Jason Flung

Jason Yates has released his sophomore solo album on Vapor Records. The self-titled set, recorded at Manny Nieto's Estudio in East L.A., was produced by Yates along with Nieto and Shane Smith. If the name Jason Yates isn't instantly recognizable, the sound of his Hammond B3 is surely familiar: Jason has played in touring bands for Macy Gray and Natalie Merchant. His keys have graced sessions with a diverse collection of artists - from Taj Mahal to Mazzy Star, G. Love, Michael Franti, and Toots & the Maytals, to name but a few. For the past five years, Jason was a member of Ben Harper's band the Innocent Criminals, a stint that included a Grammy-winning collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama on the 2004 disc There Will Be A Light.

Today, a trip to Hawaii is a simple six-hour flight from the West Coast. But almost a century ago, the first flights to Hawaii required a nerve-racking and uncertain 26-hour journey to isolated and elusive islands located in the middle of the world's largest ocean. Pilots prayed they would encounter land after flying a full day and night across 2,400 miles of the open Pacific.