With a plethora of albums under their belt, the Yellowjackets are something of a veteran jazz act these days and if you consider that the band was formed in 1977 (then as the Robben Ford Group) they have really stood the test of time.
Time Squared is their first new release since 2001's Mint Jam and their first album on Heads Up International. This time the Yellowjackets has recorded it as a quartet with Jimmy Haslip (electric bass), Bob Mintzer (sax, clavinet and flute), Russell Ferrante (piano and keys) and Marcus Baylor (drums and percussion).
With eleven original and self-produced compositions this is quite a remarkable straight ahead jazz album.
And it's hard to pick up a favourite song here, since all sound great and are very pleasant. Go Go for example pays hommage to Washington DC's go-go-sound (you may remember Trouble Funk or E.U.) while Monk's Habit is - of course - influenced by Thelonious Monk and it's a infectious uptempo song. Healing Waters is a fine, spiritual kind of song that features some vocal overdubs by drummer Marcus Baylor's wife, Jean.
The title song, Time Squared, has a nice retro and funky flavour to it with some interesting keyboard solos while Gabriela Rose is a solid ballad dedicated to Jimmy Haslip's daughter.
Claire At 18 has a nice bluesy feeling to it and tries to capture the spirit of how one feels when his or her child tries to go it's own ways. My First Best Friend has also a more sad feeling to it and is another excellent song with an intersting tempo change from slow to faster to slow again with a great piano outro.
Add to this songs like Sea Folk, V, Smithtown or The Village Gait and you have a great instrumental jazz album from some very talented musicians that can be heard over and over again without getting boring or sounding monotonously.