Customer Reviews

Yellowjackets [CD on Demand]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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The self-titled 1981 debut from the dynamic jazz-fusion band The Yellowjackets has finally been remastered and reissued with superior sound quality and bonus tracks!!
The debut disc from the band captures the its original line-up (keyboardist Russell Ferrante, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Ricky Lawson along with guitarist Robben Ford) with a fresh musical sound that fuses the sound of fusion pioneers such as Weather Report and Return To Forever with a more laid-back approach similar to bands like Spyro Gyra.
Unlike the more acoustic approach that the band would adopt years later, this album combines an electrifying mix of funk, rock and R&B along with outstanding musicianship from all four band members (or three as Ford is only credited as a guest on this album).
Standout tracks include the hard-hitting funk of "Matinee Idol" and "Sittin' In It", the rock-fusion of "Imperial Strut" which includes some great guitar and piano work from Ford and Ferrante repsectively and the melodic "Priscilla" which in much in the same vein as the Jaco Pastorius-era Weather Report.
The newly remastered version includes four additional tracks which stem from the band's original demo tape recorded in late 1979. The demo tracks include an early take of "Imperial Strut" along with three tracks that have never been released on any Yellowjackets album in any form. Despite the musicianship being slighty rough around the edges, these four demo tracks are of superb quality and are a must for the die-hard Jackets fan.
This reissue of the Yellowjackets first album is long since overdue (and it even states that on the CDs sticker attached to the outer shrinkwrap). It's great to finally have it out in its best light imaginable. One can only hope that the Yellowjackets second album "Mirage a Trois" will receive the same treatment in the near future.

This album just sounds so fresh. While it gives a strong representation of the 80s fusion sound, it barely sounds dated 24 years after its release. Great compostions, incredible playing and slick production make this a fantastic album. While the presence of slick production sometimes has the power to ruin something that could have been great, this is not the case here. The production is such that the group is shown to be the incredibly tight ensemble that it is, where the production compliments the group instead of making the music sterile. The album hits off with a great groove with "Matinee Idol", a song that along with "Sittin' In It" really gives a straight out definition of what the 80s sound was.

Robben Ford's powerhouse bluesy guitar playing really gives the album a kick. His ability is really shown off on "Imperial Strut", "Priscilla" and particularly, the energetic "Rush Hour". Russell Ferrante's Acoustic and Rhodes piano playing (while sometimes shared by Bobby Lyle) is just perfect, giving a sound to this album that has been imitated by many people. Jimmy Haslip's chunky bassplaying consisting of some great slapping in combination with fingerstyle work (even with the addition of Harmonics) always suits the environments of the pieces, and Ricky Lawson's chunky seemingly Rock/Funk drumming always sounds and feels groovy.

In response to qwerty (who for some reason posted the same negative review for two releases of this album), this music is not tasteless, and is certainly not parasitic. While the three albums you mentioned are among my favourites in terms of fusion, I don't see how there is such a large comparison between this music and that of the sometimes fire-powered fusion of the late sixties and early to mid seventies that you mentioned. This music, while admittedly influenced by the more commericial Heavy Weather from Weather Report (which is rather different from Mysterious Traveller), was redefining Jazz fusion for the eighties. Empty virtuosity is a term that is not necessary here. The cruel could in fact use it to describe the music of John McLaughlin and say that his virtuosic playing was nothing more than finger exercises, even though we both know that to be untrue. And personally, I don't actually see the direct connection between this (far more accessible form of) music and the music of Miles Davis heard on albums like "In A Silent Way".

This album is a fantastic piece of work, and I would recommend it as the place to start for anyone who is interested in finding out more about 80s fusion.

I'm writing a review of this 25-year-old album because the copy I recently purchased has some good bonus tracks. Do you have an opinion about what relative proportions of rock, soul/R&B, jazz, world/ethnic, and classical would justify or negate the label of "Fusion" music? OK, so be it. I started out listening to Motown and ended up a jazz fan. Albums like this one opened my ears.

The style is to my taste. Having admitted that, this album was and remains the definitive statement of its genre.

It's basically Graham Central Station, minus vocals, plus Ramsey Lewis, plus a guitar player who is equal parts Cannonball Adderley and Eric Clapton.

The gem of the new release is a demo version of Imperial Strut. On the original album take Robben Ford shows more refinement but here he burns. Russell Ferrante is as much modal as Gospel here, and both solos are significantly longer and owe a much greater debt to bebop. This bonus track is quite find.

The re-release of the first Yellowjackets album is a real treat with the additional demo tracks. Listening to them makes me wonder how they were eliminated originally. What you have here are four young jazz musicians who love playing together and the result is a great jazz sound with wonderful, free soloing. It is an amazing CD in my opinion.

I consider it the sequel CD to Robben Ford's terrific "The Inside Story". The musicians are all here again, now with a name for their band:
Yellowjackets. "The Inside Story" is well-known to jazz fans overseas (strange how much more jazz is appreciated OUTSIDE the U.S.), but it was never released as a CD here. Mine is an import from Japan. I think having both CDs makes you really appreciate the chops of this young jazz group. I had the incredible fortune of seeing them play together at their 20th year reunion concert and it was proof for me that they still love playing together, and that's why they sound the way they do. This is all about fun, not work.

Russell Ferrante and Robben Ford provide the melodies and superb improvisation over them. Jimmy Haslip and Ricky Lawson are a tight rhythm section duo who can really back them up. Musical groups really don't get much better than this, each player is an essential part of that complete sound, and changing one changes everything. This original quartet was and still is really something.

Check out the CD "Casino Lights" and Youtube for some live music from these original four guys, and you'll find that they can really pull it off outside the studio as well.

That for me means they really have it, and this CD is great stuff!

A member of the seventies fusion/progressive rock group "Brand X" coined the term "fuzak" to describe the degeneration of fusion in the late seventies and early eighties. Nowadays you're more likely to encounter the term "elevator music" than "Muzak", which is rather ridiculous considering I've not yet met a single person who has ever heard music in an elevator. Muzak, on the other hand, was and is an actual company that actually produced and continues to produce much of the incessant piped-in wallpaper "music" (noise) to which we are subjected in grocery stores and department stores and elsewhere.

Yellow Jackets is a sort of borderline case. It isn't quite Muzak, but it is slick and tasteless, watered-down, and parasitic. By "parasitic" I mean it could never have existed without the efforts of legitimate fusion groups such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra ("Birds of Fire"), early Weather Report ("Mysterious Traveler"), and, of course, the late sixties and early seventies work of Miles Davis ("In a Silent Way"), and yet it clearly devalues and debases these precursors.

When I say it isn't quite Muzak, I mean it isn't quite Kenny G.--to put it glibly. Unlike Mr. G, in fact, the musicians here can really play their instruments, but they're rather too intent on continually demonstrating that to us. The phrase "empty virtuosity" comes to mind. Whereas the Mahavishnu Orchestra played with heart and soul and fire, the Yellow Jackets play finger exercises over de rigeur funk-ish beats with de rigeur slap bass, meretricious artificially sparkling piano, and sickeningly squishy synthesizer timbres.

Here and there, however, we find a few tasty bits, and Robin Ford on electric guitar generally acquits himself well, but these are not enough to prevent this record from taking more from you than it gives in return, a bad experience.