Yellowjackets Release “Parallel Motion”

by Kevin Johnson Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

Yellowjackets: Parallel Motion The fusion pioneering band Yellowjackets has just released Parallel Motion, marking the 27th album in their 41 years as a group. While the band has been around for such a long time, there’s still a fresh element to the music. The band’s veteran members – saxophonist Bob Mintzer, keyboardist Russell Ferrante, and drummer Will Kennedy – are, of course, continually forward-thinking musicians, but part of the vibrancy is from the input of bassist Dane Alderson, who joined the band in 2015.

Parallel Motion sees a return of the quartet hashing out original tunes on their own as opposed to the collaborative efforts of 2018’s Raising Our Voice with vocalist Luciana Souza and 2020’s Jackets XL with the WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany.

“The last two projects were collaborations,” explains keyboardist Russell Ferrante. “We wanted to do a project focusing on the quartet. In terms of the material, we wanted to broaden the contributions from everyone. Dane is represented by several tunes. Will is in the mix. Everybody’s involved in every aspect.”

Alderson says the recording’s timing helped, too. “We rehearsed the tunes on the album maybe three times,” he stated. “I believe we’re only now on this tour performing these songs live, so what you’re hearing is about as fresh as they can be. Everything really came to life in the studio in those three days.”

The bassist wrote “Onyx Manor” and “Early” for the band, the latter of which began as a musical sketch on his laptop ten years ago. “I brought it to the band, and the guys brought it to life,” he said. “It’s a jammy party tune with an R&B flavor that really evolved in the studio.”