1. Falken's Maze
2. Country Living
3. Double Nickel
4. Dreams Go
5. Measure of a Man
6. Yahoo
7. I Wonder
8. Three Circles
9. Claire's Closet
10. Lazaro
Russell Ferrante - Piano, keyboards, percussion
Bob Mintzer - Tenor sax, soprano sax, bass
clarinet, Bb clarinet, EWI
Jimmy Haslip - Electric bass, programming,
sequencing
Marcus Baylor - Drums, percussion
Mike Stern - Guitars
The Yellowjackets are usually
a quartet but for this CD they welcomed guitarist
Mike Stern as their special guest on seven
of the ten tracks. Stern makes a significant
contribution - not only extending the group's
palette of sound but also contributing a couple
of his own compositions (Double Nickel
and Dreams Go). Stern's seemingly lazy,
legato guitar gives a laid-back feeling to
some tracks. On other tracks, it spices up
what is already a spicy mix.
If you wanted to pigeon-hole
the Yellowjackets, you might say they are
playing like Weather Report might have played
if that band had stayed together for many
more years. The Yellowjackets' style still
embraces jazz-fusion but, as I suggested in
an earlier album review, their range is far
wider. They play with plenty of sophistication,
which is augmented by Mike Stern. In fact
the band originally included a guitarist (Robben
Lee Ford) but that was 15 years ago and, after
several personnel changes, this is the group's
twentieth album.
With the band's long experience,
it was easy for them to assimilate Mike Stern,
who sounds as if he has been playing with
them for years. On Mike's own Dreams Go,
Ferrante and Mintzer blend perfectly with
Stern's dreamy guitar. As Stern says "It's
so easy to play with them because they play
so well together". Yet the band retains its
individuality at the same time, as in Measure
of a Man, featuring Bob Mintzer's eloquent
soprano sax and Ferrante's shimmering piano.
For contrast, Yahoo
finds the group in jazz-fusion territory,
as Mike Stern's guitar comes across with punch.
I Wonder - by the same composer, Bob
Mintzer - twists and turns mysteriously, with
Bob apparently playing the EWI (Electronic
Wind Instrument), which sounds a bit like
something that Eddie Harris might have used
in his heyday. Mike Stern is far from laid-back
here: doing the guitar hero bit with conviction.
Three Circles displays the band's urbane
abilities with complex rhythms, while Claire's
Closet sounds almost like a piece of classical
chamber music, with Mintzer on pure-toned
clarinet.
The album's closer, Lazaro,
is marred by some unnecessary electronic gimmickry
from Jimmy Haslip but, by the time I got this
far, I could forgive almost anything this
marvellous band does.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
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