The music on Yellow Fingers is notable for its complete lack of anxiety, its dominant mode of cool. There is not a drop of sweat to be found on any of these tracks. Each one moves without haste through ear-candy melodies into deliciously tasteful soloing from Scott/Grant and their massively accomplished collaborators. There are touches of Bossa nova and bebop, both feeling somehow fresh and reverent at the same time. At times, it seems almost as though Scott and Grant are attempting a rewrite of jazz history that elides dissonance. Even the one up-tempo number, 'Punctuality', binds itself to a clean swing, and never for a moment uses skronk and distortion as an accelerant. But just as that thought arises in the mind, we suddenly get the sound of an electric piano -- included, not as a nod to Herbie's funk period, but simply because it sounds so good.

To make music so clean, timeless, and non-anxious in this cultural moment is evidence either of living in sensory-deprivation tank or of a firm (but non-dogmatic) belief that art can and should exist outside of history. And also that, while respect must be paid to history, artists should never be forced to carry it on their back like a burden. Instead, they should find the notes and modes they like best. The real legacy of jazz's many, often musically violent revolutions is the freedom to pick and choose, to create the future out of a myriad of possible pasts. Yellow Fingers sounds as though it could have come out at any time since around 1963.

Nathan Whitlock

Track Listing

• Horizon Song
• The Tamarind Tree
• Beautiful Shira
• In This Time
• Punctuality
• A Tune for Joel
• Mason, How I Love Yo
• The Problems of Your Future
• Eight Across (for Tim and Lyla)

Additional Details

Label: Cellar Live

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 45:45 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 06/07/24

UPC: 628308830114