Rob

Born in Anaheim, CA,  Rob’s family moved to Sonoma County in 1989. Rob started taking piano lessons from his West county neighbor Georgia Fauss at 7 and picked up the Alto Saxophone at 10 at Lincoln Elementary. From a very early age Rob developed a deep love for the syncopated rhythms and dissonant harmonies of Rag Time and Traditional American jazz from artists like Scott Joplin and Louis Armstrong. This would eventually grow into a lifelong obsession with the building-blocks of music, jazz and performing live.
In High School Rob was lucky enough to participate in the early years of Santa Rosa High School’s ‘Artquest’ program led by his private sax teacher Mark Wardlaw while singing in the choir with Dan Earl. Being immersed in music and collaborating with like-minded musicians was a formative experience that set the tone for Rob’s Musical future.

Rob earned his degree in Jazz studies at Santa Rosa Junior College while working as the assistant to Bay Area jazz legend Bennett Friedman. While there he had the pleasure of studying classical / jazz theory, ear training, composition and performance with more world class faculty including Mark Anderman, Rudolph Budginas, Jody Benecke and Jerome Fleg.

Today Rob can be seen performing in the North Bay most weekends. He administrates groups The Still Blue Quartet and Stretch Denim while writing parts and performing with a host of other local bands including Kid Galga, The Funky Dozen and Mood Jungle.