A Big Yes and a small no: Mise en Abyme

The hazards of addiction have rarely sounded so tuneful as on Kevin Kendrick’s Mise en Abyme, his third album as A Big Yes and a small no. Kendrick played vibes and percussion in Fat Mama, the adventurous ‘90s jazz-rock unit that also launched drummer Joe Russo, guitarist Jonathan Goldberger and keyboardist Eric Deutsch—who all appear on Kendrick’s melodic and literate traipse down bad-trips lane. Highlights include the lushly stuffed and shoo-bopping title track, the jazzy “Talk Too Much” and the cautionary “Enough Is Enough,” which references “a little white lie to rub on your gums so you can’t feel.”