Robin Kenyatta

[Late]

The biggest revelation of the Andrew Hill Mosaic Select for me is Robin Kenyatta — some blistering alto playing there. Prior to hearing this set, I'd only heard Kenyatta on Roswell Rudd's Everywhere.

Other recommendations? What (if anything) is readily available?

[Guest akanalog]

i would look for his LP "the girl from martinique".

it is awesome. i am sure it will never be released on CD because eicher will claim to have lost the master tapes or tha the master tapes were damaged or something. for some reason i can't remember if its on ECM or japo, not that it matters.

for some reason i get wolfgang dauner and jasper von hof confused. but i think it is pretty simple-

dauner-very interesting player. von hof-not so interesting.

anyway that thought came to me because dauner is on the kenyatta album i mention. he plays a lot of clavinet, but in a unique way.

[clifford_thornton]

I like the Free State Band LP on America, reissued on a Musidisc CD (not Free America). Funky, and reminiscent of the Byard Lancaster on Vortex - but maybe a bit less goofy. Kenyatta also has his own Vortex session, Until, with Mike Lawrence and Horacee Arnold, and Lewis Worrell and Roswell Rudd on one track.

Kenyatta worked frequently with Bill Dixon in the '60s, and it would've been great to hear THAT small group. Unfortunately, the only document of their work together is Dixon's Intents and Purposes on RCA. Dixon was very disapproving of the commercial dates Vortex had Kenyatta and Lancaster on.

I think the ECM has its moments, as does Until, but for me the only one that's stuck so far is the America.

Edited September 19, 2006 by clifford_thornton

[Dmitry]

His recent output is spotty at best, imo...have the Girl from Martinique also, excellent LP!

[clifford_thornton]

for some reason i get wolfgang dauner and jasper von hof confused. but i think it is pretty simple-

dauner-very interesting player. von hof-not so interesting.

anyway that thought came to me because dauner is on the kenyatta album i mention. he plays a lot of clavinet, but in a unique way.

Dauner is the shit, but van't Hof has his moments of brilliance. He's done some great work with Manfred Schoof, for example.

[Late]

Apparently Until has made it to cd (but is likely out-of-print):

Ekaterina gives it a thumbs-up:

[Guest akanalog]

i bought "until".

it was listed as an import at virgin, but for some reason it rang up as like $7.99. bargain!

this happened another time with tcichai's "timo's message", but anyways....it's ok. not great.

i wouldn't worry you are missing anything. i sold my copy a while ago.

kenyatta is on a sonny stit? side from 1967 called "deuces wild" or something. i wonder if he brings any unique flavor to that session or if it is another rote stitt date....anyone?

kenyatta went downhill quick i think-by the early 70s he was making crappy atlantic albums with eric gale and steve gadd types on them. i shouldn't say "downhill"-he just got commercial quick.

but then he didn't get the chance to record much else i think.

also i always assumed he was from africa, but he is american!

it's sort of weird and random he got to record an ECM album come to think of it.

[mikeweil]

He had a very nice sound - but it seems a bit like he didn't quite know what direction to take.

I had one Atlantic LP which included fashionable Reggae tunes beneath some pretty well done post-Bitches Brew track with Larry Willis and Sonelius Smith on two keyboards, but there was a sense of direction and unison missing.

I wonder why I never got around to get me that ECM - should be easy to find a copy.

[Late]

Robin Kenyatta's actual name is Robert Prince Haynes. He was originally from South Carolina. I believe he passed away in 2004.

[JSngry]

He's on part of Andrew Hill's Spiral (Lee Konitz & Ted Curson are on the otehr part), and he plays great. His playing on the closing track, a Hill ballad called "Quiet Dawn" - not the Cal Massey tune) still gives me goosebumps.

[Chuck Nessa]

He had a very nice sound - but it seems a bit like he didn't quite know what direction to take.

I had one Atlantic LP which included fashionable Reggae tunes beneath some pretty well done post-Bitches Brew track with Larry Willis and Sonelius Smith on two keyboards, but there was a sense of direction and unison missing.

I attended one of the sessions for that record. Ron Carter was on the date too.

[Guest akanalog]

i have one of the other atlantic dates.

it has steve gadd/eric gale types. it isn't that good. some tracks are ok in a commercial way and some of the music is decent in a very very slightly exploratory way possibly, but i know that atlantic could do better-i am thinking of harold alexander's "raw roots" for instance.

[Bluesman]

"The girl from martinique" is excellent. I have a vinyl rip from Rapidshare. Am I allowed to post it here?

I mean, its not as if it was available commercially.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Bluesman

[Chuck Nessa]

No mention of his playing on Bill Dixon's "Intents and Purposes" or in tents and porpoises. Dandy!

[Bluesman]

He's also on Shepp's "For Losers".

[erhodes]

No mention of his playing on Bill Dixon's "Intents and Purposes" or in tents and porpoises. Dandy!

Indeed. Only one alto solo but an interesting and unusual outing. Robin shares alto space with Byard Lancaster on "Metamorphosis", which is the best track on the album IMO. Byard takes the closer, a fast, free rhythm section where he lets loose. Robin takes an earlier, more ballad like solo where he does this kind of free form Johnny Hodges thing. It is very effective, perhaps more so than anything on Rudd's "Everywhere" but in a similar vein.

Not too long after that was recorded, I saw Robin at the Dom playing with Milford Graves. He sounded pretty much like he does on the Rudd album. Robin is also in the '65 tracks from the Jazz Composer's Guild Orchestra album on Fontana, though I don't believe he has any solos on that one.

The next thing I heard was the Vortex date, which was a disappointment. Then after that I think he did a "Last Tango in Paris" record around the same time that Gato made one. I think Gato's fared better in the marketplace.

I experienced Robin, like Bennie Maupin in a neighboring thread, first as a free player who could play but who maybe didn't break out of that pack...for whatever reason. Then he surfaced playing more conventional music and didn't really break out of that pack either.

But I really like that solo on "Metamorphosis".

[clifford_thornton]

Right, Communication is the name of the JCO Fontana. Kenyatta doesn't solo.

More notable, in fact, is the storming tenor solo on side two by Bob Carducci (whatever happened to...?) and some outstanding interplay between Shepp and Graves on side one.

I did mention the Dixon RCA earlier, Chuck - you think I'd leave that record out?!

[clifford_thornton]

Robin Kenyatta's actual name is Robert Prince Haynes. He was originally from South Carolina. I believe he passed away in 2004.

I'd always seen it as "Prince Roland Haynes." Do I stand corrected?

Indeed, he passed away unexpectedly in his sleep while in Switzerland. Tragic.

Edited September 20, 2006 by clifford_thornton

[Chuck Nessa]

I did mention the Dixon RCA earlier, Chuck - you think I'd leave that record out?!

Missed that. Do you really think I read your posts?

[clifford_thornton]

No, 'cos you missed by n-3 joke!

[Chuck Nessa]

No, 'cos you missed by n-3 joke!

I did miss that. Please let me know.

[Guest youmustbe]

I heard Robin with Andrew Hill, also a gig at Slugs' with, if I remember Fred Simmons? on piano, Herbie Lewis? on bass and Steve Ellington on drums? that was killing! I then heard him when he did his version of Last Tango In Paris at various places, ...I was getting ready to book him, he came to one of my gigs at Jazz Standard and introduced himself to me, but then he passed.

The late Lamont Johnson was his roomate in East Village and told me how Robin would spend 4 to 5 hours dressing for a gig, were the socks just right, etc...

The reason he didn't really stay on the scene too long Robin told me, was that he was a big time coke dealer and music became secondary.

[ep1str0phy]

Coke dealer? And he was working with Jackie all that time (we are talking about Mr. Johnson, right?)...

Any opinions on the latter, supposedly more commerical dates by RK (they show up in the used bins quite often)?

[clifford_thornton]

Johnson was on the scene for about ten years or so, right? He cut a couple of fusion-y sides in the 70s, iirc.

[Guest akanalog]

lamont johnson cut one of the best organ albums ever, IMO-for mainstream. totally fucked up stuff. i don't know what kind of effects he was using to make his organ sound like that. the whole thing sort of sounds like a joke but it doesn't. it's just awesome.

also he i think lead a spiritual vocal group for at least one album and then he had a few albums at the end of the 70s.

ed-i don't think it is right to compare kenyatta and maupin. maupin had an excellent "steady" gig with herbie hancock and mwandishi/headhunters. so his discography is a lot more robust than kenyatta. i would say maupin "broke out". i mean, he was the sax player on the greatest selling jazz album of the time (headhunters) and was also recognized for his unique contribution to one of the most innovative?commercial jazz albums of it's time (bitches brew).

also-that's weird about the prince roland haynes think. because i have a dope black jazz album by a roland haynes and i have never heard that name again. secondly, because there was that guitarist in the 70s names roland prince who played with elvin jones and had a few albums as a leader on vanguard.