Yellowjackets Release “Raising Our Voice”
Legendary fusion band Yellowjackets have released a new album called Raising Our Voice, which pushes into new territory by featuring vocalist Luciana Souza on seven of its thirteen tracks. The usually instrumental band used the opportunity to continue their sonic explorations.
“The band keeps moving forward,” says longtime saxophonist Bob Mintzer. “It’s one of the few partnership bands in the last four decades. It’s democratic, laissez-faire and accommodating to everyone in the band to contribute. We’re constantly reinventing ourselves as a reflection of what’s happening in the world.”
That democratic style of writing also applies to bassist Dane Alderson. This is his second album with the group after joining the group in 2015. “They gave me the freedom to explore,” he says of the writing process. “I’m a huge fan of the RC-300 Loop Station by Boss combined with the Roland VB99 midi unit, which I used on the two short pieces, ‘Emerge’ and ‘Divert.’”
While it’s not looped, you can check out Alderson’s beautiful playing as he matches Souza’s vocals on the melody for “Solitude” before taking a solo at the 1:40 mark:
Raising Our Voice is available now on CD and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Raising Our Voice Track List:
- Man Facing North
- Mutuality
- Everyone Else is Taken
- Ecuador
- Strange Time
- Emerge
- Timeline
- Quiet
- Divert
- Brotherly
- Swing With It
- In Search Of
- Solitude
