Yellowjackets S01e1

With 2018's Raising Our Voice, long-running crossover jazz outfit Yellowjackets offer a sophisticated, broadly stylistic collection of songs showcasing Grammy-winning Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza as a guest artist on seven of the 13 tracks. The second album the band has recorded since the departure of founding bassist Jimmy Haslip, Raising Our Voice introduces newest member Dane Alderson on bass, taking over from Felix Pastorius' seat, who left the fold after 2016's Cohearance. As with that album, Raising Our Voice finds Yellowjackets exploring a harmonically nuanced bed of post-bop and fusion-influenced sounds that remain audience-accessible even as they reveal the members' talents for investigative soloing and improvisational interplay. In this department, saxophonist Bob Mintzer excels, able to evince a deft balance between the probing modalism of John Coltrane and the lyrical soulfulness of Grover Washington, Jr.

Following on the heels of their Grammy-nominated Mint Jam, their self-released 2001 "live" recording, the Yellowjackets continue to blaze an enjoyable musical trail that pulsates with their energy and signature sound that few will fail to recognize and many have come to love over the past 30 years. With Time Squared, the group's first studio recording in five years, the Yellowjackets have added 11 diverse songs to this fertile contemporary jazz landscape. The songs, which were all written by the group's new members, range from prayerful, peaceful melodies with improvised vocals, such as "Healing Waters," to those that capture Thelonious Monk's piano style. On "Monk's Habit," pianist Russell Ferrante and tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer stir up some great jazz memories by playing an amazing straight-ahead set ripe with bebop solos reminiscent of Monk's time with Sonny Rollins.

Thirty-five years old and still going strong, The Yellowjackets aren’t letting a little matter like the third bass player in as many albums break their stride. One of the top quality electric jazz bands over these three and half decades now welcomes its newest bass virtuoso in Australian Dane Alderson just in time for their latest release Cohearence. Still comprising of Bob Mintzer on reeds, Will Kennedy on drums and sole remaining founding member Russell Ferrante on keys, the Yellowjackets retain plenty enough heritage to still be very much the Yellowjackets, enough that the ever-changing bass chair hadn’t prevented the band from reeling off a string of consistently strong long players at a time when most long-running concerns are winding down. Cohearence continues that winning streak.

"Parallel Motion" — the new album from jazz fusion legends Yellowjackets — is a true testament to the longevity and resilience of a band who debuted over 40 years ago. Consistently reinventing themselves through elevated instrumentation in their signature electro-acoustic soundscape, the current lineup consisting of Bob Mintzer (tenor & soprano saxophone/EWI), Russell Ferrante (piano/keyboards), Will Kennedy (drums, keyboards) and Dane Alderson (electric bass, MIDI Sequencing) showcases a collective at their prime. This album features 9 new original compositions and guest vocalist Jean Baylor (4x GRAMMY® Award Nominee of the Baylor Project and R&B duo Zhané) on “If You Believe."

For Jackets XL, the Yellowjackets' 25th album and fourth for Mack Avenue Music Group, the band continues to stretch and reinvent itself with an exciting, full-bodied collaboration with the superb WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany. The project combines the shapeshifting, multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning quartet with the renowned big band, re-imagining well-known band originals with dynamic new arrangements that feature twists and turns, textures and colors, moving harmonies and bold solos. With it's pockets of halcyon, buoyance, mystery, tumult, groove and whimsy, Jackets XL plays out as a multifaceted documentation of how far the band has come. "It was like putting a new set of clothes on," Bob Mintzer says. "This represents how the Yellowjackets play now."