Last week, after checking his trusty weather app for the forecast for the coming week, HERC was shocked to see the following:
He picked himself up off the floor, sat down on the couch near his desk to catch his breath and flipped on The Weather Channel to see what they were forecasting. When the local forecast came on at the 8's, they weren't forecasting that far in advance but the background music sounded vaguely familiar and had set HERC's toes a-tapping. He fired up the SoundHound app and within seconds, he had the info he desired - the song was from the debut album Yellowjackets by Yellowjackets.
Although it was originally released in June 1981, Yellowjackets came into HERC's life one day in Drafting class, later on in the early Eighties; probably 1982 or 1983. His friend Mike H. (who would throughout their friendship introduce HERC to a lot of new artists he wouldn't have otherwise listened to) walked by and dropped a TDK SA90 tape on his drafting table and silently gave a thumbs up as he kept walking.
Later that day, on the forty-five minute bus ride home from school, HERC popped the tape into his trusty Walkman (which is a dead ringer for the one in the image above) and pressed Play. This was a new jazz sound for HERC and he liked it, eventually going on to buy the next four Yellowjackets vinyl releases (through 1987) and checking out the three compact discs after those from the local library. (If you love music and have never checked the selection at your local library, HERC urges you to check it out ASAP.)
HERC is comfortable calling this music simply "jazz" as he believes in wide-open, far-reaching labels; he likes to say that there are only two kinds of music: the kind he likes and the kind he hasn't heard yet. The categorizing gurus over at allmusic.com take it further and classify the style as "crossover jazz", "post-bop", "fusion" and "smooth jazz". Yellowjackets opened the door for HERC to explore the funk/jazz/R&B hybrid music that followed it, including Jeff Lorber's In The Heat Of The Night [1984]; Kenny G's G-Force [1983] (with the original cover art above) and Paul Hardcastle's Rain Forest [1985] (below).
Here we go again! HERC just checked the weather forecast for next week:
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Funny that you mention this, as I just posted a memory on my FB but: out of the many concerts I've been to in my lifetime, the Yellowjackets were the only show where I actually dozed off for a bit. I had heard of them but never listened, figuring there may be a time when I can, but if not, that's fine. They could play, but somewhere within the show, I caught myself snoring. I never thought I'd be "that guy" but I was. I love the Modern Jazz Quartet but Yellowjackets didn't groove with me. Maybe I should start from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteWow! Dozing off at a live music concert, huh? Can't say I've ever been that bored or tired or disinterested in a live music performance. Have you ever tried listening to them when you can't get to sleep? HERC has a bedtime playlist of more than 250 tracks he likes a lot - it is titled simply Zzzzz. He admits to dozing off at least twice during elementary school performances NOT involving his own offspring.
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