Years before I launched ContemporaryJazz.com, I maintained a personal top 10 “Jazz and New Adult Contemporary” chart of my own. It was based on what I liked and what seemed to be popular according to other charts and magazines.
Top 10 Contemporary Jazz – March 22, 1992
Yellowjackets – Live Wires (GRP)- Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea – Play (Blue Note)
- Marcus Roberts – As Serenity Approaches (Novus)
- Diane Schuur, In Tribute (GRP)
- The Harper Brothers, You Can Hide Inside the Music (Verve)
- Acoustic Alchemy, Early Alchemy (GRP)
- Vanessa Rubin, Soul Eyes (Novus)
- Special EFX, Global Village (GRP)
- Kilauea, Tropical Pleasures (Brainchild)
- Steve Laury, Passion (Denon)
I was a fan of Yellowjackets at the time. I’d listened to “Mile High,” “Geneva,” and “Wildlife” from Four Corners many times. I liked some tracks from The Spin and Greenhouse. On this live recording, I loved “Revelation” with Take 6 on vocals. I enjoyed Michael Franks adapting “Local Hero” into “The Dream.” I still recommend “Wildlife,” a track then-bassist Jimmy Haslip describes as “an African 6/8 piece with several layers of interlocking melodies and polyrhythms. It creates a hypnotic mood.”
I know Bob Mintzer is the saxophonist on this and all subsequent Yellowjackets recordings. Whatever happened to Marc Russo, the saxman he succeeded?
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