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Thread: Yesterday and Today - A 50th Anniversary Tribute To Yes

  1. #1

    Yesterday and Today - A 50th Anniversary Tribute To Yes

    Hi PE! Squids here. Today we officially released our tribute to PE's favorite band to talk about... YES!!! Oh yes... we know. But, seriously, if you enjoy Yes music from different eras going back to their first album and through the 70s and 80s and you're curious to hear what Steve Hackett sounds like playing guitar on Cinema or what Nick D'Virgilio and Randy McStine sound like singing "Machine Messiah" with Geoff Downes and I on keyboards or what Marco Minnemann sounds like drumming to Yes and a number of other fun things... check it out!

    yesterdayandtoday2500x2500.jpg


    Here's the info from the press release:

    YES 50th Anniversary Tribute Album Yesterday and Today - NOW AVAILABLE!

    Featuring Steve Hackett, Tony Kaye, Robert Berry, Billy Sherwood, Nick D'Virgilio, Curved Air, Dave Kerzner, Fernando Perdomo and others

    London - Yesterday and Today is a tribute album to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the legendary prog rock band YES.

    The album features the following special guests: Tony Kaye, Billy Sherwood, Jay Schellen, Jon Davison, Steve Hackett, Nick D'Virgilio, Robert Berry, Francis Dunnery, Leslie Hunt, Marco Minnemann, Marisol Koss, Pat Sansone, Randy McStine, Robin Schell, Sally Minnear and co-producers Dave Kerzner and Fernando Perdomo

    Six members of CURVED AIR appear on a newly recorded full band version of “Soon”.

    The current bass player in YES, Billy Sherwood re-records Chris Squire's signature bass track, “The Fish”, and current lead singer Jon Davison performs on an acoustic medley.

    “YES turned 50 the year I turned 50 and Geoff Downes was one of the reasons I became a keyboardist myself! To celebrate and pay tribute to YES's music with Geoff, Jon and Billy along with so many incredible musicians from different bands and generations has truly been a blast. YES are a big influence for me and my own music. This album was a great way for myself, Fernando and all of us to show our love for both the songs and the many great people who have been part of YES going all the way back to their very first album!” - Dave Kerzner, co-producer, Yesterday and Today

    “The Beatles were my first love, then YES became the logical next step of evolution in my musical upbringing. YES have it all, songwriting equal to musicianship and creativity. The sonic bliss I got listening to their catalog incessantly when I was 10 years old left a permanent mark on me.

    “As a producer, I am hugely influenced by the work of YES with Eddie Offord, Trevor Horn, Paul Clay and Tony Colton behind the board of their classic material. With the limited technology they had back then, they were able to create unparalleled sonic textures that were decades ahead of their time. Creating new versions of these songs was an incredible challenge even with today's advancements in recording technology. Dave and I had so much fun amassing the gear and tweaking sounds to recreate all of the signature sonic elements of YES music.” - Fernando Perdomo, co-producer, Yesterday and Today

    Tracks:

    1. MACHINE MESSIAH (Featuring Nick D’Virgilio & Geoff Downes)
    2. YOURS IS NO DISGRACE (Featuring Marisol Koss & Tony Kaye)
    3. TURN OF THE CENTURY (Featuring Sally Minnear)
    4. SWEETNESS (Featuring Pat Sansone)
    5. SOON (Featuring Curved Air)
    6. CINEMA (Featuring Steve Hackett)
    7. CHANGES (Featuring Robert Berry)
    8. I’M RUNNING (Featuring Robin Schell & Marco Minnemann)
    9. ACOUSTIC MEDLEY: (Featuring Jon Davison)
    i) YOUR MOVE
    ii) AND YOU AND I
    iii) WONDROUS STORIES
    10. YESTERDAY AND TODAY (Featuring Dr. Danny)
    11. LONG DISTANCE RUNAROUND (Featuring Leslie Hunt)
    12. THE FISH (Featuring Billy Sherwood)
    13. STARSHIP TROOPER (Featuring Francis Dunnery)

    To purchase:
    Amazon CD world-wide: http://geni.us/YEStribute

    To get the digital version, special edition or CD from the US with 2 extra bonus tracks go here: http://sonicelements.bandcamp.com

    Here's what it sounds like (snippets of each track):

    https://soundcloud.com/sonicelements...y-audio-teaser

    If you already have it I would love to know what you think! If you have any questions, I co-produced it and play keys on it (even sing a little... although less than usual because that's not my normal range!!!). Jon Davison singing the acoustic medley is a fun one as well. Check it out!

  2. #2
    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    Congrats! Sounds decent.

  3. #3
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    Sounds...wonderful.

  4. #4
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    How cool! With 13 tracks of varying lengths my best guess is this is a 2-disc set? Who is Sally Minnear? No relation to Kerry I imagine?

  5. #5
    The 12 minute sample is excellent. I assume that isn't just a "Best of Yesterday and Today"...

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    How cool! With 13 tracks of varying lengths my best guess is this is a 2-disc set? Who is Sally Minnear? No relation to Kerry I imagine?
    Sally Minnear is Kerry’s daughter, I believe.


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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by aith01 View Post
    Sally Minnear is Kerry’s daughter, I believe.
    Indeed she is! She sings with Dave Bainbridge (Strawbs, Lifesigns) in "Celestial Fire" and they opened for my solo band on my short UK tour this year. I got to meet her dad Kerry who to me is a legend. I love Gentle Giant! Malcolm Mortimore also came to one of the gigs. They loved my songs and my band! Kerry apparently never stays to the end of a gig but he did for mine (and he mainly came to see his daughter singing before us when we were in Bilston at The Robin). Both really nice guys. Had some great chats with them too. Might work with either or both with them, especially on one of the tribute albums which are really side projects for Fernando and myself in between making our own music which is obviously our main thing. Tribute albums are a great excuse to stretch out who you can try working with and sometimes that leads to sessions on your original albums. That's how I started collaborating with Steve Hackett. The first thing we did together was me playing keys on his version of Supper's Ready for Genesis Revisited II. We liked working together so much he's played on 4 of my original songs since! I would LOVE to do a song where Kerry plays those vibes again. Have you ever seen him go nuts on the vibraphone with GG? It's ridiculous. He still has them too!

  8. #8
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Who's Yes?
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
    https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
    http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx

  9. #9
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    Indeed she is! She sings with Dave Bainbridge (Strawbs, Lifesigns) in "Celestial Fire" and they opened for my solo band on my short UK tour this year. I got to meet her dad Kerry who to me is a legend. I love Gentle Giant! Malcolm Mortimore also came to one of the gigs. They loved my songs and my band! Kerry apparently never stays to the end of a gig but he did for mine (and he mainly came to see his daughter singing before us when we were in Bilston at The Robin). Both really nice guys. Had some great chats with them too. Might work with either or both with them, especially on one of the tribute albums which are really side projects for Fernando and myself in between making our own music which is obviously our main thing. Tribute albums are a great excuse to stretch out who you can try working with and sometimes that leads to sessions on your original albums. That's how I started collaborating with Steve Hackett. The first thing we did together was me playing keys on his version of Supper's Ready for Genesis Revisited II. We liked working together so much he's played on 4 of my original songs since! I would LOVE to do a song where Kerry plays those vibes again. Have you ever seen him go nuts on the vibraphone with GG? It's ridiculous. He still has them too!
    That is all very cool! I've always been a huge Kerry/GG fan, saw them several times as well. Interested now to hear Celestial Fire and especially to delve more into your solo material as well. I know there's 'New World' and 'Static'. Anything you'd recommend outright?
    Last edited by bill g; 11-10-2018 at 03:22 PM.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    That is all very cool! I've always been a huge Kerry/GG fan, saw them several times as well. Interested now to hear Celestial Fire and especially to delve more into your solo material as well. I know there's 'New World' and 'Static'. Anything you'd recommend outright?
    Thanks Bill. I recommend visiting my Bandcamp page as there's a lot of songs to listen to there if you dig around. New World Deluxe Edition, Static and more. http://sonicelements.bandcamp.com

    I also have a new band called "In Continuum" with an album coming out next week! You can listen to that and subscribe to the YouTube channel here.

  11. #11
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I bought the CD because I want to have the liner notes to refer to while listening (though I see you've entered all that on Bandcamp, which is very handy as well).

    Just listened to Machine Messiah - VERY nice! So that's Nick doing the lead vocals? Pretty impressive job.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I bought the CD because I want to have the liner notes to refer to while listening (though I see you've entered all that on Bandcamp, which is very handy as well).

    Just listened to Machine Messiah - VERY nice! So that's Nick doing the lead vocals? Pretty impressive job.
    Thanks. Yes that's Nick D'Virgilio doing the Trevor Horn parts and Randy McStine doing the Chris Squire parts. They both wanted to kill me and Fern for doing this in the original key! I don't think we transposed any of the songs to make it any easier on the singers... probably should have but cool that we didn't and they all managed to pull it off!

    NDV was also supposed to drum on this song too because I had sessions booked with him for the In Continuum album but the label said we had to turn it in before those sessions were booked so in an emergency situation we were able to get Joe Cass, son of "Mike Yesfan" for anyone familiar with these two CTTE staples, to do it and he knew it like the back of his hand having played with his own Yes tribute band. So, it all worked out! Of course, for me, getting to share the keyboards on this with Geoff Downes was a real thrill.

  13. #13
    I ordered the special edition and it arrived yesterday (there were no bonus tracks on the CD I received, perhaps you go somewhere to download those?).
    I'm really enjoying it - a lot of very interesting moments, very creative! Much of it is very true to the original, but then you get bits that are different, and why buy something like this if it's going to be straight covers copying the original? A lot of times with "tribute" projects I end up thinking "interesting, but not as good as the original". On here I've heard a few sections where I'm thinking "that's better than the way Yes did that little section". I really like the song election - nice to have a couple of deep cuts like the ones off of the first Yes record.
    I think Sweetness is better than the original, especially the ending. I like this version of the Fish better than the other new tribute version. I wonder which one Billy Sherwood prefers, they are both very good.
    I think this is the best vocal I've heard from Jon Davison on any record that I have.
    I love this version of Wurm. Reminds me of the album version meets some of their better live versions of the late 70's. Keyboards are wonderful all around. Someone should tell Wakeman to get a Nord !
    I put this record on my device and went for a run today - planned on running while listening for 40 minutes but enjoyed the record so much I ran until it ended. Good thing I didn't get those bonus tracks or I may have dropped.
    Thank you for putting this out.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by floyd umma gumma View Post
    On here I've heard a few sections where I'm thinking "that's better than the way Yes did that little section".
    BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!!

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by floyd umma gumma View Post
    I ordered the special edition and it arrived yesterday (there were no bonus tracks on the CD I received, perhaps you go somewhere to download those?).
    I'm really enjoying it - a lot of very interesting moments, very creative! Much of it is very true to the original, but then you get bits that are different, and why buy something like this if it's going to be straight covers copying the original? A lot of times with "tribute" projects I end up thinking "interesting, but not as good as the original". On here I've heard a few sections where I'm thinking "that's better than the way Yes did that little section". I really like the song election - nice to have a couple of deep cuts like the ones off of the first Yes record.
    I think Sweetness is better than the original, especially the ending. I like this version of the Fish better than the other new tribute version. I wonder which one Billy Sherwood prefers, they are both very good.
    I think this is the best vocal I've heard from Jon Davison on any record that I have.
    I love this version of Wurm. Reminds me of the album version meets some of their better live versions of the late 70's. Keyboards are wonderful all around. Someone should tell Wakeman to get a Nord !
    I put this record on my device and went for a run today - planned on running while listening for 40 minutes but enjoyed the record so much I ran until it ended. Good thing I didn't get those bonus tracks or I may have dropped.
    Thank you for putting this out.
    Damn that post IS sweetness incarnate! Haha. Great to hear! Let me answer a few things...

    Okay, first, the bonus tracks and hi resolution audio files (better than CD quality at 24 bit 96k) are downloads and you should have been sent a download code via email. If not then just pm me your real name and email address that you would have used and I'll get it to you as I can look it up on Bandcamp no problem. There's some fun stuff in the bonus tracks and a lot of collaboration I did with Billy including some original experimental tracks.

    Regarding Wakeman using a Nord, I couldn't agree more and I have a great story about how I showed Nick Davis, Genesis' engineer/producer, my Nord Stage when we were mixing Sound of Contact's Dimensionaut and he said "Tony Banks should have one of those" and I completely agreed. It's very practical for Prog keyboards and considering both Tony and Rick have been known to get into some sparkly digital presets on Korgs and whatnot... it doesn't hurt to lure them toward the Nord which has great vintage sounds and effects. Now, I made this paragraph as short as I could because I could have written a mini book about this subject.

    I think Jon Davison did a great job too and it's been fun working with him on my original project "In Continuum". He sings quite a bit on it including a song I co-wrote with Jon Anderson that he's singing tomorrow in fact!

    As for any of it being better than Yes... apart from the tracks we redid from their first album I would say that's a stretch. I was listening to it myself today and being the semi-perfectionist that I am, I was happy with it and pleased with the result but... to me Drama, GFTO, CTTE, Relayer, Fragile, TYA and 90125 are just untouchably perfect. They're just so darn good. Ironically, albums like Tormato or Tales of Topographic you really could improve the production or execution (but always sacrificing that it's not the same guys and JA singing which is, again, the real deal and perfectly imperfect as it is). But, it's still nice to hear! Thank you! I'd be curious which specific parts you thought were better than Yes!!! Haha. Can't wait to tell Fernando that one!

    That said, I view these tributes as a fun "alternate reality" with a mix of some of the guys in the band (like Geoff Downes doing the keys with me on Machine Messiah for example) and lots of other musicians in the Prog and Modern rock world. For example, hearing Long Distance Runaround with a lot of the authentic sounds (I play a cheesy RMI electric piano on that just like Rick did so it has a very retro "Fragile" sound to it) yet it has Leslie Hunt from District 97 singing it with her particular thing that's obviously very different from Yes.

    That's why the whole project is called "Sonic Elements" because it's the songs broken down to their elements, particularly the sounds, and re-arranged with different new elements added to ones we're already familiar with. That's the premise of all the forth coming tributes I'm doing. The reason I even started it was because I was sampling/recording the "drum element" with guys like Neil Peart, Nick Mason, Terry Bozzio etc. and their drum tracks which could then be used to either play the covers with them or even write new songs with those drum patterns and their performances (which we do on the bonus disc... two original songs were written with Neil Peart's drum tracks there, "Trifecta" and "Times Gone"). Ironically, my company Sonic Reality and web store http://www.esoundz.com has sold both Bill Bruford and Alan White's sample libraries in various formats but they're a bit older and not as thoroughly produced as the Peart and other libraries I produced (I didn't do the Bruford or White sound libraries, we just sold them). So, about 6 years ago I started this Yes tribute with the idea that I WOULD use those Bruford and White libraries as part of this but ended up having Jay Schellen, Marco Minnemann, Derek Cintron, Joe Cass and other drummers just play it for this tribute so it could sound on the same level as the other tribute albums coming... you can hear snippets of those Genesis, Rush and Pink Floyd tributes here: http://www.soundcloud.com/sonicelements

  16. #16
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Loving these samples
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

  17. #17
    Henry, I love your page. It's so thorough with information! But, I was reading up on the section you have on me in relationship to Yes and I saw this:

    "Downes, Sherwood and Davison were reportedly in Florida at the end of Aug 2018 for work on the album".

    I would love it if those guys came to visit me in Florida but that's not the case. We've worked together remotely each from their own studios. Still great though! Geoff has invited me out to his studio at some point in England which would be a lot of fun when schedules align to do so. Not sure what we're going to do but we've talked about working together (beyond what we've already done on this tribute... I'm assuming it'll be something original but we haven't gotten into any details... just cool that it was brought up!). As for Davison, he's quite heavily featured with In Continuum but we've also talked about collaborating on some things and with Billy I've already recorded a LOT of material, both original and cover/tribute material that's been sitting here waiting to be finished when the time slot opens up. The stuff with Billy is very Sonic Elements oriented in terms of the approach and that is to mean that we're writing using Sonic Reality drum tracks from guys like Peart, Cobham, Bozzio, Mason etc. (with the two current releases on the bonus tracks - Trifecta and Times Gone - being an example). The songs are somewhat unconventional and the vocal tracks are his lyrics not mine (so quite a different style from my lyric writing) but there's a lot of fun progrock styles and flavors in it that I think people, at least people who are fans of Billy and/or Yes will like! That said, Billy and I have been friends for decades so we could always collaborate deeper at some point and do more than experimental creative re-workings of drum tracks. That would be fun. The only thing is, he's one of the busiest guys I know (and I'm quite busy myself!). So... there's that. These remote sessions in between people's touring and their own studio album work are what allow it to happen at all.

  18. #18
    Member chescorph's Avatar
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    This is looking like an auto buy, well produced and played!

    Q: who is the bassist on LDR?

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by chescorph View Post
    Q: who is the bassist on LDR?
    Roger Houdaille, from Fernando Perdomo's band.

    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    Henry, I love your page. It's so thorough with information! But, I was reading up on the section you have on me in relationship to Yes and I saw this:

    "Downes, Sherwood and Davison were reportedly in Florida at the end of Aug 2018 for work on the album".

    I would love it if those guys came to visit me in Florida but that's not the case. We've worked together remotely each from their own studios. Still great though!
    Thanks. I am fallible! And thanks for the further details. It is a pleasure to disseminate these to the Yes fan community.

    I am enjoying the Special Edition myself. I'm finding the three YesWest "demos" more interesting the main album versions in some ways. Do you have full credits for the extra tracks? CHeers.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
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  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    Roger Houdaille, from Fernando Perdomo's band.



    Thanks. I am fallible! And thanks for the further details. It is a pleasure to disseminate these to the Yes fan community.

    I am enjoying the Special Edition myself. I'm finding the three YesWest "demos" more interesting the main album versions in some ways. Do you have full credits for the extra tracks? CHeers.

    Henry
    You're good you! Haha. Yes that's Roger Houdaille who also plays bass in my solo band (but came from Fernando as did Derek Cintron who plays in both... in fact, apart from Vic, Fernando's Out To Sea band is also the Dave Kerzner Band minus the McBroom Sisters from Pink Floyd).

    Anyway, yes all the credits of who played what per song for the bonus material is listed on the Bandcamp page for the product when you click on more info from the song: https://sonicelements.bandcamp.com/a...k-bonus-tracks

  21. #21
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    Thanks Bill. I recommend visiting my Bandcamp page as there's a lot of songs to listen to there if you dig around. New World Deluxe Edition, Static and more. http://sonicelements.bandcamp.com

    I also have a new band called "In Continuum" with an album coming out next week! You can listen to that and subscribe to the YouTube channel here.
    Very cool! Will check those out!

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    Anyway, yes all the credits of who played what per song for the bonus material is listed on the Bandcamp page for the product when you click on more info from the song: https://sonicelements.bandcamp.com/a...k-bonus-tracks
    Ah! Awesome -- thanks.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  23. #23
    This is on YESWORLD! Check it out!

    http://yesworld.com/2018/11/yes-50th...now-available/
    Last edited by Squids; 11-14-2018 at 10:58 PM.

  24. #24
    Alright Dave, spill the beans on Cinema, then :-)

    Cheers,
    Jos
    SymfoZone progressive rock radio show: www.symfozone.com

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by SymfoZone View Post
    Alright Dave, spill the beans on Cinema, then :-)

    Cheers,
    Jos
    Aha! Well, I was just going to say a few things about it. What I really wanted to do was try to get hold of the original longer version they did of that song that's been rumored to exist. I wonder if it had some more cool moments because I've always liked that rather short instrumental piece from 90125. Unfortunately I've never heard this longer version and I don't know anyone who has (apart from Yes themselves). So, when we did our cover of "Cinema" I at least extended it - possibly even going overboard I admit - just so it could last longer. The other thing about Cinema is during one of my chats with Steve Hackett he mentioned how he always liked that song and that album too (because I love it - as much as I love classic 70s Yes albums). When I decided to resurrect the unfinished tribute albums I started 6 years ago, one of them being Cinema with Sherwood, it occurred to me that I had this conversation with Steve so I asked him if he wanted to do it! Ironically, I already had Randy McStine doing the guitar for it (there's a version with just Randy and Billy in the bonus material) and I wasn't sure if Steve would be able to do it on such short notice. But, fortunately we were already doing another session for my original music album from "In Continuum" and he was so cool about spending an extra day to do "Cinema" as well.

    That's pretty much my story on that! Would still love to hear the original jam of Cinema though.

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