bios

Perry Friedman has performed at dozens of venues on the East Coast including at the Ironhorse Café in Northampton, Ryle’s Jazz Club in Cambridge, The Bitter End in NYC, and the Eric Carle museum in Amherst.  After retiring from a rewarding career as a clinical social worker, he received a second B.A. with honors from Westfield State University in jazz and composition. Perry continues to gig regularly around the Pioneer Valley, and is currently enrolled in the Master’s in Film Composition program at Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

Drummer/ vibist Bruce Kelley  began playing drums at the age of eight. Some of his earliest influences were The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Herb Alpert, Herbie Hancock, and Miles Davis- the latter which led him to study jazz. In addition to pursuing music in college, he studied drumming privately with the renowned Sonny Igoe in NYC. Bruce went on to travel and perform with a trio throughout the mid- and southwest. He taught music in Tulsa, performed there with commercial rock, country and jazz groups, and worked for 3 years at Universal Music and Post on a variety of recording and film projects. Bruce then returned to New England in 2000, studied vibraphone at Berklee with Ed Saindon, and has been playing R&B and jazz with Soul Sound Review from Hartford, Soul Folks and Rescue Lola of Northampton, and later, his own jazz group, Bok Choy Quartet. 

Jon Oltman started playing guitar at age 12, bass in high school, and was inspired to pick up the acoustic bass when his son began cello lessons in 1st grade. In addition to his love of jazz, Jon also enjoys playing country, bluegrass, rock, and ragtime, and has played with numerous small groups in the Valley and southern Vermont. Among his influences are Jack Cassidy, Phil Lesh, Edgar Meyer, Paul Chambers, John McVie, Charles Mingus, Chris Squire, Stanley Clarke, George Mraz, and Victor Wooten. Jon likes the way great musicians learn from each other, and the way those influences can cross genres.