th<\/sup> album. And although the players may have changed over the decades, those common threads bind the group\u2019s entire body of work. Ferrante says that the new album represents \u201cwho we are, and it reflects our aesthetic sense.\u201d But at the same time, he acknowledges that the band\u2019s character is constantly being refined.<\/p>\nRaising Our Voice<\/i> revisits some older Yellowjackets tunes. The original version of the opening track, \u201cMan Facing North\u201d appeared on the group\u2019s 1993 album, Like a River<\/i>. While the \u201893 recording focuses on electric bass, the new recording places emphasis on impressive interplay between Bob Mintzer\u2019s sax and Souza\u2019s wordless vocals.<\/p>\n
Luciana Souza is featured on Raising Our Voice<\/i>, and the Brazilian jazz singer co-wrote two of the album\u2019s tracks with Ferrante. \u201cLuciana\u2019s input was crucial in creating the new versions of previously recorded songs,\u201d Ferrante says.<\/p>\n
But most of the music on Raising Our Voice<\/i> is completely new. \u201cAll the [new] music was written prior to going into the recording studio,\u201d Ferrante says, \u201cbut we refined and shaped it during the recording process.\u201d Many of the tunes weren\u2019t originally slated to include vocals at all, but once the group entered the studio with Souza, Ferrante says that \u201cwe excitedly integrated her\u201d into the arrangements. \u201cShe added another melodic voice to the band, allowing us to expand our orchestrational possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each of the four members of the Yellowjackets\u2014Ferrante plus saxophonist Bob Mintzer, William Kennedy on drums and bassist Dane Alderson\u2014is involved in projects outside the group. \u201cBob writes and records his own quartet and big band music,\u201d Ferrante says. \u201cI compose for and play trio gigs that are entirely acoustic in nature; Will has been playing some more rhythm and blues-oriented gigs on his own, and Dane has a weekly gig in Charlottesville playing a wide variety of music from rock to jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group members bring those diverse backgrounds together to create the Yellowjackets\u2019 sound, one that is firmly rooted in the tuneful and accessible end of the jazz spectrum. Raising our Voice explores a number of different textures, from Mintzer\u2019s old-school \u201cSwing With It\u201d to the bop-flavored \u201cStrange Time\u201d to the impressionistic \u201cIn Search Of.\u201d The latter makes subtle use of synthesizer, though one has to listen closely to hear it. \u201cAcoustic piano was my primary voice on this recording,\u201d Ferrante says. \u201cI feel most expressive at the piano, but I still love the way synths can be used to help shape the arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
And the album ventures outside the jazz idiom completely on a pair of brief, minimalist instrumentals\u2014\u201cEmerge\u201d and \u201cDivert\u201d\u2014that are nearly ambient in nature. \u201cThose pieces were primarily Dane\u2019s creations,\u201d Ferrante says. \u201cWe hope to continue to explore [that style] and further incorporate the entire band in a more substantive way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, the Yellowjackets have sometimes been pigeonholed into the \u201csmooth jazz\u201d category, a style that holds little credibility with critics or serious jazz aficionados. Ferrante takes it all in stride. \u201cI acknowledge that some may label our music as \u2018smooth jazz,\u2019\u201d he says, \u201cbut I think if you really open the hood, there\u2019s a lot more going on than one might initially perceive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the issue some take with smooth jazz is its formulaic nature. \u201cI think some of that criticism [of the style] may be justified,\u201d Ferrante concedes. But part of why he doesn\u2019t believe the Yellowjackets fit into the category has to do with the intention behind the music. \u201cWe want to make music that will inspire, challenge, and last.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than a dozen musicians have been members of jazz fusion band the Yellowjackets since the group was launched in 1977. But keyboardist and founding member Russell Ferrante says that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,42],"tags":[3785],"class_list":["post-16435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-jazz","tag-yellowjackets","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16438,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16435\/revisions\/16438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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More than a dozen musicians have been members of jazz fusion band the Yellowjackets since the group was launched in 1977. But keyboardist and founding member Russell Ferrante says that there are common threads that weave through all of the band\u2019s music. \u201cA strong sense of pulse and groove, a balance of structure and spontaneity, a sense of evolution and development and an optimistic outlook\u201d are distinctive characteristics of the Yellowjackets\u2019 music, he says. With some pride, he mentions that there\u2019s a class at the prestigious Berklee College of Music dedicated to the study of the band\u2019s compositions.<\/p>\n