Matt Berkeley
Matt Berkeley began playing piano at a young age, studying the music of classical composers: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and more. His early years we're heavily influenced by the music of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Police frequently heard around the home. As his own musical tastes developed, he kept to his roots, but delved headlong into hip-hop at first (Too Short, Digital Underground, Public Enemy), then rock (The Doors, Cream), then heavy metal (Metallica, Megadeth), then more classic rock (The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Traffic). One night in high school, Matt spirited the Weather Report album "Sweetnighter" from his father's record collection. That would help shape his musical path for the next several years.
He went on to Oberlin College after graduating from Berkeley High School. Once at Oberlin, armed with fusion classics from bands like Weather Report and Return to Forever, he then found himself walking backwards through the history of jazz seeing where the roots of this fusion music lay. Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter led back to Miles Davis, Miles Davis led back to Charlie Parker. This eventually led to some study of most forms of African American music.
Along with co-leading a funk band he wrote, performed and arranged for small jazz ensembles, played in cover bands and was a percussionist for a dance troupe covering West African, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian dance forms. With that group, Matt traveled to Cuba to study with some of the masters of Afro-Cuban percussion including AfroCuba de Matanzas and Clave y Guaguanco.
During these formative years, Matt studied jazz piano and improvisation with these world-class musicians: Steve Coleman, Bevan Manson, Neal Creque, Wendall Logan and others…all masters in their own right.
After graduating from Oberlin, he returned to his native Berkeley and formed Reorchestra, a jazz-funk fusion band which played locally, along with some touring and festival appearances. During the past several years he has performed and toured as a sideman with Will Bernard and Motherbug, Shimshai, The Speakers, Joe Bagale, Wisdom and others.
A versatile craftsman, these days you may find Berkeley playing funk, soul, hip-hop, rock, folk, blues, reggae, jazz or something else altogether like the electric bass. He may also be teaching kids how to play Beethoven on the piano, or sing The Yellow Submarine with all their heart and soul. Music is undoubtedly his passion and his life work is to inspire others through education, recording and performance.