A Rise In The Road is already the 22nd album since the founding of The Yellowjackets in 1981. They themselves see their 32-year existence as a great journey, where it is difficult to predict what to expect when the road goes up. At the bottom of a hill the path is difficult to oversee. The energetic character of their music at the time of its foundation has become a lot more sluggish. Gone are the
… energetic breaks, transitions and solid unison playing. What remains is a relaxed sounding jazz funk that just cannot be called smooth jazz. A band that has existed for so long cannot avoid an occasional change of staff. The newest member is Felix Pastorius who plays the bass just like his legendary father. To match this, the bar is very high and he does not. But that is not necessary, because the current music of The Yellowjackets lends itself to solo work, of course, but not to virtuoso playing. (AD)more