The Motivation (2013)

A Rise In The Road, the Yellowjackets’ second Mack Avenue Records offering, is indeed an appropriate title for a time-honored jazz ensemble that has never been fearful of facing newer musical horizons, not to mention the myriad challenges of life itself. Throughout their storied 32-year history, the Yellowjackets have undergone numerous lineup changes, never failing to rise to the inevitable challenges of adjustment. Felix Pastorius is the newest Yellowjackets member. He is the son of legendary jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, most known for his affiliation with jazz-fusion contemporaries, Weather Report.

The elegant “Jane Austen” costumes, designed by co-choreographer Toer van Schayk, indicate that the production has been set at about the time E.T.A. Hoffman’s original story was written—1816. Great care has clearly been put into getting the “look” right, for even Anna Tsygankova’s tiara in the Grand pas de deux replicates one worn by Napoleon’s Empress Josephine just a few years earlier.