HW: NIK: Nik's flute playing

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999 10:01:23 -0400, Brian Halligan
<bthalligan at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
>Thomas Guy wrote:
>>Then of course, I realised that "Serenade",  also from Space Ritual, is the
>>same song as "Serenade to a Cuckoo", from Tull's first LP, "This Was".
>>Obviously, the flute is the main point in both theses songs.  I am rather a
>>fan of Tull, but I also love Nik's flute playing too. I suspect that Nik may
>>be a Tull admirer too.
>
>According to "This Was" liner notes:
>Serenade to a Cookoo is this Roland Kirk one, which was the first thing Ian
>learned to play on flute (so he says)-- it's probably all right.

Yes, Nik incorporates a bit of Roland Kirk's "Serenade To A Cuckoo" (Kirk's
"signature" piece) in the "King" (of the Fairies) jam on his 'Space Ritual'
double-CD (it also shows up with Inner City Unit on "Wildhunt" from 'New
Anatomy').  Since Nik was into jazz before joining Hawkwind, it would
probably be safe to say that he knew the song before Jethro Tull (let alone
Hawkwind!) were even a band.  Ian Anderson copped a *lot* of his flute
style from Roland Kirk, the growling/overblowing sounds as well as the
theatrics (although I never knew of Roland Kirk to play while standing on
one leg - he could play two saxophones simultaneously, however - I'd love
to see Nik try THAT!).

I really like Nik's flute playing, too (yeah, the flute-through-delay on
the 'Out and Intake' version of "Solitary Mind Games" is amazing!).  I was
blown away by the version of "D-Rider" he played on that first US Nik's
Space Ritual tour.

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com