Tom Altura
Bass
NA
Brian Timar
Bass
NA
Peter Apfelbaum
Drums
In his senior year at Berkeley High, Peter formed the 17-piece Hieroglyphics Ensemble.(http://www.peterapfelbaum.net/) The band was initially largely comprised of fellow BHS classmates, some of whom would later achieve recognition in their own right, including pianist Benny Green, saxophonist Craig Handy and trumpeter Steven Bernstein and later saxophonist Joshua Redman. The band released their self-produced debut album, Pillars, in 1979. Since then he has appeared on 78 albums as leader or sideman.
James Small
Drums
Drummer James Small (https://www.facebook.com/james.l.small/)went to Willard Middle School and Berkeley High, where he played in the BHS Jazz Band. After graduating he went to Berklee School of Music in Boston. Fast forward to now, and he is known as "StickNasty," playing drums for Grammy-winning artist Fantastic Negrito. The band got nominated for a potential fourth Grammy win for the song "Oh Betty" and StickNasty is featured in the video. (He's the lead actor with the beard, and he's drumming on the side of the chicken coop.) For more about his early career, read his profile on B(https://www.berkeleyside.org/2016/05/03/one-to-watch-berkeley-drummer-james-small)erkeleyside in 2016.
Elena Pinderhughes
Flute
A flutist and singer, (https://www.thisiselena.org/)Elena was featured in an HBO special on young musicians when she was 11. She has played at Carnegie Hall, the White House, the Kennedy Center, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Coachella, and has recorded with Herbie Hancock, Childish Gambino, Common, Lupe Fiasco, and fellow BHS Jazz alum Ambrose Akinmusire.
Here she is playing with Kenny Barron (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVoY1hbnFNg)at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 2016.
Michael Aaberg
Piano
Raised in Oakland and currently residing in the East Bay Area, Michael Louis Aaberg is a musician, producer, Multi-instrumentalist and teacher.
He has released three albums on his own label, Tiger's Eye Records.
He has toured, recorded and produced for a diverse group of national artists; Ambrose Akinmusire, Derrick Hodge, Lalah Hathaway, Goapele and many others.
His work is greatly influenced by Black American music masters such as, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Parliament/Funkadelic and countless more.
He incorporates vintage equipement into a modern outlook with unique results.
Benny Bock
Piano
Benny Bock is a musician from El Cerrito, California. He graduated from Berkeley High and Oberlin Conservatory. Currently, he is working as a session musician, producer, songwriter, pianist, and sound designer in Los Angeles. He has recorded and performed with artists and producers such as Feist, Sarah McLachlan, Blake Mills, Tony Berg, Rick Rubin, Bruce Hornsby, Wendy Melvoin, Hand Habits, Lucy Dacus, Margaret Glaspy, Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Van Dyke Parks, Mark Guiliana, and Fabiano do Nascimento, among others.
Colin Hogan
Piano
Colin Hogan was born in San Francisco, CA. He was a member of the world-renowned Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble while also studying with the Jazzschool’s founder, Susan Muscarella. He then attended Cal State East Bay (Hayward) where he earned a BA in piano performance.
Colin has performed on five continents and has performed with many legendary jazz musicians including James Moody, Peter Erskine, Bob Brookmeyer, Roy Ayers, and Maria Schneider. In 2004 he performed with electric bass revolutionary Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone at the California Music Awards. Colin is currently involved in many projects including The Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy, Dynamic, The Jazz Mafia, Trio Zincalo and The Hogan Brothers with brothers Steve and Julian.
He has worked as a music educator at SFJAZZ, Longfellow Middle School, and The Community School of the East Bay, and is currently an instructor at Cal State East Bay and the California Jazz Conservatory.
Ben Ball
Saxophone
NA
Yanos Lustig
Saxophone
Over the last decades and 14+ albums, BHS Jazz alum Johnny Bones has played sax with the hard-working California Honeydrops.(https://cahoneydrops.com/)
The 'drops draw on roots music, Bay Area R&B, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second line to put on a crowd-pleasing show. They say -- "We want crowd involvement and to make people become a part of the whole thing by dancing along, singing, and generally coming out of their shells.”
David Murray
Saxophone
A legend of jazz, the Village Voice declared David Murray “musician of the decade” in 1980.
He is one of the most prolific artists in jazz history, releasing some 265 albums as a leader or co-leader and another 100 with other artists and groups, most importantly the World Saxophone Quartet.
He started on alto saxophone (https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/06/20/david-murray-back-room)under music teacher Phil Hardymon at Longfellow Elementary School in 1965.
Paco Avila
Trombone
NA
George Gaebler
Trombone
NA
Ambrose Akinmusire
Trumpet
Ambrose released his fifth album for Blue Note Records (https://www.ambroseakinmusire.com/)last year. Born in Oakland, he was playing trumpet with the BHS Jazz Ensemble when he caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman. He was asked to join Coleman’s Five Elements band, embarking on a European tour when he was just a 19-year-old student at the Manhattan School of Music. When Down Beat reviewed his first album they said "clearly something very special and personal is at work here." In addition to playing with anybody who's anybody in jazz, he played on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly.
Sean Erick
Trumpet
Sean Erick started trumpet at Muir Elementary and Willard Middle School, and made it into the Ensemble as a first year BHS student. He got a scholarship to Berklee School of Music in Boston, then created the Regiment Horns,(https://college.berklee.edu/people/regiment-horns) a horn section for hire. The LA-based trio has been hired by Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and Coldplay, to name a few.
James Gillum
Trumpet
NA
Erik Jekabson
Trumpet
Erik Jekabson is a freelance trumpet player, composer, arranger and educator who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is equally busy playing and composing for different bands, leading his own groups, (the Erik Jekabson Sextet, the String-tet and the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra) teaching a wide variety of students and running the Young Musicians Program at the California Jazz Conservatory.
He’s spent time on the road with Illinois Jacquet, John Mayer, Galactic, and the Howard Fishman Quartet, and has performed at such notable venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Algonquin Room, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Madison Square Garden, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman.
As an arranger and composer, he’s arranged for both vocalists (Madeleine Peyroux, Ani DiFranco, Jane Krakowski, Jackie Ryan, Kenny Washington, Madeline Eastman, Kellye Gray, Kalil Wilson, Sandy Cressman, Raz Kennedy, Rachel Efron and the spoken word artist Avotcja) and instrumental ensembles. (San Francisco Symphony, the BBC Radio Orchestra, Utah Symphony, the Daggerboard Collective, Throttle Elevator Music, and his own Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, which holds a monthly residency at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.)
