Time Squared (Heads Up Records)
Yellowjackets
Released May 27, 2003
Grammy Nominee Best Contemporary Jazz Album 2004
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_klcpxFScAKcTLqfpoFSSY9aFgWoe6qiy8
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3O8CDelEtPUd6DqrZUEl80?si=bIdzgPrPTn2cegIONBVHSQ
About:
Nearly two years have passed since we last recorded in June of 2001. As musicians, we’re always conscious of time. Its all about the time, the distance between beats. Our collective sense of time holds the music together. It’s the heartbeat of the music. We love to push, pull and play with the time, to play songs in irregular time signatures.
A favorite pastime of jazz musicians is to alternately obscure the time, then clearly articulate it. It’s elastic. Sometimes it’s objective, other times extremely subjective. It’s the canvas atop which we place our notes and songs. It is the backdrop to all we do. It’s the moment in which something takes place. It’s the past, present, and future.
Now, imagine time times itself! Or maybe it’s really time interpreted by four equal individuals and all that has taken place in our lives between the notes we play together. Or it may be the intersection of our aesthetic senses, our communal square.
“Go Go”: Bob’s homage to that infectious DC groove captures the pulse of the city’s youth. When Marcus broke in to a Go Go grove at a recent YJ workshop at a DC area high school, the auditorium erupted!
“Monk’s Habit”: Thelonious Monk had a singularly eccentric and robust melodic and rhythmic piano style. It sometimes sounded like the piano notes he depressed were glued to their neighboring keys…or maybe his fingers were just really thick.
“Smithtown”: Last year Jimmy found time to reflect on his youth and share his daydream about playing gigs in every little township within a days drove of Huntington, Long Island.
“Healing Waters”: Written at a time of prayer, its soothing, peaceful nature conveys the timeless need for true healing. Marcus’ expressive debut composition features a buoyant vocal by his wife, Jean and demonstrates that time is indeed relative, multifaceted, and quite fluid.
“Time Squared”: Did we travel back to 1973?
“Gabriela Rose”: A soft light illuminates Jimmy’s hauntingly beautiful dedication to his daughter, full of love and hope.
“Sea Folk”: Remember the whistling sailor in the Old Space commercial? We love to play in 6/8 or is it 5/8???
“V”: Did Coltrane ever play in 5/4? Maybe now you know why.
“Claire @ 18”: It’s effortless to love and be completely smitten by your child but how does one feel when they begin to break away. It’s beautiful, it’s inevitable, and its sometimes painful.
“The Village Gait”: Who doesn’t remember the exact moment time was stretched almost beyond our comprehension in NYC. You’ve been on our minds and in our prayers. “My First Best Friend”: A dedication to a childhood friend who left us far too soon.
Track Listing:
1. Go Go (Bob Mintzer) 5:33
2. Monk’s Habit (Russell Ferrante) 5:12
3. Smithtown (Russell Ferrante / Jimmy Haslip) 5:17
4. Healing Waters (Marcus Baylor / Russell Ferrante) 6:10
5. Time Squared (Bob Mintzer) 6:45
6. Gabriela Rose (Russell Ferrante / Jimmy Haslip) 4:53
7. Sea Folk (Russell Ferrante) 6:31
8. V (Russell Ferrante) 5:27
9. Claire @ 1 8 (Russell Ferrante) 5:29
10. Village Gait (Bob Mintzer) 5:31
11. My 1st Best Friend (Russell Ferrante) 4:49
Personnel:
Russell Ferrante: keyboards
Jimmy Haslip: bass
Bob Mintzer: woodwinds
Marcus Baylor: drums
Jean Baylor: vocal (4)
Recorded at Firehouse Recording Studio
Producers: Yellowjackets
Executive producer: Dave Love
Recording and Mixing: Rich Breen
Assistant engineer: Ed Woolley
Editing: Jay Frigoletto
Mastering: Dave Collins
Graphic design: Margi Denton
Cover artwork: Carol Taylor
Photography: Dale Gold
Review:
Perhaps out of ignorance, I have avoided the Yellowjackets because of my distaste for the Rippingtons. I am a stick-in-the-mud-acoustic-jazz-snob. And, I must admit, I am that to my own disadvantage and loss. Over the past 20 years, the Yellowjackets have released 20 recordings, counting Time Squared. In that time they have sold beaucoups records, started their own record company, and toured widely. Listening to Time Squared it is easy to understand why. The band adopts a “Rhythm and Jazz” stance that separates them from Spyro Gyra and scores of anemic new age electric combos. Add to that, the band contains perhaps the four finest electric jazz musicians around.
Equal in all parts, the band is a groove machine. Bob Mintzer is the heir to Eric Dolphy’s bass clarinet crown, shoehorning this stubborn instrument into a contemporary setting (hear “Smithtown”). Ferrante’s acoustic piano playing is in apparent high gear with great solos on “Smithtown”, “Go Go,” and “V.” Haslip and Baylor are outstanding here as always.
I suspect that I will forever remain a stick-in-the-mud-acoustic-jazz-snob. I am glad, however, that there is music like this to sneak up on me.
C. Michael Bailey (All About Jazz)
