Pele Greenberg Group & Matt Stoloff Group at The Back Room

These two drummers grew up playing music together starting at the age of seven, and last year graduated as the two drum chairs in Berkeley High School’s acclaimed band. They have both returned from their first year studying music on the college level to play here at home with groups of their own.

Berkeley-born drummer and composer Pele Greenberg is currently attending The New School for Jazz in NYC, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance under the guidance of musicians such as Andrew Cyrille, Jimmy Owens and Amir Ziv. A graduate of the Berkeley High School Jazz program, Greenberg has become an active member of both the Bay Area Jazz and Indie Rock scenes, performing at venues such as Yoshi’s, The Freight & Salvage, Slim’s, Birdland Oakland, Cafe du Nord and the Fox Theatre. In high school, he also attended summer workshops, including the Centrum Jazz workshop and summer programs at Berklee College of Music, studying with masters like Jeff Hamilton, Wycliffe Gordon, Paquito D’rivera and Claudio Roditi....

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These two drummers grew up playing music together starting at the age of seven, and last year graduated as the two drum chairs in Berkeley High School’s acclaimed band. They have both returned from their first year studying music on the college level to play here at home with groups of their own.

Berkeley-born drummer and composer Pele Greenberg is currently attending The New School for Jazz in NYC, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance under the guidance of musicians such as Andrew Cyrille, Jimmy Owens and Amir Ziv. A graduate of the Berkeley High School Jazz program, Greenberg has become an active member of both the Bay Area Jazz and Indie Rock scenes, performing at venues such as Yoshi’s, The Freight & Salvage, Slim’s, Birdland Oakland, Cafe du Nord and the Fox Theatre. In high school, he also attended summer workshops, including the Centrum Jazz workshop and summer programs at Berklee College of Music, studying with masters like Jeff Hamilton, Wycliffe Gordon, Paquito D’rivera and Claudio Roditi.

He has returned to California after his first year in New York to play with a group of talented young musicians from the east bay for a night of music, combining swinging standards with modern original compositions.

Born and raised in Berkeley, Matt Stoloff is a student of Jazz icon Billy Hart and is currently attending Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He has had the privilege of learning from masters including George Cables, Eddie Henderson, Gary Bartz and Robin Eubanks. Earlier this year, he was recognized by the National Young Arts Foundation. Stoloff is also a part of a trio consisting of Miami-based pianist Roberto Acosta and New York-based bassist Dan Finn, which will tour in 2018.

For this performance, Matt leads his own group composed of skillful young Bay Area musicians, some of whom attend Oberlin as well.

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