------------------------------------------------ AUGUST 4, 2001 ------------------------------------------------ Source: Rocky Mountain News http://www.rockymountainnews.com/~article/0,1299,DRMN_84_793241,00.html Yessymphony -- A Big Band is Born by Mark Brown It's something Yes fans have dreamed of for years. The classic core of Yes - singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, and drummer Alan White - is paired with a 45-piece orchestra for the Yessymphonic Tour, hitting Fiddler's Green on Sunday. Despite the band's volatile history, "we're very committed to each other in more ways than one," Anderson says from band rehearsals in Reno, Nev. "It's getting more like group therapy every day. We've known each other for so long that (the focus is on) just the musical thing now." The band has broken up, reformed, and lost and added members along the way, but Anderson says there's little animosity in those changes. "There's always going to be an element of frustration, any business you're in, whether you're an artist or dancer or a builder or a bank manager," he says, "You're never going to get on with everybody. There's always time for change." The band's evolving membership "is a natural event, and unfortunately, people would get very upset because someone would leave the band and someone else would join," he says, "To us it was natural. If the music inspired and the drummer wants to leave like Bill Bruford did, he wants to leave. If Rick Wakeman wants to move on, he does it. Me and Chris are really the yin and yang of the band." A new studio album, Magnification, is due out this month. "That was just the four of us jamming," Anderson says of the album's genesis. "Everyone comes in with at least a dozen songs and you get down to the best parts of four songs and jam them together with Super Glue. That's called Yes music." The band is always writing. "It's a constant flow of energy, something we've all learned to work with. Alan White has come to the forefront with his compositions," Anderson says, "The four of us wrote all the music, and I tend to be the lyricist. Steve comes up with great chorus ideas, Chris comes up with great bridge parts. It's a big hat in the middle, where everyone throws stuff in and we keep picking stuff out." For this tour, the band's first with a symphony, composer Larry Groupe made the arrangments based on the band's music. "He doesn't jump all over them, just performs along with them, to give them that extra color," Anderson says. "They were actually written with Rick Wakeman as the orchestrator. He'd play strings and flutes and brass on keyboards; now we have the joy of working with 45 people every night, performing that music with us." The band has always tried to remain adventurous, even if some fans were dismayed that they went techno for a while. "We were trying to have fun with modern technology in that period," he says of the early-'80s era that brought the very un-Yes-like hit Owner of a Lonely Heart. "There was a lot more to the music than just songwriting elements. But that kind of thinking, from an artistic point of view, can only last a certain amount of time." The band has been best-known for its longer excursions and insturmental dexterity, producing classic hits such as Roundabout and Your Move. Fans love them; critics often find them pretentious. "Long-form pieces are very adventurous," Anderson says. "that's basically why we do them. We don't do them to (tick) people off. They're exciting to do, and sometimes you can bring music out that's very subconscious, very spiritual. So why not try? (People will say) at least they did it, you know? At least they tried to do something a little bit other than the norm." And Yes finds that the influence is far and wide. "Seventy percent of the orchestra wanted autographs because they're Yes fans," Anderson says. "A lot of them would say, 'We wouldn't be in music if not for you and groups like you.'" Indeed, while many jam bands point to the Grateful Dead as an inspiration, they also cite Yes and the band's willingness to put out long, free-form album tracks. "What they're doing is, they want to rebel against the pop format. That's what we wanted to do," Anderson says. "We're still rebelling in a way.  The new album has three 12-minute pieces and three eight-minute pieces." Interestingly, in his spare time, Anderson listens to three-minute modern punk songs. "I love the X-games and that kind of music - that slash/bang/wallop type of music. It's wild and wonderful," he says. "The music that surrounds it is punk, but fun punk, not anarchy punk. It's just good, flat-out energy." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com