The Yellowjackets have been one of jazz fusion's most quietly durable institutions since forming in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, outlasting trends by prioritizing chemistry and craft over flash. Teaming with the WDR Big Band, one of Europe's most celebrated large ensembles, gives their catalog a new orchestral weight while keeping the rhythmic intimacy that has defined the band across decades of lineup changes and stylistic evolution. For Jackets XL, the Yellowjackets' 25th album and fourth for Mack Avenue Music Group, the band continues to stretch and reinvent itself with an exciting, full-bodied collaboration with the superb WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany. The project combines the shapeshifting, multiple GRAMMYr Award-winning quartet with the renowned big band, re-imagining well-known band originals with dynamic new arrangements that feature twists and turns, textures and colors, moving harmonies and bold solos. With it's pockets of halcyon, buoyance, mystery, tumult, groove and whimsy, Jackets XL plays out as a multifaceted documentation of how far the band has come. "It was like putting a new set of clothes on," Bob Mintzer says. "This represents how the Yellowjackets play now." Tracklist 1. Downtown (6:28) 2. Dewey (7:28) 3. Mile High (5:11) 4. The Red Sea (7:42) 5. Even Song (8:23) 6. One Day (6:31) 7. Tokyo Tale (7:43) 8. Imperial Strut (5:50) 9. Coherence (7:35) 10. Revelation (6:21) UPC: 673203117525Label: Mack Avenue RecordsRelease Date: 11.6.20Format: CD
