Jerry Yester

Who is Jerry Yester?

Jerome Alan "Jerry" Yester is an American folk rock musician, record producer, and arranger.

Growing up in Burbank, California, Yester formed a duo with brother Jim Yester, the Yester Brothers, and starting playing folk clubs in Los Angeles in 1960. When Jim enlisted in the army, Jerry joined first The New Christy Minstrels, and then, in 1963, the Modern Folk Quartet. The MFQ released two albums in the next two years, and Yester also branched out into other recordings, playing piano on the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" in 1965.

The MFQ split up in 1966, and Yester began work as a solo artist and as a producer, with his wife Judy Henske, his brother Jim's band The Association, The Turtles, and Tim Buckley, for whom he produced Goodbye and Hello and Happy Sad. The following year he joined the Lovin’ Spoonful, replacing Zal Yanovsky, whom he also later worked with as producer, but in 1968 the Spoonful split up for 23 years. In 1969, Henske, Yester and Yanovsky put together the cult album Farewell Aldebaran, on which Yester played nearly a dozen different instruments. The following year Yester and Henske formed a new band, Rosebud, but the band dissolved in 1971; the couple then divorced.