JAZZ REVIEW : Yellowjackets Confront Bad Dream With Vigorous Enthusiasm

The Yellowjackets came close to overestimating their appeal Thursday night. Playing before a sparse crowd at the Universal Amphitheatre, the fusion jazz group endured the performers’ bad dream of working to a half-empty house.

To their credit, the melodically oriented quartet dug into a set--much of it devoted to material from a new album, “Politics”--with a vigorous enthusiasm that drew enough applause for a full house.

Alternating new pieces with a few past hits, the group, which also appears Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, played with a more aggressive brand of improvisation than their commercial popularity might suggest.

Alto saxophonist Marc Russo’s solos, in particular, revealed that in the last year or so the Yellowjackets have moved strongly into a jazz orbit.

On such pieces as “Evening Dance” and “Foreign Correspondent,” Russo created a convincing marriage between the wild runs and strident honks of avant-garde style saxophone and the bent blues inflections of contemporary fusion. A master of the difficult art of executing very high harmonics, he squeezed all sorts of astonishing, siren-like wails out of the upper stratosphere of his horn.

Keyboardist Russell Ferrante also played exceptionally well, especially on “Foreign Correspondent,” using an attractive piano sound to string out long, loping be-bop lines. Bassist Jimmy Haslip’s tribute to the late Jaco Pastorius--”Galileo”--gave the Yellowjackets’ rhythm section stalwart an opportunity to stretch out, and drummer Will Kennedy made the most of a mercifully not-too-long drum solo.

The Yellowjackets’ practice of abusing pre-recorded tape and/or sequencer programs on several pieces, however, was surprising.

It seemed apparent that when Kennedy and, to a lesser degree, Ferrante, used headphones to synchronize their rhythms with pre-set material, they simply weren’t interacting as effectively as they might have with the live musicians. It’s a practice which--despite the more complex textures that tapes and sequencers can provide--just doesn’t feel right with a band of this stature.

The Yellowjackets would also do well, regardless of the enthusiasm of the crowd, to make a bit stronger effort to communicate. Even a small audience is interested in little things like the names of songs.

The Yellowjackets and Dianne Reeves appear at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, at 8 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $25. Information: (714) 556-2787.