Who’s T.J. Kirk? Not a man but a band with a plan, the neo-legendary San Francisco instrumental four-piece existed to reinvent classic jazz and soul through their six-string talismans (and one with eight strings.) They reconvened for a few concerts at the end of 2003, but their new live cd Talking Only Makes it Worse is from a 1997 show in Santa Cruz, CA. Charlie Hunter’s 8-string guitar covers everything from the bass lines to the keyboard comps, all at the same time of course. Will Bernard and John Schott add their own guitars, and Scott Amendola rounds out the quartet on drums. They took their name from the initials of the only three musicians whose music they would play: jazz pianist & composer “T”helonious Monk, funky showman “J”ames Brown, and infamous jazz hornman Rahsaan Roland “Kirk.”
