Jonathan Roberts grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where his interest in music began at his family piano at age five. He studied orchestral music through high school, but resolved to learn jazz after encountering the music of Clifford Brown and Brad Mehldau. He attended Berklee College of Music from 2003 to 2005, studying trumpet with Greg Hopkins, Tiger Okoshi, and Charlie Lewis.

He then returned to the Pacific Northwest and studied piano and composition with Ezra Weiss, obtaining his Bachelor's degree in Jazz Piano Performance from Portland State University in 2009. Shortly after graduating, Roberts moved to New York City, where he was an active participant in the New York and Philadelphia scenes for two years. He recently returned to the Northwest to get married, and is currently working as a freelance musician and band leader in the Portland area. He is equally comfortable playing 1920's trad jazz, dixieland, 40's vocal standards, Bop, post-bop, and many other styles of music that are lumped together under the labels of "jazz" and "improvisational music." He leads groups on both piano and trumpet, and can provide you with an evening of show tunes with a vocalist, a set of aggressive post-bop instrumental jazz, groovy brazilian bossas and sambas, swingin dixieland tunes, piano trio covers of modern pop tunes, or anything in between.