Concert Review – Matthew Yeakley Jazz Session

I attended the Matthew Yeakley’s Jazz Session at The Continental Club. It was a cloudy cold dark night, which put me in a mood for being indoors in a jazz event. Yeakley’s jazz group consists of Matt for piano, Aaron for drums and Cooper for electric bass and Mike for Trumpet. They all began with just improvisations to test their instruments. The first song Yeakley played was It Felt Like a Sunday, which started with fast faced piano and drums with a touch of bass towards the end. At first, I was surprised how fast jazz can be, because I am used to hearing old jazz, which was a bit slower than usual. They began playing Missed It, started with beautiful soothing piano in the beginning then shifted towards Yeakley playing guitar with very light drums. I liked how it had a soft tone in the beginning, but grew out in intensity as it progressed towards the drums dominating the song. Most of the audience were in their 30s and 40s, with few young people in the crowd. It was a very relaxed atmosphere inside, everyone in tuned and jamming to the rhythms. As the night progressed, Mike talked about Miles Davis and his influence on him on the trumpet. He said “he gets chills every time he hears it”. I did not listen to much of Miles Davis, but I know he was a prominent figure in changing Jazz. The next song was called Fitness, which started soft piano with upright bass, with light drums. It progressed into a much faster paced song with saxophone in the background. I really liked this song because it so much faster than even the first one, they played. It got really slow towards in the middle, but steadily gained momentum with more the bass and drums.

The piano really carried most of the song. This song gave me the biggest chills out of all three because of how fast paced and evened out the melodies were. This next song was “A Place to Call Home”, started off with the lights drums and Saxophone. Piano slowly joined in, but Saxophone was dominating in the beginning. The overall vibe of the song made me feel like something I would listen to while going on an early morning walk by the beach looking at the ocean. It had a very tranquil feeling, which transitioned with very energetic guitar towards the end. Aaron and Matt were guided by Yeakley as they progressed throughout the song to adjust their timing for their parts. I liked how the group relied on each other to improvise during times they needed to improvise. This song was very different from the rest due to its relaxed melodies. I still liked Fitness a lot better than this song, but this was definitely my second favorite. Although I am not used to jazz music, I am glad I was able to expose myself to Yeakley’s team’s incredible performance. I never thought jazz could evoke these feelings in me which I don’t normally feel with hip hop and rap music. I can tell that there is so much passion involved in playing and creating their work. I am glad I was able to experience it.