Jazz Articles about Jimmy Haslip

Rockin' The Wall: How Music Ripped The Iron Curtain

by Glenn Astarita
January 18, 2015

Various Aritsts Rockin' The Wall: How Music Ripped The Iron Curtain The Video Project 2014 This documentary focuses on the connotations of freedom and innate power of rock music, and its role in bringing down the Iron Curtain. Nonetheless, it's an intriguing history lesson for baby boomers and more importantly, Generation X and Gen Y. Narrated by actor Alec Baldwin, musicians from legendary 60s rock band Vanilla Fudge, Mark Stein (keyboards, vocals) and Vinnie Martell ...

Jimmy Haslip: Former Yellowjacket Generating a New Buzz

by Richard J Salvucci
June 19, 2014

Well, the Joint Base San Antonio Fort Sam Houston News Leader is probably not the best place to look for local jazz updates, even if the venue is on the base. “Tickets for the next Friday Night Jazz concert at the Fort Sam Houston Theater are on sale. Featured artists include the Jeff Lorber Fusion with special guest saxophonist [sic] Jimmy Haslip of The Yellowjackets." Not a promising start, unless Jimmy has taken up a new axe and rejoined his ...

Jimmy Haslip: Nightfall

by Ian Patterson
May 4, 2011

Electric bassist Jimmy Haslip hasn't had a prolific solo career, Nightfall being his third release in eighteen years, since his debut, Arc (GRP, 1993). Haslip's energy has mainly been devoted to the Yellowjackets, the band he co-founded with pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante thirty years ago--a milestone celebrated with the release of Timeline (Mack Avenue Records, 2011), which finds Haslip and the band in truly fine form. That the Yellowjackets has overshadowed Haslip's solo career is unsurprising, though Haslip has also distinguished ...

Jimmy Haslip: The Honest Endeavor of Making Music

by Ian Patterson
May 4, 2011

When electric bassist Jimmy Haslip joined pianist/keyboard player Russell Ferrante as a sideman on guitarist Robben Ford's recording sessions for The Inside Story (Elektra Records, 1979), he probably wouldn't have wagered much on his and Ferrante's musical partnership lasting 33 years to date, in one of jazz's most durable and best-loved ensembles, the Yellowjackets. Haslip is a most lyrical musician, and he brings the elegant tone of an upright bass to his electric model. He talks of “the honest endeavor ...

Yellowjackets: Altered State

by Jim Santella
May 17, 2005

Fusing South African rhythms with soothing R&B melodies, the Yellowjackets continue to put up a refreshing performance that's made to suit easy listening audiences. Their mellow harmony and relaxed rhythmic pulses belie a loyalty to leisure suits, platform shoes with awkward heels, and hangin' out at the disco. The band began in the late 1970s, when those things were in vogue. The core element in their performance has never left them.

Bob Mintzer employs the tenor saxophone for ...

Yellowjackets: Altered State

by Woodrow Wilkins
March 17, 2005

There's something distinctive about Yellowjackets' sound. It's contemporary in that the music is fresh and employs some modern conveniences--such as the electric bass and the EWI. Still, the way it's put together is old school--like the free-flowing style and the manipulation of time. And if that's not enough, there's a color or flavor to Bob Mintzer's sax and Russell Ferrante's piano that lets you know it's a 'Jackets tune. This distinctive approach is evident from the start of ...

Yellowjackets: Altered State

by John Kelman
March 16, 2005

Sometimes the best move a band can make is to go indie. Consider Yellowjackets, who have been imbued with unquestionable instrumental credibility since emerging in the early '80s. Over their 25-year career Yellowjackets have veered from torch carriers of the latter-day, more structured incarnations of Weather Report to a group in dangerous proximity to smooth jazz territory. In the process of racking up nearly twenty recordings, the group's technical prowess has never been in question, but some of its choices ...