Growing up in Burbank, California, Yester formed a duo with brother Jim, the Yester Brothers, and starting playing folk clubs in Los Angeles in 1960. While Jim was in the army, Jerry joined first the New Christy Minstrels, and then, in 1963, the Modern Folk Quartet. The MFQ issued two folk-pop 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, for whom he also later worked as producer, but soon afterwards the Spoonful split up for some 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 divorcing.
Yester continued to work as a producer and arranger on albums by Pat Boone, Aztec Two Step, and Tom Waits, and in the 1970s also performed with the Association and the re-formed Modern Folk Quartet. In the mid 1980s he moved to Hawaii and formed a dance band. In 1991 both Yester brothers joined a re-formed version of the Lovin' Spoonful, with whom Jerry continues to tour. Jerry now resides in the area of Harrison, Arkansas, still playing as a solo artist at local areas of the town including Uncommon Grounds.
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