StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Yellowjackets with Mike Stern

This week's videos feature the Yellowjackets and Mike Stern, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform at Jazz at the Bistro starting this coming Wednesday, April 29 and continuing through Saturday, May 2. Both Stern and the 'Jackets played separate weeks at the Bistro last year, but these will be their first St. Louis shows together.

They joined forces in 2008 to record the CD Lifecycle and tour the summer festival circuit, and it worked out well enough that they booked more dates together in 2009. Given that the Yellowjackets originally formed in the early 1980s as the backup band for guitarist Robben Ford, it would seem that their collaboration with Stern could be seen as a fresh direction, a return to their roots, or some of both.

The video clip up top is from a show in July 2008 at a jazz festival in Italy, and shows the Yellowjackets and Stern performing "Revelation," originally recorded by the 'Jackets on their album Shades. Down below, there's a clip of them playing Stern's tune "Chromozone" from their gig at Bohemia Jazz Fest 2008, and in the third spot, a promotional video for Lifecycle with some music and brief comments from the players.