Wessell Anderson Gerry Hemingway Dave Stryker John ... - Downbeat

YeLLowJackets
day, or later that night, you can go on YouTube
and watch that concert. You can see the concert
verbatim. And I think that affords bands
that have past history and fans the opportunity
to keep what we’re doing out there and in view.
With the demise of the record business and record
stores, what it really comes down to now is
going out and playing. Whatever it takes—if it
means getting up there on YouTube, so be it. We
want to go out and play.”
Yellowjackets have found that one good
way to maintain a presence, so to speak, is by
taking their act into schools while they’re on the
road. A prime example would be their recent
visit to St. Louis’ Normandy High School arranged
by Jazz at the Bistro, which is supported
by a grassroots organization with powerful educational
outreach.
“We can do a concert with the school big
band, and we can do a concert with the four of
us, which will generally raise a crowd,” Mintzer
said, noting that the group offers workshops for
students of all ages. “It’s great to teach with the
whole group because it covers a lot of territory.
You have four fairly savvy, experienced musicians
here who have played with everybody, and
there’s really a lot to offer aspiring musicians in
the way of inspiration and information.
“Frequently we’ll do a concert at a college,
and part of the deal is we speak to the student
body for a period of time. I remember back
when I was in high school and Jazzmobile
36 DOWNBEAT JULY 2011
came to my school—Billy Taylor, Ron Carter,
Harold Land and Blue Mitchell—that made a
huge impression. So it’s great that we have an
opportunity to do that, to share our experience
and get these kids maybe interested in pursuing
what we do.”
The band is maintaining a high profile this
summer with appearances at the Rio das Ostras
Jazz & Blues Festival in Brazil on June 24–
25, as well as four big gigs with vocalist Bobby
McFerrin, who tapped Ferrante, Kennedy and
Haslip for his own Bang Zoom project back in
1995 and appeared on Yellowjackets’ Dreamland
album the same year.
“Being an instrumental band, there’s plenty
of room to collaborate with a variety of artists,”
Kennedy explained. “We all work with other
people, so the concept of hooking up with somebody
is right there in front of you.”
“The fact that we’re involved with outside
things, that also feeds the creative fire of this
band,” Haslip said. “You learn stuff when you
work with other people that maybe you wouldn’t
learn if we stayed in a bubble and just worked
with the four of us and didn’t venture off into
anything else. Once you go out and start working
with people from all over the world, then
there’s new ideas, new perspectives, all kinds of
things start happening, and you come back into
the fold with the four of us and have all this new
experience at hand that we’re all willing to share.
That can only bring positive things to the table. It
all adds to the individual, makes the individual
stronger with experience, and when the four of us
come together it makes that even more intense.”
All four Yellowjackets are involved in outside
musical projects, not to mention teaching
gigs, that add dimension and depth to their lives
and careers. This particular arrangement is special,
the ultimate reward for three decades of
hard work and heartfelt commitment.
“These musicians playing this music, which
was crafted based around these four players, is
something totally unique,” Mintzer said. “I’ve
never experienced this before; I don’t know if I
ever will again. There’s a certain chemistry here
that’s profound. There’s something that happens
when you’re together all these years and you’re
playing on an ongoing basis that won’t happen,
no matter how great the musicianship is, if you’re
not playing together that much. And every year I
grow to appreciate it more. I think we all want to
keep doing it.”
Ferrante wrapped up the hour-long conversation
as the others indicated they were ready
to head out to the gig: “It’s a cliche, but it is like
a family,” he said. “If it wasn’t, we couldn’t
have survived the 30 years because the friction
would build up. We’ve spent a lot of time together
on airplanes and buses and trains, hanging
out in terminals and hotels, on the bandstand,
eating. So you’ve really got to feel like
you’re connected to the other people to have it
all really work.” DB