Full Name: Matthew James Holmes

Age: 37

Birthday: 7 May 1976

Appearance: Matt stands just under 5'11 and weighs about 170 pounds. His facial hair varies: at the moment it's mostly a short mustache and some stubble around his chin and jawline. He's most commonly seen wearing a button-down shirt, one of his several blazers, and khaki pants, both on-stage and off-stage.

Role: Organist and Leader of the Stormcloud Group

Musical Style: Matt's original "style," such as it was, was essentially his attempted synthesis of baroque and gospel, like Bach but with a little swing. He doesn't look back on it fondly. During and after Berklee, his style became gradually more improvisational, though retaining his love of polyphonic textures and counterpoint, which get more obvious use when comping a soloist. His "trademark" with Stormcloud is improvising a phrase, then building a short fugue off it. On piano, he prefers He considers his main influences to be JS Bach, McCoy Tyner, Larry Young, and Ray Manzarek.

Personality: Matt, like Ted, is generally quiet, but much more easygoing, often waiting during conversation to chime in with something snappy. He's much more outgoing than Ted, though. He's also very good at nonverbal communication and reading body language, something he learned long before Berklee but perfected in his friendship with Ted.

Biography: Matt grew up in Brooklyn with his mother, Mae Holmes. There were two main fixtures of his life: school and church. Specifically, a small Lutheran church, where Matt became enamored with the music. After much pestering, his mother signed him up for piano lessons. He took lessons for about five years, then taught himself from then on out, branching out into organ and playing frequently at his church. Music school seemed the obvious choice, especially when he got a partial scholarship to Berklee College of Music.

At Berklee, he diversified as a player into jazz, focussing primarily on organ, though he kept up on piano and tried a synthesizer a few times for soloing (didn't stick). Here he met Ed Marubini and became good friends, the two of them frequently making two-thirds of an organ trio for recitals. After their graduation, they worked for a while as the Stormcloud Trio with drummer Paul Dupré. Ed quit in 2004 for unknown reasons, and shortly after that moved back to Baltimore, but Paul and Matt still play in the Stormcloud Group (technically now a duo with a revolving door of "guest players") to this day. He also plays at his childhood church.

Gear: Back in the early days of Stormcloud Trio, Matt played the standard Hammond organ with two manuals and a pedalboard. Since Ed's departure, he has updated his setup, now using a more portable Crumar Mojo for organ sounds and a Korg Krome for pianos, letting a bassist handle the low end.