Kaplan Center, West Palm Beach, FL

February 26, 2005

On February 26^th, 2005, the Matt Savage Trio performed in West Palm Beach, FL to benefit the Special Needs Dept. of the Kaplan Jewish Community Center of the Greater Palm Beaches.  It was a special evening for many reasons.  First of all, the organizers of the event, with volunteers and LOTS of heart and hard work, transformed their Community Center from a standard community center into a red carpet formal hall.  It was not a black-tie affair, although the hall and center and stage were designed to look like one was entering the Oscars or something.  The organizers completely pulled it off.  Everything was elegant and classic and transformed you into another world.  Kudos to the event organizers on that!!!!  Truly unbelievable...  We’ve never seen anyone transform a building so completely into a star quality venue.

There was another reason the evening was special.  Matt wrote 8 new tunes over our winter hiatus.  The performance in West Palm Beach was the “premier” of these new tunes.  The last time Matt introduced a bunch of his new tunes was at two concerts performed at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach a few years ago, the concerts being recorded and becoming the band’s “Chasing Your Tail” CD.  Matt’s new tunes this year, combined with several previously un-performed standards, made for a terrific performance.  Although many of the concert attendees had previously heard Matt in concert, they were thrilled with completely new and different material, being performed by a 2-year-additionally-seasoned musician.  We received a completely enthusiastic reception from the audience.

And most importantly, the Special Needs Dept. at the JCC exceeded their fundraising goals for the event by a great amount!  We were thrilled that the event was such a success.  They do great work for the community there, and we were honored to have helped support them in their endeavors.

We would like to thank Ann Levene, all of the tireless volunteers, and everyone else at the JCC who put on such a terrific event and allowed us to be a part of it.

And as an added benefit, we stayed an extra week and took the children to Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center for the first time.  The children are the perfect age to enjoy such trips, and we had a terrific time!

Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to return to WPB again in the not-too-distant future!