Robert Gastelum came from a very musical family. He was very fortunate to have a dad as a musician and his dad had a keyboard and guitar in the house since Robert was very young. His dad’s family had the family band, which consisted of his uncles playing the guitar and bass. Later his dad started playing the drums and his aunt, and cousins sing and play percussion in the band as well. They played top 40 tunes and many gigs since the 90’s in and around wine country and even travelled to Arizona, San Diego and other places to perform.

Robert got his feet wet and was educated about jazz music in sixth grade (about 1995) in a public school, through his math and science teacher, a jazz pianist. They formed a middle school jazz combo where Robert got to improvise and write his own tunes. From that point on, Robert decided to take his music and jazz studies more seriously and continued to play trumpet throughout high school. From there, he got into the Monterey Jazz Festival All Star big band and also got into the Grammy Band, which were a select group of top high school jazz musicians from across the country. Soon after, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he attended for three years and completed his bachelor degree in music.

Since coming back from Boston, Robert has formed his own jazz group and played many gigs local and out of town as well. He has gone as far as Houston, Texas to play a few gigs at Notsuoh, a very offbeat, unique bar with his band. He has also freelanced as a trumpeter in many bands from reggae to rock, to salsa and latin jazz.

Robert completed a master degree in music in 2023 and started teaching music part time, mostly in the public school system as a sub teacher. He continues to compose music digitally, attend jazz jam sessions nightly in the Bay Area and play gigs with his band.