Jazz Articles about Yes

About Yes

Top Ten List

The Grand Sonic Journey: Top 10 Progressive Rock Epics of All Time

by Michael Ricci
March 7, 2026

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a musical revolution occurred when rock musicians decided the standard three-minute pop format was no longer enough. Enter progressive rock--a genre characterized by boundless ambition, virtuosic musicianship, and a sheer fearlessness when it came to track length. Bands fused rock and roll with classical structures, jazz improvisation, and avant-garde experimentation to create sprawling, multi-part suites that often required an entire side of a vinyl record. These extended compositions, typically running anywhere ...

Extended Analysis

Tales from Topographic Oceans (Definitive Edition)

by John Kelman
October 8, 2016

It was the album that, based on challenges during the five months it took to record, should really never have come to pass. It was the album that broke a three studio album/one live recording winning streak of increasing critical acclaim. It was the album, when at least for some critics, suggested the group's seemingly endless wellspring of creative indulgences were beginning to cross over into excess. It was the album that began to divide the band's fanbase, for the ...

Live Review

Yes at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
August 13, 2016

Yes NYCB Theatre at Westbury The Album Series: Drama + Topographic 1 & 4. The “Evening With Yes. Westbury, NY August 6, 2016 Yes is like the little engine that could. No matter what, regardless of any obstacle, the band continues to forge on. During the past (almost) 50 years, Yes has been the home to, at various times, 19 official members and another 2 touring members. Band members drift-in, drift-out, leave and eventually ...

Extended Analysis

Progeny - Seven Shows from Seventy-Two

by John Kelman
May 31, 2015

A sad life truth is that, for far too many people, massive success changes everything. Despite making more money than would last the average family many lifetimes, they go through it like water; they gradually begin to believe all the positive press and massive sales, becoming legends in their own mind; and, perhaps worst of all, they lose the very edge and innovation that garnered them their success in the first place. Sadly, too, these things often don't bother fans: ...

Extended Analysis

Yes: Progeny - Highlights From Seventy Two

by Doug Collette
May 30, 2015

Progeny: Highlights From Seventy Two consists of ninety minutes of live recordings exhumed from Yes' 1972 tour, some of which were released as Yessongs (Atlantic, 1973). Culled from seven previously unreleased recordings of complete concerts, and sequenced to approximate a setlist of the time, this two package comes adorned in vintage Roger Dean artwork that, vivid as it is, cannot compare to the vibrancy of the music inside. Cognoscenti may or may not agree this material constitutes Yes' ...

Rediscovery

Yes: Relayer

by John Kelman
January 16, 2015

YesRelayerPanegyric2014 (1974) Today's Rediscovery is an anomaly in the catalog of one of progressive rock's most innovative groups of the late 1960s/early '70s, and how better to experience it than with Steven Wilson's upgraded 2014 stereo (and 5.1 surround sound) remix, as the former Porcupine Tree frontman nears the release of his own Hand. Cannot. Erase. (Kscope, 2015). But back to Relayer. Wilson has described Lizard (DGM Live, 1970)--the first of his run ...

Live Review

Yes at the NYCB Theatre At Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
July 19, 2014

Yes NYCB Theatre At Westbury Westbury, NY July 12, 2014 When Yes announced that it would be touring in the summer of 2014, it also stated that it would be playing its classic albums Fragile (Atlantic Records, 1971) and Close To The Edge (Atlantic Records, 1972) in their entirety, as well as excerpts from Heaven And Earth (Frontier Records, 2014) and some greatest hits selections. Quite a daunting proposition, especially considering that original lead vocalist ...