Jazz
The Berkeley pianist who has played with Herbie Hancock and Marcus Miller brings Matteo Mancuso’s rhythm section to Plaça Reial — both sets sold out
| Date | Sunday 25 October 2026 |
| Venue | Jamboree — Room 1 |
| Address | Plaça Reial, 17 — Barcelona |
| Start | two sets, at 19:00 and 20:30 |
| Price | €20 general; €16 members |
| Promoter | Mas i Mas |
Julian “J3PO” Pollack plays Room 1 at Jamboree with his trio on Sunday 25 October, in two sets: 19:00 and 20:30. Tickets were €20, or €16 for members, and Jamboree lists both sets as sold out. The show is run by Mas i Mas at the Plaça Reial venue, in the middle of the 58th Barcelona International Jazz Festival season.
The trio is completed by Riccardo Oliva on bass and Gianluca Pellerito on drums, the same rhythm section that backs Sicilian guitarist Matteo Mancuso.
Pollack was born in 1988 and grew up in Berkeley, and turned down a full Berklee scholarship to study at New York University instead. As a leader he has released “Goin’ For It” (2006), “Infinite Playground” (2010), “Waves Of Albion” (2013), “Small Plates” (2019), the soundtrack to “The Sound Of The Wind” (2020) and “MAINS” (2021, Ropeadope). He has recorded and played with Herbie Hancock, Chris Botti, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, rapper Talib Kweli and Snarky Puppy’s Michael League.
The work he puts out as J3PO goes somewhere else entirely: electronics, soul and hip-hop mixed in with the jazz. The three most recent releases are “Soul & Circuitry”, “Studio Live: Milano” and “A Brief Odyssey”, out on 7 April and made entirely with a single synthesiser and a reverb pedal. Jamboree has not said which of the three he arrives with.
Text by Aina Torrents