterrupted cornucopia of first-rate material -- two tracks from Those Southern Knights, almost the entire Free as the Wind album, and doubling back to two monster cuts from Crusaders I, the sublime "So Far Away" and percolating "Put It Where You Want It." 

Disc Three moves at a somewhat lower level, but you do get the full-length "Street Life," and the set closes with a flashback to The Second Crusade. Missed chronological opportunities aside, newcomers and established fans will find a terrific selection of fine grooves and zesty music-making in one compact box. 

 

 

VA - The Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Jazz [5 CD, 1997/FLAC]

 

The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a five-disc box set released in 1997 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz essayist and historian Martin T. Williams, the album featured tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz. The compilation has been recognized as an invaluable document of jazz history and maintains a legacy as introductory listening for new jazz fans as well as scholarship.

 

 

Andy Summers discography [1982-2017] (FLAC)

  

Andrew James "Andy" Summers (born 31 December 1942) is an English multi-instrumentalist, born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England.

While Andy is best known as the guitarist of the Police, he has since forged a successful and acclaimed solo career with new age-influenced contemporary instrumental music that, like his work with Sting and company, draws on his love for jazz and his fascination with creating instrumental textures.

1982 - Andy Summers & Robert Fripp - I Advance Masked

1984 - Andy Summers & Robert Fripp - Bewitched

1987 - Andy Summers - XYZ

1988 - Andy Summers - Mysterious Barricades

1989 - Andy Summers - The Golden Wire

1990 - Andy Summers - Charming Snakes

1991 - Andy Summers - World Gone Strange

1995 - Andy Summers - Synaesthesia

1997 - Andy Summers - The Last Dance of Mr. X

1998 - Andy Summers - A Windham Hill Retrospective

1999 - Andy Summers - Green Chimneys- The Music of Thelonious Monk

2000 - Andy Summers - Peggy's Blue Skylight

2004 - Andy Summers - Earth + Sky

2005 - Andy Summers & Victor Biglione - Splendid Brazil

2017 - Andy Summers - Triboluminescence

Henry “Red” Allen And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1929-1947 (FLAC)

 

Jazz history is full of innovators, interpreters, and individualists. The innovators change the way that the music is played and influence both their contemporaries and future generations while the interpreters perform the mainstream of the day or earlier styles, contributing fresh ideas to the music. The individualists are unique players who have their own sound and/or style. While they may not be major influences on others, they add to the legacy of jazz through their colorful musical personalities. Henry “Red” Allen was an individualist.

The last great trumpeter to emerge from New Orleans in the 1920s and arguably the most advanced of all of them. Allen’s playing remained unpredictable throughout his career. He was mostly heard in Dixieland, trad jazz and swing settings but the trumpeter tended to be more modern than his repertoire and his bands. His playing was quite speechlike and conversational, his phrasing sometimes almost ignored the beat, and he had a wide array of sounds, smears, and growls that sounded unlike anyone else. Allen was also an underrated vocalist who sang a bit like his trumpet playing and was a natural and masterful showman.

Sidney Bechet - Mosaic Select 22 (3 CD, 2006/FLAC)

 

Fela Kuti - Live In Detroit 1986 (3 CD, 2012/FLAC)

 

In its own way, this is a kind of grail; a live recording by the great Fela Kuti captured live mere months after his release from prison in 1986. After serving two years on a trumped-up charge of "currency trafficking," he was reluctantly released by the Nigerian government in April due to considerable pressure by Amnesty International. This show took place at Detroit's historic Fox Theater in November. The recording is the first release of "new" Fela material in nearly 20 years. 

CD1
01 - Just Like That

CD2
01 - Confusion Break Bone
02 - Teacher Don't Teach No Nonsense

CD3
01 - Beast Of No Nation 

Steps discography (1980-1982) [FLAC]

 

Steps Ahead is an American jazz fusion group.

The group arose out of spontaneous sessions at Seventh Avenue South, a jazz club in New York City owned by saxophonist Michael Brecker and trumpeter brother Randy Brecker. The first three albums were released under the name Steps, later changed to Steps Ahead, on Nippon Columbia in Japan, starting with the debut live album Smokin' in the Pit (1980), followed by Step By Step (1981) and Paradox (1982). 

Sam Manning - Volume 1 + 2 (1924-1930) [2 CD, 2002/FLAC]

 Samuel L. Manning (c. 1898–1960) was a Trinidadian performer and songwriter who was one of the earliest calypsonians to achieve international acclaim.

Manning was born in about 1898 in Couva, Trinidad. He worked as a chauffeur and jockey in Trinidad and British Guiana before travelling to London and enlisting in the Middlesex Regiment during World War I. He then served in the British West Indies Regiment in France and the Middle East. After demobilisation he began organising concerts and toured the Caribbean as a vaudeville entertainer, singing calypso songs and performing comedy sketches.

In the early 1920s, he moved to Harlem, New York, where he performed and recorded music that combined jazz and calypso rhythms. In 1924 he recorded for the OKeh and Paramount record labels, and his music became popular with black American audiences as well as expatriate West Indians. He made his first Broadway appearance in 1925 in John Howard Lawson's play, Processional. His song "Lieutenant Julian" commemorated the 1929 transatlantic flight by Trinidadian Hubert Fauntleroy Julian. Manning became increasingly associated with radical political causes. His companion was Amy Ashwood Garvey, who had been Marcus Garvey's first wife. She produced Brown Sugar, a jazz musical production at the Lafayette Theatre that featured Manning and Fats Waller and his band.

In 1934, he moved to England, where he gave performances in London. Manning was a member of the executive of the International African Friends of Ethiopia in 1935. He and Garvey opened the Florence Mills Social Club in London's Carnaby Street, which quickly became a gathering spot for the city's black intellectuals.

Manning returned to New York City in 1941. That same year, he produced the only known calypso "soundies". film clips made for film jukeboxes located in restaurants and bars. They featured Manning and his ensemble, and Trinidadian dance legend Beryl McBurnie. In 1947, Manning wrote and directed Caribbean Carnival, a Broadway show produced by Adolph Thenstead, which was billed as the "First Calypso Musical Ever Presented". It was a lavish production, featuring 50 singers and dancers, among them New York-based calypsonian the Duke of Iron, Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus and Manning himself. Manning and Thenstead also founded a record company, Cyclone.

Manning died in 1960 in Kumasi, Ghana, while travelling in Africa.

VA - Oldies in Jazz Vol. 1 - 9 (2020-2021/FLAC)

 

Spyro Gyra discography (1978-2009) [FLAC]

  

Spyro Gyra  is an American jazz fusion band, that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, United States. With over 30 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre. Their singles include "Shaker Song" and "Morning Dance" (1979).

Their music, which has been influential in the development of smooth jazz and is s staple on the numerous smooth jazz radio stations nationwide, combines jazz with elements of R&B, funk and pop music. Generally considered to be more "jazz" than "smooth", Spyro Gyra has been praised for their skilled instrumentalists and for their live performances, which average about 100 per year.

With the exception of alto saxophonist, songwriter and founding bandleader Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Tom Schuman, the personnel has changed over time, as well as between the studio and the live stage. Today, guitarist Julio Fernandez is also in his third decade with the band.

1978 Spyro Gyra

1979 Morning Dance

1980 Carnaval

1980 Catching The Sun

1981 Freetime

1982 Incognito

1983 City Kids

1984 Access All Areas

1985 Alternating Currents

1986 Breakout

1987 Stories Without Words

1988 Rites of summer

1989 Point of View

1990 Fast Forward

1991 Collection

1992 Three Wishes

1993 Dreams Beyond Control

1995 Love & Other Obsessions

1996 Heart Of The Night

1997 20-20

1998 Road Scholars

1999 Got the Magic

2001 In Modern Times

2003 Original Cinema

2004 The Deep End

2006 Wrapped In A Dream

2007 Good To Go-Go

2008 A Night Before Christmas

2009 Down The Wire

Jim Hall – Live Vol. 2-4 ( Toronto 1975) (3 CD, 2012/FLAC))

Features previously unreleased recordings from trio performances at Bourbon Street in Toronto, Canada on June 11-13, 1975.

The recordings provide an additional 3 hours of music from the original 1975 album Live!

 

• Jim Hall - g
• Don Thompson - b
• Terry Clarke - d

Rec.: live at Bourbon Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 11 (CD 2 - Volume Three), 12 (CD 1 - Volume Two) and 13 (CD 3 - Volume 4), 1975.

CD 1 - Volume Two

01. How Deep Is The Ocean (11:10)

02. Emily (6:24)

03. Valse Hot (7:11)

04. Love Letters (9:28)

05. Chelsea Bridge (10:06)

06. Something Tells Me (7:22)

07. Fly Me To The Moon (10:32)

CD 2 - Volume Three

01. Secret Love (14:56)

02. Baubles, Bangles And Beads (6:24)

03. In A Sentimental Mood (5:42)

04. Star Eyes (10:41)

05. Where Would I Be? (7:51)

06. Body And Soul (10:36)

07. Careful (7:45)

CD 3 - Volume 4

01. Someday My Prince Will Come (9:35)

02. Come Rain Or Come Shine (12:46)

03. Prelude To A Kiss (6:33)

04. Everything I Love (9:37)

05. Blue Dove (9:18)

06. Embraceable You (8:09)

07. The Theme (5:33)

Buddy DeFranco & the All Stars - Wholly Cats : Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw Sessions" Vol.1 & 2 (3 CD, 2007/FLAC)

 5 complete LPs presented on 2 companion volumes! Featuring Carl Perkins, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel and Don Fagerquist! Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were among the most famous and beloved figures in swing music both as clarinet soloists and orchestra conductors. They were still very active musically in 1957, when Buddy De Franco decided to record a series of sessions paying homage to them. Thirty-five performances were recorded (including four medleys containing three songs each) in four extended sessions made on four consecutive days and with two different groups (guitarist Barney Kessel, however, is present on most of the tracks). The fi rst two sessions included trumpeter Don Fagerquist, tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld and pianist Carl Perkins. The second group includes trumpeter Ray Linn and another modern jazz pianist: Jimmy Rowles.

These two companion volumes include the complete LPs FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON CD!: "I Hear Benny Goodman & Artie Shaw", "Buddy De Franco plays Benny Goodman", "Buddy De Franco plays Artie Shaw", "Wholly Cats" and "Closed Session".

John Coltrane collection [1957-2019] (FLAC)

 

John William Coltrane, also known as "Trane"; (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane is a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."

1957 - John Coltrane - Blue Train

1958 - John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio

1958 - Wilbur Harden & John Coltrane - Tanganyika Strut

1958 - Wilbur Harden - Jazz Way Out

1958 - Wilbur Harden, John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Louis Hayes - Mainstream 

1959 - Tommy Flanagan, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Idress Sulieman - The Cats

1960 - John Coltrane - Coltrane Plays The Blues

1960 - John Coltrane - Giant Steps

1961 - John Coltrane - Africa-Brass

1961 - John Coltrane - Lush Life

1961 - John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

1961 - John Coltrane - Ole Coltrane

1962 - John Coltrane - Standard Coltrane

1962 - The John Coltrane Quartette - Coltrane [Hi-Res]

1963 - John Coltrane - Ballads

1963 - John Coltrane - Stardust [Hi-Res]

1964 - John Coltrane - Black Pearls [Hi-Res]

1964 - John Coltrane - Live At Birdland

1965 - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme. In Concert

1965 - John Coltrane - Bahia [Hi-Res]

1966 - John Coltrane & Don Cherry - The Avant-Garde [Hi-Res]

1966 - John Coltrane - Kulu Se Mama

1966 - John Coltrane - Meditations

1967 - John Coltrane - Expression

1970 - John Coltrane - Transition

2018 - John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album

2019 - John Coltrane - Blue World

Verve Jazz Masters series Vol. 41-50

 Jazz Masters is a series of mainly single artist compilations released by Polygram/Verve between 1994 and 1996. The compilations collect material that was originally released on Verve or on one of the labels that became part of the Polygram group. The 20th and 60th releases in the series were various artist collections.

VJM 41 - Tal Farlow

VJM 42 - Sarah Vaughan - The Jazz Sides

VJM 43 - Ben Webster

VJM 44 - Clifford Brown And Max Roach

VJM 45 - Kenny Burrell

VJM 46 - Ella Fitzgerald - The Jazz Sides

VJM 47 - Billie Holiday Sings Standards

VJM 48 - Oliver Nelson

VJM 49 - Anita O'Day

VJM 50 - Sonny Stitt

 

Stan Getz - East of the Sun: The West Coast Sessions (3 CD, 1996/FLAC)

 

The mainstream came to know this remarkable tenor sax player via bossa nova -- his unforgettable, breathy solo on "The Girl from Ipanema" propelled the song to number five in 1964 and to continued popularity to this very day, every bit as much as Astrud Gilberto's equally stunning, spare voice. But Stan Getz's involvement in this populist '60s craze actually displeased many a serious jazz enthusiast who'd admired his work in that field for more than two decades. After all, this 17-time winner of the Down Beat poll for top tenor saxophonist had already staked out a remarkable reputation, playing in the bands of such vaunted names as Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman from 1944-1949, and then leading his own bands thereafter. 

This three-CD box, then, finds Getz in top form as a jazz soloist and bandleader. Recorded, as so much jazz was, in various off-the-cuff sessions from 1955-1957 -- although this box culls from different LPs such as West Coast Jazz, Stan Getz and the Cool Sounds, and The Steamer -- it still all fits together as one long, languid, bop-to-bluesy session. Fusion beckoned to many a talent of the time, but Getz nicely held his ground, insisting that long, wide-stretching solos always serve a well-grounded song, be it a composition by George and Ira Gershwin, Miles Davis, Jimmy Van Heusen, or himself. With an almost unparalleled sense of time and space, Getz fills it in no particular hurry, and his piano, trumpet, bass, and drums likewise seem inclined to be tasteful rather than showoff-ish virtuosity. The slow, quiet-afternoon melancholic stuff, such as "A Handful of Stars," are the real favorites. Like "Girl from Ipanema," these allow Getz to blow like the gentle lull before a storm or, as original pianist Lou Levy writes in the notes here 40 years later, like "a sound of an angel." But the man is a master of all the styles presented, and an overriding cool, calm, pleasant air nicely defines these spontaneous yet well-organized sessions. This box is a fitting legacy and a thorough overview of an inspired period in his prolific career.

Bass - Leroy Vinnegar

Drums - Shelly Manne (tracks: CD1, CD2-01 to 04) , Stan Levey (tracks: CD2-05 to 12, CD3)

Piano - Lou Levy

Saxophone  - Stan Getz

Trumpet - Conte Candoli (tracks: CD1-01 to 07)

Recorded August 9, 15, and 19, 1955; November 24, 1956; and August 2, 1957.

Andy Kirk - Chronogical Classics 1929-1948 (7 CD/FLAC)

 

Andrew Dewey Kirk (May 28, 1898 – December 11, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist and tubist who led the Twelve Clouds of Joy, a band popular during the swing era.

He was born in Newport, Kentucky, United States. Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he was tutored by Wilberforce Whiteman, Paul Whiteman's father. Kirk started his musical career playing with George Morrison's band, but then went on to join Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929, he was elected leader after Holder departed. Renaming the band Clouds of Joy, Kirk also relocated the band from Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. Although named the Clouds of Joy, the band has also been known as the Twelve Clouds of Joy due to the number of musicians in the band. They set up in the Pla-Mor Ballroom on the junction of 32nd and Main in Kansas City and made their first recording for Brunswick Records that same year. Mary Lou Williams came in as pianist at the last moment, but she impressed Brunswick's Dave Kapp, so she became a member of the band.