Matt Nelson and Friends

Where to begin? I'm a 24 year old professional pianist/keyboardist with an incredibly ecclectic taste in music and an almost as equally ecclectic line-up of gigs and projects that I involve myself in. I have been playing and studying since age 5 and my studies include 8 years of classical training and 11 years of jazz training. I do quite a bit of jobbing work throughout the week - mostly trio-oriented jazz in the tradition of Bill Evans, Amhad Jamal, and Herbie Hancock. Jazz groups I play/have played with around Chicago include the Columbia College Jazz Ensemble, the Matt Nelson, Kevin Martinez, and Robbie Tucker Trios, Fatboy Clark, the Mike Salter Quintet, ConFusion, and the Bill Demis Quartet. The jazz thing put aside, I am also involved in quite a variety of other varying projects. Seeing that my earliest musical influences are rooted in Rock N' Roll and Electronica, these other projects serve to complete me musically and emotionally. Other groups I am/have been involved with include the dark, ambient rock group, Let Me Introduce You to the End; live-electro-improv groups the Juggernaut Trio and Plutonic Rephrygerator; pop-rock band Blackbox; Native Fiction, the acid jazz group, Orange Alert; Deja Vu, the Late Shift Orchestra, and Tuff Enough (blues band).