Moppa Elliott

Matthew Thomas "Moppa" Elliott was born on September 13, 1978, the first son of David and Carolyn Elliott in Scranton, PA, his parents both college instructors and intense music lovers. After a brief introduction to the piano, he started to play the trombone in the sixth grade. Deciding a few years later he wanted to play an instrument with strings, he was given an electric bass guitar. At age 17, he fixed up his father's old acoustic bass in order to audition for a summer program, and began to study the bass seriously with Pocono resident Tony Marino. In the fall of 1997, he enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio majoring in biology, and jazz bass at their Conservatory of Music in a double-degree program, receiving his B.A. and B.M. in 2002. While there he was able to record a debut CD with the group Pinpoint and gain some experience playing in Cleveland for about three years. Since 2000, Elliott has been on the staff of the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts in Erie as a resident director and assistant, and practiced music therapy at the Lucy Idol Center for the Handicapped. He moved to New York City in the Summer of 2001, where he's been able to continue teaching at St. Mary's High School. In 2004 he formed his own group, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, featuring trumpeter Peter Evans. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi