Yetii, Black Mountain Jazz. Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 22/02/2026.

Alex Veitch – piano, Ashley John Long – double bass, Alex Goodyear – drums

A welcome return to BMJ for Yetii, the Bristol based trio led by pianist and composer Alex Veitch and featuring two of BMJ’s favourite sons, bassist Ashley John Long and drummer Alex Goodyear.

Yetii last visited Abergavenny in late April 2023, a performance that I was obliged to miss as I was covering Cheltenham Jazz Festival. In my absence a team of guest reviewers – Debs Hancock, Patricia Morgan and Graham Harris – stepped into the breach to give the trio a rare five star review. Their account can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/yetii-black-mountain-jazz-club-melville-theatre-abergavenny-30-04-2023

I did however review the trio’s debut recording “Live at The Greenbank”, which was released in 2022 to considerable critical acclaim, the London jazz press also picking up on the buzz about Yetii. My review, which forms the basis for much of the following biographical detail can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/yetii-live-at-the-greenbank

Yetii have held a regular monthly Thursday night residency at the Bristol venue The Greenbank since 2019, necessarily interrupted by Covid of course. They have established a devoted following with many of their appearances being sold out. Their shows have featured numerous guest performers, among them saxophonists Jake McMurchie Alex Merritt and Iain Ballamy, trumpeter Laura Jurd, clarinettist Arun Ghosh and guitarist Ant Law, but for their début release the focus was on the core trio and the album captured a live performance by Yetii documented at The Greenbank on 7th July 2022.

 Leader Alex Veitch is a classically trained pianist who was regarded as something of a child prodigy. A graduate (2013) of both Cambridge University and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London he has played at leading London jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex and Café Oto. Veitch moved to Bristol in 2017 and has established himself on the city’s music scene, working prolifically as a sideman across a variety of different musical genres as well as leading Yetii and the electro-jazz outfit AvTrio, in which he plays electric keyboards.

Long is a virtuoso double bassist who plays right across the jazz spectrum, from backing singers on standards, to accompanying original composers such as pianist Dave Jones, to the cutting edge challenges of free jazz. A dazzling soloist both with and without the bow he is also in demand as a classical player, specialising in the baroque. He’s one of the most astonishing bass soloists I’ve ever seen and if he lived in London rather than South Wales he would surely be much better known. That said his work with pianist and composer John Law and the continued rise of Yetii has led to his playing coming to the attention of the national jazz audience on a more regular basis.

Alex Goodyear is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff and performs regularly on the South Wales and Bristol jazz scenes. He’s become a great friend of the Black Mountain Jazz Club and its annual Wall2Wall Festival. Like Long he has played across a variety of jazz genres from trad to free and his versatility and enthusiasm has recently secured him high profile gigs with pianist John Law’s Re-Creations band and saxophonist Jon Lloyd’s quartet. He’s also worked as a sideman with saxophonist Simon Spillett and guitarist Nigel Price.

2025 was a big year for Yetii. The trio supported the current edition of The Bad Plus on their UK tour and also performed a sold out show at the 400 capacity St. George’s venue in their home city of Bristol.

October saw the release of their second album “Inner Worlds”, recorded in studio conditions at Cardiff University Concert Hall, where Long teaches. The programme features eleven original compositions by Veitch plus an arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Chisa”. Several of the pieces also appeared on the “Live at The Greenbank” recording and one can’t escape the feeling that in many ways “Inner Worlds” represents Yetii’s official debut album, with “Live at The Greenbank” effectively an ‘authorised bootleg’.

Veitch says of the new recording;
“, Inner Worlds’ is about what goes on beneath the surface. Each composition immerses the listener in a different experience or state of mind. Singing melodies open and shift to reveal their inner workings. Solos morph into group improvisations: a shared single voice that ebbs and flows between and within the band’s original compositions. The album is a distillation and documentation of the sound we have formed over time at our monthly residency in Bristol over the last four years”.

Yetii are currently touring in support of the “Inner Worlds”  release but as is typical of many jazz ensembles they are already looking forward to the next project and tonight’s performance included a number of new, as yet unrecorded, compositions. Two lengthy, value for money sets also incorporated Veitch’s ingenious arrangements of a clutch of jazz standards and pop tunes, plus, of course, a goodly helping of material from “Inner Worlds” itself. A number of these pieces were also performed by the trio during their 2023 visit.

Here’s Veitch’s take on the music that his trio produces;
“Yetii feels like it takes its own course: group improvisations made up of sparse, interlocking, minimalist fragments; a shared single voice that ebbs and flows. It’s not something we’ve ever specifically practised.”

As in 2023 tonight’s performance began with “Enough”, a Veitch original that appears on both of the trio’s album releases. Introduced by a contemplative passage of unaccompanied piano this piece helped to set the tone for the evening, with Veitch’s piano subsequently joined by Goodyear’s exquisite brushed cymbal work and Long’s melodic bass playing. Veitch’s writing is both melodic and accessible but also draws on many influences and contains many unexpected twists and turns. Here, classical influences combined with those of minimalism and of gospel music during the course a piece that embraced a variety of styles and dynamics and which periodically saw Long picking up the bow.

The trio seem to have bought into the ‘ECM aesthetic’ and the quality of sound is very important to them. Throughout this evening’s performance every note, beat, detail and nuance was clearly delineated in a superb sound mix with the band aided both by the superb natural acoustics of the Melville and the work of sound engineer Dave,  who was rightly name checked by the band and by presenter Debs Hancock.

Yetii continued with “Spring”, another Veitch original that appears on both albums. Once again the piece was ushered in by a lyrical passage of unaccompanied piano and Goodyear again impressed with the delicacy and sensitivity of his brushwork. Long took the first solo on double bass, combining flowing melodicism with an admirable dexterity. Veitch’s subsequent piano solo seemed to embody something of the joyousness of spring, a season that will be even more welcome this year after one of the wettest winters in living memory. He was complemented by Long’s bass counter melodies and Goodyear’s bustling brushwork. A further passage of solo piano then provided an unexpected moment of serenity.

Some of Yetii’s shows at their Greenbank residency have seen them devoting whole evenings to interpreting the material of other artists, among them The Beatles, Radiohead and Joni Mitchell, sometimes in the company of one of their illustrious guests. Tonight they dipped into their Beatles repertoire with an ingenious Veitch arrangement of “Eleanor Rigby”, a speeded up version that saw them playing the tune at a breakneck pace, fuelled by Long’s rapid bass lines and Goodyear’s busy drumming, with sticks featuring for the first time following the deployment of brushes on the first two numbers. This was a quirky re-invention that saw the trio embracing a kind of cerebral funk, with piano soloist Veitch pounding away at the keyboard in the manner of Neil Cowley. Needless to say this was a performance that was rapturously received.

No less inventive was the trio’s deconstruction of the Cole Porter song “Everything I Love”, a heavily disguised version introduced by an extraordinary passage of unaccompanied drumming from Goodyear, performed exclusively with his bare hands, other then the occasional foot generated thud of the bass drum. Porter’s melody could be glimpsed during the course of Veitch’s piano solo as Goodyear picked up his brushes. The performance ended as it began with another remarkable drum feature, this time underpinned by Veitch’s piano vamp. Following this astonishing drumming performance the capacity crowd cheered one of BMJ’s favourite sons to the rafters.

Following these two bursts of musical fireworks the trio cooled things down again with a performance of “Resemblance”, a tune from the new album. “It’s about seeing things clearly”, Veitch explained. Introduced by a delicate solo piano passage this piece marked a return to the serenity and flowing lyricism of the opening two numbers with brushed drums and melodic double bass again the order of the day, with Long making effective use of the bow at appropriate moments.

The reflective mood continued into “Afar”, another tune from the “Inner Worlds”  album that brought an excellent first set to a close. Again ushered in by a passage of solo piano this piece included superb solos from Long both with and without the bow, flowingly lyrical piano soloing from Veitch and some exquisite filigree cymbal work from Goodyear.

Set two commenced with the opening two pieces from the “Inner Worlds” recording, beginning with “May The Wind”, dedicated to Veitch’s late grandfather and a tune about dealing with difficult feelings, moving forward and accepting what life throws at you. The mood of airy lyricism continued with brushed drums and Long’s rich, deep bass undertow supporting Veitch’s melodic, gently anthemic pianism.

“Lost and Found” emerged out of an intro featuring the sounds of piano, bowed bass and cymbal scrapes. Centred around Veitch’s piano motif the piece embraced several changes of pace and a variety of meters, speeding up and slowing down again with Goodyear’s rapidly brushed drums a particularly distinctive component in the music. Plenty of space was allocated to Long for a typically melodic and dexterous bass solo. Veitch then took over for a more vigorous piano led section that sometimes reminded me of E.S.T.  As is typical of Veitch’s writing there was many a twist and turn before the close.

Veitch mentioned that the band were already thinking about their next album, which will be recorded at Giant Wafer Studios in Mid Wales. One tune that is likely to feature on the next recording is “The Mist Rises”, a lyrical ballad featuring a duet between Veitch’s melodic piano and Long’s cello like bowing. With Goodyear temporarily sitting out this passage embraced a kind of chamber music sensibility and was truly beautiful. When Goodyear finally took up the brushes the sound of them was almost subliminal. This gentle, exquisitely beautiful piece was rapturously received by the highly attentive audience.

By way of contrast another brand new composition “The Grind”, written about the drudgery of work, was much more vigorous and injected an unexpected but welcome dose of musical humour. Emerging out of a near free jazz intro the piece embraced odd meter lurches and incorporated a typically virtuosic bass solo from Long.

The brief “First Light” was the last of the new numbers scheduled for the next album. Introduced by Veitch as a tune about “new beginnings” this piece featured an extended solo piano intro and later embraced a blues / gospel feel that was variously reminiscent of the music of Keith Jarrett and Abdullah Ibrahim, both acknowledged influences.

The group returned to more familiar territory with “Summer”, a work that features on both of Yetii’s existing recordings. On the “Inner Worlds” album the piece is divided into two parts, the first an extended solo bass episode from Long. This was the case here with Long delivering an extended, wholly improvised solo bass intro that was engrossing in terms of both its virtuosity and sheer musicality. The eventual introduction of piano and brushed drums marked a return to the trio’s trademark lyricism, but there was also an element of melancholy thanks to the deep, dark grainy sound of Long’s arco bass.

The final item of the evening, effectively the encore, was another of Veitch’s remarkable re-inventions. This time it was “The Girl From Ipanema” in a way you’ve never heard her before, an extraordinary rendition full of unlikely and unexpected melodic and rhythmic twists and turns and culminating in a Goodyear drum feature that finally saw him unleashing his natural ebullience following a carefully controlled performance that had largely placed the focus on nuance and detail.

This was a superb performance from Yetii that elicited a rapturous response from the near capacity audience at the Melville. The quality of the playing was exceptional throughout, aided by the pinpoint sound mix alluded to earlier. The excellence of the playing was matched by Veitch’s intelligent and imaginative original writing and by his clever and inventive arrangements / adaptations of the outside material. The music was complemented by Veitch’s succinct but informative presenting style and the approachability of the trio members who were all happy to chat with audience members during the interval and after the show. All in all it made for a performance that fully realised its objectives and delivered on all levels. With this in mind Yetii are one of the few acts -indeed maybe the only one – to receive two coveted five star reviews on this site.

The “Inner Worlds” album exhibits exactly the same virtues that made tonight’s live performance such a delight. Recording engineers Doug Cave and Bill Sellar achieve a pristine sound mix that again serves the musicians well.

Eight of the eleven tracks were heard tonight but I’ll close this review with a quick look at those that were omitted from the set list.

“Rolling” is another Jarrett-esque ballad with an appropriate slowly rolling groove that features Veitch’s gospel inflected pianism alongside a concise bass solo from Long, plus Goodyear’s distinctive drum commentary.

The penultimate track “Hymn” has a suitably devotional and ruminative feel about it with Goodyear’s deft brushwork again a notable feature. Yetii’s music has sometimes elicited comparisons with that of Tord Gustavsen. It’s a parallel that seems particularly appropriate here.

The album concludes with an arrangement of the only outside composition, Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Chisa”. Ushered in by Veitch at the piano it’s an affectionate and joyous take on the tune with Goodyear’s hand drumming a particularly distinctive component.

The “Inner Worlds” album is highly recommended and represents an immersive, enjoyable and frequently beautiful listening experience. The trio brings these same qualities to its live performance, as the lucky people of Abergavenny witnessed tonight. The trio’s collective rapport, honed over six years of playing together on a regular basis really is remarkable with audience member and sometime Jazzmann contributor Nigel Jarrett observing; “Probably one of the best contemporary trios in Europe”, a comment with which I can only concur. Other audience comments included “what a fantastic night!” and “absolutely brilliant!”, which also sum the evening’s events very nicely. It genuinely was one of the best performances ever seen at BMJ.

The full track listing for “Inner Worlds” is;

1.
May The Wind 06:43

2.
Lost and Found 05:39

3.
Enough 05:12

4.
Resemblance 05:21

5.
Afar 04:52

6.
Spring 05:55

7.
Rolling 05:16

8.
Summer Pt. I 04:06

9.
Summer Pt. II 04:28

10.
Hymn 03:07

11.
Chisa 03:12

Yetii’s recordings are available via their Bandcamp page.
https://yetiimusic.bandcamp.com/music

See also;
https://www.yetii.uk/

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