Favorite Yellowjackets CD

[jerry]

The Bob Minter Big Band : Departure
The album also has the excellent Michael Formanek on acoustic bass.
Another fine Minter album is his ' I Remember Jaco' album with Formanek and Jeff Andrews on bass. Jeff Andrews really shines on that album too.

[NJL]

I like the one with Boomtown on it.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Bassist4Life

I did a Haslip search and found this album:

Structure
Musicians: Adam Rogers, Greg Osby, Jimmy Haslip, and Terry Lyne Carrington. I found it to be funky/jazzy/groovy. A good listening experience.

I've been checking out some of your favorite Yellowjackets picks. I forgot all about Haslip's solo albums. They are not on iTunes .

Also, I couldn't find any of Bob Mintzer Big Band albums w/Lincoln Goines on bass on iTunes. Do you have any specific titles that I can look up?

Joe

Jimmy's first solo album (Arc) was not to my taste, but his second effort (I believe it's called 'Red Heat' or something like that) is SMOKING. Highly recommended if you are a fan of his.

K

[JimK]

I didn't like Arc, either.

Drum machines?
...when you have access to Vinnie & Kennedy?
Sorry if that's sounds a bit too purist.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by JimK

I didn't like Arc, either.

Drum machines?
...when you have access to Vinnie & Kennedy?
Sorry if that's sounds a bit too purist.

+1, but the live percussionist makes the tracks breath pretty nicely, and the tunes and bass playing are very nice.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by JimK

I didn't like Arc, either.

Drum machines?
...when you have access to Vinnie & Kennedy?
Sorry if that's sounds a bit too purist.

I didn't like the first tune, and maybe one or two others, but I thought the Vince Mendoza tunes on that record (there were several) were great.

[JimK]

...maybe it's worth a re-visit?

[jerry]

Originally Posted by JimK

I didn't like Arc, either.

Drum machines?
...when you have access to Vinnie & Kennedy?
Sorry if that's sounds a bit too purist.

I seem to remember machines on Red Heat too, I guess I'll have to revist his solo albums too......maybe later tonight.

[geoffkhan]

Yup, the Greenhouse album is possibly their best album (IMO). You gotta love that lush string section arrangement--very cool they got live players to record that.

There are some tunes on Four Corners that I really like (Mile High, Geneva). It's pretty 80's sounding, like Samurai Samba, except more heavy on the reverb.

Mirage a Trois is definitely another favorite of mine--to some extent I feel it bridges the gap between their first album (with Robben Ford) to some of their other works, like Four Corners.

I like The Spin for Geraldine and Prayer for El Salvador. Geraldine is a great tune, and mixes in Russ's gospel influences really well with their mid-90's style.

Anyway. Killer playing from all the musicians on every album, they just went through a lot of variation in tonal styles. One thing that is evident throughout their history, of course, is the gospel influence.

[Brad Maestas]

Live Wires and Like a River are probably my favorites. Live Wires was my first album of theirs and it still gets me. There are lots of good ones, though!

[Basshole]

Greenhouse is the best IMHO, Blue Hats I'd put second. Shades (with Marc Russo) is "interesting".

[janek65]

Like a River ... it's the only one i have

[Bassist4Life]

After listening to a bunch of song samples on the Internet, I think I'm going to download Mint Jam from iTunes.

The only thing that I hate about downloading a CD is that I'm missing out on the artwork and info inside the insert. Also, you don't get any enhanced content that might be on the CD.

Does Mint Jam have a really awesome CD insert or enhanced content on the CD that I'll be missing???

Joe

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by JimK

...maybe it's worth a re-visit?

The Mendoza tunes are Ninos, Leap, Orange Guitars (a title I love if only because I love orange guitars--I've got two), I Dreamt of You, and Red Cloud. I like Mendoza's compositional style, and from what I've heard from his work on other people's records (including Greenhouse, IIRC), he's a killer arranger.

[jerry]

I'm a fan of Vince Mendoza's work as well, I have a few of his CDs and 'Instructions Inside' has some great playing from Will Lee. I broke out the Jimmy Halip CDs and listened to them this morning......I'm still not crazy about the programming done by Joe Vannelli. It stiffens the groove on the Latin songs IMHO. Other than that, great playing from Jimmy.
On another note, I just got my Bassplayer magazine, and the [timely for this discussion] Jimmy Haslip interview is only a few paragraphs long. Very frustrating!

[Clay_Bass]

I saw the yellowjackets with Jeff Andrews subbing for Jimmy once and it was really cool to hear them with acoustic bass. He sight read through the gig too and sounded really great.

My favorites are Mint Jam and The self titled cd.

[Brad Maestas]

Yes, Mendoza is the man alright. I got to work with him several times while I was attending the University of Kansas and when I worked sound at Birdland. He became good friends with KU's jazz professor and he came to conduct the top jazz ensemble every year for our jazz festival. What a nice guy. One special year, we played some of the tunes off of "Arc", specifically Niños and Orange Guitars. Vince conducted us while several of the musicians on the original recording watched on! I was a little nervous to say the least!

[geoffkhan]

Originally Posted by jerry

I'm a fan of Vince Mendoza's work as well, I have a few of his CDs and 'Instructions Inside' has some great playing from Will Lee.

Yup, such a great album!

As for the Yellowjackets, it's not as though I don't like their newer stuff at all, they just really changed sounds, and I was kinda fond of that 80's gospel fusion sound as well as their mid 90's lush synthesized textures.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by geoffkhan

One thing that is evident throughout their history, of course, is the gospel influence.

Nice version of "Revelation" on Robben Ford's Talk To Your Daughter album.
Rhythm section is Ford, Ferrante, Roscoe Beck, & Viinie...IIRC.