Jake Pinto and the Yeah Tones at Bowery Electric's Map Room

It is a rare young New Yorker who would want to play jazz for a living. Florida-born, New York-based Jake Pinto is a twenty-something keyboardist entering the local club circuit with his jazz trio, the Yeah Tones. Tonight they began a series of Tuesday performances at Bowery Electric’s Map Room.

At the trio’s debut gig at the Map Room, the audience encountered the simplicity of the musicians’ love for ensemble sound. Pinto’s keys and occasional electronic interludes skillfully weaved with the funky bass and steady percussion of his musicians to create an improvisational and experimental soundscape. Influenced by the era of Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis, yet with the addition of contemporary electronic riffs, the compositions often began as simple arrangements and chords, but alive and growing before our ears, built upon themselves to a rousing peak. To become a true jazz artist, it pays to avoid the familiar and take risks, and Jake Pinto and the Yeah Tones may have the passion to accomplish this.