ZenArt Management presents: YELLOWJACKETS
Bob Mintzer – saxophone, tenor and soprano/EWI
Russel Ferrante – piano/keyboards
Will Kennedy – drums/keyboards
Dane Alderson – electric bass
Parallel Motion is the band’s 30th album and a true testament to the longevity and resilience of a group that debuted over 40 years ago. Constantly reinventing themselves through elevated instrumentation in their distinctive electroacoustic soundscape, the current lineup consisting of Bob Mintzer (tenor and soprano saxophone/EWI), Russell Ferrante (piano/keyboards), Will Kennedy (drums, keyboards) and Dane Alderson (electric bass, MIDI sequencing) proves that they are at the peak of their creativity. The album includes 9 new original compositions and features guest vocalist Jean Baylor (4-time GRAMMY® Awards nominee with the Baylor Project and R&B duo Zhané) on the track If You Believe.
As a compact and long-lived jazz ensemble, the Yellowjackets have explored a unique universe of electroacoustic soundscapes in their nearly four-decade history. Since debuting with their eponymous album in 1981, the Yellowjackets have consistently advanced with innovative and challenging artistic statements. With Jackets XL, their 25th album and fourth for Mack Avenue Music Group, the band continues to evolve and reinvent themselves with an exciting and full-bodied collaboration with the extraordinary WDR Big Band from Cologne, Germany. The project combines the quartet, winner of numerous GRAMMY® Awards, with the renowned big band, reworking celebrated songs from the band’s repertoire with dynamic new arrangements featuring surprising twists, textures and colors, striking harmonies and bold solos.
“This band has never sat on its laurels,” says Bob Mintzer, tenor saxophonist and EWI player, member of the Yellowjackets since 1990 and principal conductor of the WDR Big Band since 2016. “The Yellowjackets are extremely adept at reinventing themselves. The four of us are the most adaptable musicians I have ever worked with. Any context, any style, we know we can handle it. As for WDR, they are one of the best big jazz orchestras in the world. I knew the two groups would make a beautiful combination.” The band also includes founder and keyboardist Russell Ferrante, drummer Will Kennedy and electric bassist Dane Alderson, on his third album with the group.
Ferrante enthusiastically welcomed the project, considering that he had already had the opportunity to play Mintzer’s arrangements in different contexts over the years. “But this time would be different,” he says. “Since we were already in the big band orbit, Bob suggested that we pick songs that had been fan favorites over the years and revamp them to keep listeners interested. Bob rearranged Mile High (Four Corners, 1987), which we had stopped playing in recent years. Bob transformed it and took it into new territory. Another example is Revelation (Shades, 1986), which we used to play as an encore. Bob went back to the gospel roots and arranged it to reflect our current sound.”
“Mile High was one of the tracks of the 1980s,” Mintzer adds. “It had a pop vibe at the time. But the new arrangement fits the sound of today’s Yellowjackets. It’s like completely new music. We simply took the ensemble and added a big band on top of it.”
While Mintzer rearranged seven of the ten songs (likening the process to watching one’s children grow up), the set list also features two arrangements by Vince Mendoza, with a long history with the WDR Big Band and currently composer-in-residence. The lyrical gem Even Song, with its rock charge (Run for Your Life, 1993), and the vigorous swing of Downtown (Live Wires (Live at the Roxy), 1991) feature his arrangements. Ferrante wrote a new arrangement for his track Coherence from the 2016 album Cohearence. “I wanted to give it a more orchestral feel beyond the simple big band sound,” he explains. “I wanted to include different instruments like muted trumpet, French horn, trombones. I had been inspired by Maria Schneider’s music. I purchased a package from her website containing the score of her piece Hang Gliding. I studied the score and watched a video of her band performing it. As a result, I made Coherence more rounded, writing more lines and counter melodies.”
New album to be released in spring 2025
In addition to the classics, two new Ferrante tracks were added, including the energetic One Day, a lively track featuring Mintzer at EWI. It was originally written for the 2018 studio album Raising Our Voice, but was not included in the final sequence. Then there is Tokyo Tale, which Mintzer comments, “Russ wrote it in his own systematic way. He composed it, developed it, wrote it, and sent it a small band arrangement made for his students at USC.”
The challenge, Ferrante says, was giving up the total freedom of the quartet. “As a band, you can change parts and do different things. But with the big band you have rigid arrangements. There is no room for improvisation. Even when you play notes you know well, big band arrangements require you to read the music and maintain total attention. Otherwise, details can come out unpleasantly.”
With moments of serenity, vibrancy, mystery, turmoil, groove and fantasy, Jackets XL stands as a multifaceted documentation of how far the band has come. “It was like putting on a new suit,” Mintzer says. “This represents the way Yellowjackets sound today.”
