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Title: Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1968, Jazz, Post-Bop/Spiritual Jazz, Columbus, Ohio / New York, New York 6/26
Matrix #: SC 1502
Condition: VG+, sounds great, some marks TC | Members: Roland K (35' - 77')
Cultural Facts:

1. Personal Struggle Kirk became blind in early childhood, then built one of jazz’s most physical performance languages, using circular breathing and multiple horns at once without turning it into a gimmick.
2. Studio Lore The Inflated Tear helped frame Kirk as more than a novelty multi-instrumentalist, mixing blues roots, spiritual jazz feeling, flute work, and hard-edged tenor playing into one identity.
3. Scene Ecology Kirk stood between mainstream jazz clubs and the avant-garde, pulling older swing and blues language into the freer, more politically charged jazz climate of the late 1960s.

6/2/2026 CC