Cyrus Chestnut with Jae Sinnett and Terry Burrell at Good Vibes

The Boat House located in in Newport News (Virginia) was a short lived venue that hosted mostly rock and some country music acts. It closed for undisclosed reasons (unrelated to Covid) and sat dormant for two years until it was reopened as Good Vibes under new ownership with a new state of the art sound system, a VIP room with a private bar, pool tables, not to mention a huge oval bar, extensive dinner and Sunday brunch menu and room for 1,100 people.

Attempting to reach a more diverse audience the grand opening featured The Jae Sinnett Trio with special guest Cyrus Chestnut. The set ran from 6:00 to 9:00PM. Those in attendance were treated to compositions by Thelonious Monk, Johann Sebastian Bach, Billy Strayhorn, John Coltrane, Richard Rodgers and more. Performing without a set list, Chestnut would signal key signatures to Sinnett's long time bassist Terry Burrell covering tunes ranging from "The Christmas Song" (it was Christmas time) to "Bag's Groove." It would not be a Cyrus Chestnut gig without a little gospel and he delivered.

There were a few sound glitches during the first but they were corrected by the second set. The three musicians have played together several times which was evidenced by their comfort level and interactions. Good Vibes is by no means a jazz venue but any venue willing to devote an evening of jazz each month hopefully has staying power.