About

Trumpeter, composer and bandleader Robert Gastelum was born on September 17, 1984 in Vallejo, California. At an early age Robert began playing the piano at home. His dad had music instruments like a keyboard and guitar and bass and his uncles had a band, where they started the family band, Band 707. He began playing the trumpet in the fifth grade and in sixth grade he joined a Jazz combo his math and science teacher started. This is where Robert discovered his talent of improvising on the trumpet.

He continued to play the trumpet in High School and got into a youth Jazz ensemble, The Grammy Band, in 2002. This band was a hand selected group America’s top youth in Jazz music. Here he was able to attend the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and perform at several clubs in the Los Angeles area. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he attended from 2004 to 2007 and completed a bachelor's degree in music. Robert also obtained a Masters degree in Music Tech from Southern Utah University in 2023.

Since coming back to the West Coast, Robert has performed in many local bands and taken lots of gigs as a sideman trumpet player and also gotten together his own small bands to perform at local clubs. He has even taken his band to Houston Texas to perform a couple of shows at a venue in downtown Houston called Notsuoh. 

Robert had the opportunity to sit in with guitarist Jorge Santana (brother of famed guitarist Carlos Santana) and his band at the Copia in Napa in 2005. The late Napa Valley Register writer Pierce Carson wrote an article titled - ‘Ace Napa Valley Trumpeter Steals The Show’ in 2005, saying ‘At times, the extended applause and cheers seemed to be longer and louder for the young man with the horn — St Helena’s Robert Gastelum - than for the veteran musicians headlining the show.. It wasn’t clear on Thursday night if the crowd at Copia was happier because Jorge Santana had brought his seven-member Latin combo to town or that a talented young local trumpeter had been invited to display his ample talents with these big city pros. We did get to hear “Suavecito” three times - first when Gastelum made his initial entry; then with a reggae tempo (which is where the young St. Helena trumpeter really go to shine with jazzy licks complementing Satana’s fiery guitar solos); and finally as a departing encore.’

Robert is currently recording some new material in a studio in Berkeley, using a reggae rhythm and hopes to release a new track soon via his YouTube and publish to his Spotify as well. He substitute teaches when he can, and would hopefully like to start a Jazz music program sometime in the near future and gives music lessons when he can.