Fasten Up With Yellowjackets

Fasten Up With Yellowjackets

Bruce Von Stiers

Yellowjackets is a band that started up during the jazz fusion era. The band released their first album in 1981. In the forty plus years since then, Yellowjackets has performed all over the world and recorded a bunch of music.

This year Yellowjackets have a brand-new album out. The title of the album is Fasten Up. It is the twenty seventh album that the band has recorded. It was released by Mack Avenue Records and is the seventh album that the band has released on that record label.

Yellowjackets has had members come and go over time, but the current lineup has been around a while. That line up is Russell Ferrante, Will Kennedy, Dane Anderson and Bob Mintzer.

Russell Ferrante is a founding member of Yellowjackets. He plays piano and synthesizers. Russell has recorded and toured with artists such as Tom Scott and Joni Mitchell before helping form the Yellowjackets. Besides recording and touring, Russell also conducts music clinics at colleges and music schools around the world, including the Berklee School of Music.

Will Kennedy is the drummer. He performed with Lee Ritenour, Bobby McFerrin, Chaka Khan and George Benson.

Dane Anderson is the bass player. He is from Australia and besides playing with the Yellowjackets, Dane performs with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and artists such as Stanley Jordan.

Bob Mintzer does woodwinds and EWI. He joined the Yellowjackets in 1990. Aside from his tenure with the band, he also recorded albums as a leader of the Bob Mintzer Big Band.

For my review of Fasten Up, I was able to interview Bob Mintzer. He mentioned that the band is working a lot more lately. The demand for their style of jazz still remains strong. And the music industry has changed quite a bit. With streaming, less CDs are being sold, but there is still the desire for music.

According to Bob, the members of the band all write songs. They get together and showcase their songs to each other. Then the music becomes a collective of the band and they work together for a cohesive sound for the songs. The band worked on the music for the new album for quite a while.

Yellowjackets has been fortunate to have performed at venues all over the world. As part of the current tour, the band will be playing in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. During each concert, they play a mixture of older and current Yellowjackets music.

At some of the tour stops, they have Kurt Elling with them. During those concerts, Elling will perform songs with support from the Yellowjackets. And then he will lend a hand on the Yellowjackets portion of the concert.

Fasten Up has eleven songs and a play time of just over an hour.

Coming Home Baby is a toe-tapping song with saxophone leading the way. This is a classic tune that has been recorded by vocalists from Mel Torme to Michael Buble and Emilie -Claire Barlow.

The title track, Fasten Up, slows things down a bit, but still has a head bopping sway to it. There is some slick synth that starts about a minute into the song. And then there is some decent bass melded in. It has the kind of song that has become synonymous with the Yellowjackets sound.

Willpower is a mixture of whimsical woodwind music and low and easy bass and drums.

November 8th has a nice piano solo to begin the song. Then some sad and gentle sax, along with light drums meld in. Then the pace picks up for more of a mellow sound that includes another nice piano solo.

The Truth of You is soft and gentle. It seems to be a bit of a love song, only without vocals.

The Lion is a moderately paced, smile effecting song. It features harmonizing vocals by Raul Midon.

Swingmeister General is a song that might remind you of old-school cool jazz. Sax that swings back and forth in front of light bass and drums with some piano sneaking in.

Like its title, An Interesting Dream is very interesting. It has some solid piano and a cool woodwind sound.

Broken also has some solid piano music. There is also nice bass backing the piano. Then the sax slides in for a minute, then a bit of bass, then more sax. It has a lot of back and forth of the different instruments.

The Unresolved Question, while not quite haunting, seems to have a more serious nature.

Xemiris starts out as kind of a techno song thing moves back into a more subtle mode a great sax solo, a cool synth solo, with nice bass and drums.

During the interview, Bob said that Fasten Up is a snapshot of the four members of the band and how they are working towards bettering themselves through the music.

I think that the songs on Fasten Up show the continuing evolution of Yellowjackets as a band and the unique sound that has garnered them fans for over forty years.

Fasten Up is available at major music retailers and streaming services.

To learn more about Yellowjackets, the new album Fasten Up and possible tour dates near you, visit https://www.yellowjackets.com/

Back to the BVS Reviews Main Menu

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _