UNTIL—Robin Kenyatta. (VorteX 2005)

Until: Kenyatta, alto sax; Fred Simmons, piano; Walter Booker, bass; Horace Arnold, drums.

This Year; Little Blue Devil: same plus Mike Lawrence on trumpet.

Yon Know How We Do: Kenyatta, Lawrence, Booker, Arnold, plus Roswell Rudd; trombone; Lewis Worrell, bass; Archie Lee, percussion.

I’ve been trying to think of a word to describe Kenyatta’s sound, and all I’ve come up with is saccharine, which is pretty close. But saccharine sounds, derisive and Kenyatta’s sound is pleasant to the ear (which may also sound derisive to some people). Anyway, the sound is very sweet title tune, a ballad by Barry Miles, many of the notes squeezed out—oooOGuWA. Onomatopoetic words don’t do it justice. The tune itself is pleasant and the effect relaxing. This is very good to listen to when you’re at peace with your body,

“This Year” is partly swung straight ahead, partly ethereal, the quality found both in the melody and the solos. The drums well layed out, the bass plays lines against the tempo rather than with it, stuff like that. Stuff that stretches the mind. Kenyatta has his best solo on this cut, entering with a few unearthly notes in the lower register, then displaying enough tonal effects to sustain interest. Bass player Booker -is strong throughout the album, but his playing here is an integral part of the success of the tune. It isn’t often that a bass player makes you very aware of his presence, and the possibilities inherent in his percussive and harmonic function.

“You Know How We Do” has a funny melody, but is mostly boring after that. Roswell is up to his usual tricks, his trombone sound often resembling aggressive farts. Actually, Roswell’s organic spurts contrast rather nicely with Kenyatta’s more lenguid sound. There’s a lot of group improvisation herd but this time it doesn't grab me. After listening to much of this sort of thing, you realize that you have to go inside the music—thus inside, yourself—to get to the feelings most closely related to the music. On something like John Coltrane’s “Ascension”, the journey inward is so intense, so complete in its commitment to feelings that the knowledge yielded through reflecting on what’s happening is like they say it’s own reward. But here, with Kenyatta and Rudd, it’s hardly worth the trip. You become a jaded mystic.

“Little Blue Devil” is a waltz that’s easy to forget. In fact, with the exception of “This Year”, the whole album is rather easy to forget,

In the liner notes, Kenyatta says “I’d like to just get people to stand up when I play; I’d like to see them fall on the floor and start wiggling”—but he probably realizes that appreciating this music is a journey inward to quiet knowledge, for he adds “It would probably shock me more than it would them.”