The Yeti Trio is a Jam rock band self described as “frightening fusion improv”. Pianist Brooks Smith, guitarist Vaylor Trucks oldest son of legendary Butch Trucks, and drummer Eric Sanders, combine their considerable musical abilities and produce far-out electric fusion jazz which at times recalls Frank Zappa’s “Jazz From Hell” or the most challenging works by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Overview What started as an experiment in completely improvised music has mutated into some truly frightening fusion. The Yeti Trio was born in 1999 when former Fiji Mariners drummer Eric Sanders and Grapes multi-instrumentalist Brooks Smith were introduced to guitarist Vaylor Trucks. From 1999 to 2002 The Yeti Trio played some of the most energetic fusion in the country. Originally, everything that The Yeti Trio played was improvised. With the exception of one Stevie Wonder cover, there were no "songs". When Brooks, Eric, and Vaylor would play together, nobody ever said "ONETWOTHREEFOUR" to start the music. One of the trio would play some idea - frightening or silly or quiet or difficult - and the others would join in, adding their own ideas. Over time, these improvisations began to coalesce into definitive structures and these structures were given names. This gave Brooks, Eric, and Vaylor a simple framework onto which improvisational ideas could be hung, but more importantly, this also gave rise to the ability to construct more complex compositions.
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