Kirk's Work

Kirk's Work (also reissued as Funk Underneath) is an album by Roland Kirk, with Jack McDuff. Prestige Records released the album in 1961, with Original Jazz Classics^[1] and Concord Music Group issuing subsequent re-releases.

Kirk's Work
Studio album by Roland Kirk
Released	1961
Recorded	July 11, 1961
Studio	Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Genre	Jazz
Length	33:02
Label	Prestige
Producer	Esmond Edwards (supervision)
Roland Kirk chronology
Introducing Roland Kirk (1960) Kirk's Work (1961) We Free Kings (1962)

Rudy Van Gelder engineered the recording on July 11, 1961 at Van Gelder Studio (in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey), while Esmond Edwards supervised the session. Van Gelder remastered the recording for the Concord 2007 re-release.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	()[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[3]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings describes Kirk's Work as "a largely forgotten Kirk album, but one which generally deserves the classic reissue billing."^[1] Ron Wynn has described the album as "a fine reissue of Kirk in a soul-jazz and mainstream vein."^[4] AllMusic notes a "swinging R&B vibe pervasive throughout the album," judging that "while certainly not the best in his catalog, it is a touchstone album that captures the early soulful Rahsaan Roland Kirk."^[5]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Three for Dizzy"		5:11
2.	"Makin' Whoopee"	Donaldson–Kahn	5:07
3.	"Funk Underneath"		6:15
4.	"Kirk's Work"		3:54
5.	"Doin' the Sixty-Eight"		4:20
6.	"Too Late Now"	Lerner–Lane	3:52
7.	"Skater's Waltz"	Charles Emile Waldteufel (arr. Kirk)	4:23

All music is composed by Roland Kirk, except where noted.

Personnel

• Roland Kirk – tenor saxophone, manzello, stritch [sic], flute, siren
• Jack McDuff – Hammond organ
• Joe Benjamin – bass
• Arthur Taylor – drums