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It's easy to define a rock band's eras by its singers.
Take, for instance, Van Halen. The popular rock act had the David Lee Roth years, the Sammy Hagar period and the brief Gary Cherone phase.
Then there's Yes. The prog-rock band has been adored by musical technicians since the late 1960s. It's had four lead vocalists since then, ranging from original frontman Jon Anderson to its current singer, Jon Davison.
While it's common for fans to divide the group's legacy by vocalist, drummer Alan White sees his band's history differently.
He categorizes Yes' phases by album.
White said "Fly From Here," the group's 2011 album, reflected the return of keyboardist Geoff Downes and producer Trevor Horn.
Horn and Downes had been in pop duo The Buggles - famous for the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" - in the late 1970s, and they joined Yes for the 1980 album, "Drama."
Although both left the band after that, Horn returned to produce the band's popular 1983 album, "90125," which features the hit single "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Now Horn and Downes are back, with longtime members White, Steve Howe (guitar) and Chris Squire (bass), along with Davison.
With Horn and Downes involved with Yes again, White defines what they bring to the group.
"I always sensed some things when Trevor and Geoff got involved in the era around 'Drama,' " the drummer said. "The band seems to take a notch up in the sound of the band, and it became a little bit more modern, if it could be. It was just more modern sounding to me. I guess he (Horn) has a knack of doing that. That's what I find with this ("Fly From Here") album here."
The song "Fly From Here" actually dates to the "Drama" era. It was a fairly concise pop song then, but in reuniting with Horn and Downes, Yes transformed it into a six-part epic, with the kind of flow and stylistic variation Yes has become known for.
The epic "Fly From Here" suite has gone on to become a key part of the Yes live set and likely will be heard when the band performs at nTelos Wireless Pavilion in Portsmouth on Friday evening.
That title song is really what makes "Fly From Here" sound like a Yes album and connects the record to the progressive-rock roots Yes established on its career-defining trio of early albums, "The Yes Album" (1971), "Fragile" (1971) and "Close to the Edge" (1972).
Since those albums, it's not just the vocalists that have come and gone and come back. Yes has been through enough personnel changes to fill multiple lineup cards. It's likely that the comings and goings of the 18 musicians who have been part of the Yes saga have had a good deal to do with the shifting musical personality that White sees in the group's 20 albums.
One other member who helps give "Fly From Here" its own sound is vocalist Benoit David, who joined in 2008 after longtime singer Jon Anderson developed respiratory problems that prevented him from touring with Yes.
Then David's own respiratory issues forced Yes to move on without him.
So it was time to find another lead singer. As it turned out, Yes' tour manager ran across a YouTube video of Jon Davison singing with Glass Hammer and tracked him down.
"He (Davison) said it would be like his lifetime thing to sing with Yes, and it was one of his favorite bands ever and all of that kind of stuff," White said. "So we tried him out. And we didn't have to do much work at all. He knew all of the songs pretty much. Some of the songs he knew better than we did. So it was all positive, and it's been great, just really having somebody who's so into the band and the music. So we're having fun."
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