1981年結成、ジャズ界の超長寿バンド、イエロージャケッツ
25作目となる作品はWDR Big Bandとの共演
現在首席指揮者であるボブ・ミンツァー自身が7曲をアレンジ
81年のデビュー作品収録の"Imperial Strut"から近年の楽曲まで10曲
バンドの歴史を紐解くような選曲にも注目!!

1981年結成、40年近い活動歴を誇る超長寿バンド、イエロージャケッツの通算25作目、Mack Avenueでの第4作目となる作品。

本作はドイツの名門ビッグ・バンドWDRビッグ・バンドとの注目の共演作品。現在のWDRビッグ・バンドは、イエロージャケッツのリード奏者であるボブ・ミンツァーが首席指揮者をつとめており、本作は7曲のアレンジをボブ・ミンツァー自身が担当している点でも興味深い。

演奏する10曲のナンバーは、81年の作品に収録されている"Imperial Strut"から2016年にMack Avenueでリリースしたアルバムのタイトルトラック"Coherence"まで、バンドの歴史を語るような名曲ばかり。元々、バンドの特徴でもあるポップかつカラフルな楽曲の一つ一つが、バンドを知り尽くすミンツァーのアレンジによる譜面で、ふくよかに、またダイナミックに奏でられる様は、パワフルで、またドラマティック!

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2020/10/26）

The Yellowjackets are an anomaly in contemporary jazz. They actually began their career playing accessible fusion, then evolved toward pop-friendly smooth jazz. Over the decades, lineup changes engendered a widening musical philosophy that embraced post-bop, global polyrhythms, and expansive arrangements. Theyve become one of the most innovative electro-acoustic jazz ensembles. Keyboardist/composer Russell Ferrante, the groups founder, was joined by drummer Will Kennedy in 1987 and saxophonist/EWI player/arranger/composer Bob Mintzer in 1990. Bassist Dane Alderson made his debut on 2016s Cohearance. Jackets XL is a collection of imaginatively rearranged crowd and catalog favorites. Mintzer enlisted the famed WDR Big Band from Koln, Germany as collaborators (he has been their principal conductor since 2016). Seven of the ten tunes here, creating a seamless interaction between ensembles. The material is drawn mainly from the 80s and 90s, though there are a couple of 21st century selections included. Downtown, from 1988s Politics, was originally recorded as a fusion jam drenched in Weather Reports influence. This version, arranged by Vince Mendoza, has a faster tempo with knotty hard bop cadences, brighter harmonic colors from the woodwinds and reeds, and skittering double-timed snare, with popping brass, and a roiling bass solo. Ferrantes Dewey was recorded as a tribute to Miles Davis in 1992. A muted trumpet guided the lyric in a lithe, silky funk tune comprised of vamps. This version is darker and deeper, as the brass section claims the lone trumpets role; its appended by lush keyboard vamps and drop-beat snare. Mintzers EWI offers a snaky, welcoming solo atop expansive brass and reed harmonics, syncopated rhythms, and gritty funk keyboards. Mile High, from 1987s Four Corners, was a pop tune that borrowed from the arrangements and production used on Tears for Fears multi-platinum Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Here, the original tunes vamp remains, but everything else has been altered. Mintzers tenor-articulated melody is adorned by piano, woody rim shots, and layered brass and reeds, all guided by a pulsing, hypnotic bassline. The new version of 1993s Even Song by Mintzer weds slippery R&B to horn arrangements reminiscent of Tower of Power. One Day, an unreleased jam from 2018, offers the most creative use of Mintzers EWI in a post-bop setting, and is righteously juxtaposed with Ferrantes groove-oriented electric piano playing. In 1981, Imperial Strut was a guitar-based funky fusion number; here its been liberated from Ferrantes wedding stride piano to post-bop, with fingerpopping horn cadences, twisting synth and EWI interludes, and a rolling funk bassline. Closer Revelation swings with gospel horns and pumping acoustic piano. The influence of the Jazz Crusaders early arrangement style on Mintzers gloriously kinetic chart cannot be overstated. Jackets XL offers not only a seamless, sophisticated, kaleidoscopic jazz collaboration, and it also reveals Yellowjackets musical evolution through taste, variety, imagination, and genuine surprise. They welcome listeners into their party as participants, not merely as observers. Enjoy. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi