Jazz Articles about Yellowjackets

About Yellowjackets

Album Review

Their first Christmas album in a career that has spanned over 25 years allows the Yellowjackets to share the holiday spirit with a world in which more holiday time-outs seem to be the best medicine for what ails our society. This time of the year, things do slow down a little. Never enough, of course; but it's just what is needed in order to afford us the time to be ourselves. If it weren't for the holiday season, there'd be ...

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Album Review

The Yellowjackets: Time Squared

Read "Time Squared" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 25, 2003

Perhaps out of ignorance, I have avoided the Yellowjackets because of my distaste for the Rippingtons. I am a stick-in-the-mud-acoustic-jazz-snob. And, I must admit, I am that to my own disadvantage and loss. Over the past 20 years, the Yellowjackets have released 20 recordings, counting Time Squared. In that time they have sold beaucoups records, started their own record company, and toured widely. Listening to Time Squared it is easy to understand why. The band adopts a "Rhythm and Jazz" ...

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Album Review

Yellowjackets: The Best of Yellowjackets

Read "The Best of Yellowjackets" reviewed by David Adler

by David Adler
April 1, 2000

From this greatest hits collection one learns that the album to get is 1981's Yellowjackets, the one with the honeycomb cover. The album to avoid, on the other hand, is 1985's Samurai Samba. Mirage a Trois, released in 1983, falls somewhere in between. Sweepingly general overview: The group started out great with fire-breathing guitarist Robben Ford, went through a cheesy middle period with altoist Marc Russo, and bounced back in the 90s with the advent of tenor-meister Bob Mintzer, who ...

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Album Review

Yellowjackets: Club Nocturne

Read "Club Nocturne" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 1, 1999

The Yellowjackets have undergone a number of personnel changes over their seventeen-year history. Original members Russell Ferrante (piano/keyboards) and Jimmy Haslip (bass) are now joined by William Kennedy (drums) and Bob Mintzer (tenor/soprano). The addition of Mintzer, a player with solid, straight-ahead jazz credentials, gives the Yellowjackets a slightly harder edge than many of their R&B/fusion contemporaries. Their sound, at times, is reminiscent of later Weather Report and cuts such as Spirit Of The West and The Evening News display ...

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Album Review

Yellowjackets: Blue Hats

Read "Blue Hats" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
June 1, 1997

Fortunately, the Yellowjackets--and Blue Hats in particular '" prove that slick, contemporary jazz can be accessible and creative, interesting music too. More often than not, this quartet, featuring the wonderful Russell Ferrante on piano and synths, Jimmy Haslip on bass, Bob “Big-Band" Minzter on reeds and William Kennedy on drums, makes radio-friendly instrumental music that stands up surprisingly well as thoughtful, interactive jazz. While Blue Hats is this listener's first experience with the Yellowjackets (formed way back in 1981 by ...

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Album Review

Yellowjackets: Yellowjackets

by AAJ Staff
January 1, 1997

Now, the Yellowjacket’s first, self-titled, album (Warner Bros., 1981), is on the fusion end of things, but as far as groove goes, it’s definitely strong. This version of the ensemble includes Russell Ferrante on keyboards (lots of piano, electric piano, and pretty hip synth stuff), playing some of the hottest stuff I’ve heard him play. This guy has some incredible groove chops. I once had a conversation with Carl Evans (Fattburger) about a double bill with his group and the ...