Yellowjackets Returns with New Project “Fasten Up” on Feb. 21st, 2025 | LISTEN! Announces New Tour for 2025
GRAMMY® Award-Winning Jazz-Pioneers Yellowjackets
Announce New Album Fasten Up
Out February 21 via Mack Avenue Records
Listen to the First Single “Comin’ Home Baby”
January 17, 2024: Today, GRAMMY Award-winning jazz pioneers Yellowjackets announced their new album Fasten Up, out February 21 via Mack Avenue Records. Well into their fourth decade as a band, the new release will be Yellowjackets’ 27th album and their seventh for Mack Avenue Records. The announcement comes with the quartet’s distinctively elastic take on “Comin’ Home Baby.” Penned by bassist Ben Tucker in the early ’60s, with lyrics added later by Bob Dorough (of Schoolhouse Rock fame), the song has become a perennial, recorded by everyone from Herbie Mann to Mel Tormé, Quincy Jones to Michael Bublé. Bob Mintzer’s arrangement, doubling the melody on tenor and EWI, instantly transforms the familiar chestnut into a Yellowjackets vehicle.
“Bob Mintzer’s reworking of ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ takes on prophetic significance in the light of the devastating Los Angeles fires.” shares founding member Russell Ferrante, “It is said that home is where the heart is and ours is with our fellow Angelenos.” Mintzer himself adds a personal note about the song, sharing “I learned this tune as a teenager, and I guess it has stuck with me.” He continues, “I added a bridge and a few strategic key changes to fill out the arrangement.”
Yellowjackets released their eponymous debut album in 1981 at the height of the fusion era. Since then they’ve adhered to fusion’s genre-blurring mentality while refusing to remain tied to any single style or era. Drawing upon a history-spanning mélange of jazz movements, steeped in funk grooves and chamber music sophistication, and always keeping an ear to the ground for new sounds and technologies, Yellowjackets have evolved to become a genre unto themselves.
The spirit of forward motion that has propelled Yellowjackets throughout the band’s history has less to do with the tempo of the songs themselves – which, as ever, make up a vibrant blend of styles and influences – but with their commitment to exploration and renewal. Those ideas are reflected in the band’s lineup, which features founding pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante; drummer Will Kennedy, whose second tenure in the band (starting in 2010) has now surpassed his first (1987-1999); saxophonist Bob Mintzer, who came on board in 1990; and the Australian-born bassist Dane Alderson, who will celebrate his first decade as a ’Jacket alongside the release of Fasten Up.
“What we’re about is a quest for self-discovery,” defines Ferrante. “We’re constantly figuring out who we are, continuing our journey and evolution while challenging ourselves along the way. The more we play, the closer we get to realizing the ideal of four guys totally losing themselves and making one unified sound.”
There is a communal joy that invigorates all of the music that Yellowjackets create. The thrill of group discovery bristles through the muscular funk grooves, deepens the emotion of the ballads, and digs deep to unearth the roots of the band’s bracing sense of swing. On Fasten Up, their rich history remains in focus in the rearview mirror as they accelerate into the future.
Photo Credit: Roberto Cifarelli
Tracklisting:
Comin’ Home Baby
Fasten Up
Will Power
November 8th
The Truth of You
The Lion (feat. Raul Midón)
Swingmeister General
An Interesting Dream
Broken
The Unresolved Question
Xemeris
Tour Dates:
January 17-18: Birdland NYC | New York, NY
January 25: Folly Theater | Kansas City, MO
January 31: Middle C Jazz | Charlotte, NC
February 1: Germantown Performing Arts Center | Germantown, TN
February 6: Tin Pan | Richmond, VA
February 7: Warehouse Theatre | Lynchburg, VA
February 12: Fox Tucson Theatre | Tucson, AZ
February 14: Soka Performing Arts Center | Aliso Viejo, CA
February 15: The Soraya | Northridge, CA
February 21: Elmhurst Jazz Festival | Elmhurst, IL
March 4-5: Dazzle | Denver, CO
March 7: Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium | Pittsburg, KS
March 8-9: Blues Alley | Washington, DC
March 17: Brighton High School | Cottonwood Heights, UT
March 19: Manship Theatre | Baton Rouge, LA
March 25: McCain Auditorium (Kansas State University) | Manhattan, KS
March 27: Greer Cabaret Theater | Pittsburgh, PA
April 24: Bell Theater | Holmdel, NJ
April 26: Koerner Hall | Toronto, Canada
May 1: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
May 15: Jazzfest Bonn | Bonn, DE
May 16: Jazzfestival Weiz | Weiz, AT
May 17: Teatro Communale | Vicenza, IT
May 21: Teatro Forma | Bari, IT
May 22: Magazzini Del Cotone | Genova, IT
May 23-24: Blue Note | Milan, IT
May 27: Bitefartcafe | Belgrad, SE
June 1: Luxor Live | Arnhem, NL
June 3: Nica Jazz Club | Hamburg, DE
June 20: Lerner Theater, Elkhart Jazz Festival | Elkhart, IN
Facebook – Instagram – Official Website
Missing Piece Group