Bobby Alto

Bobby currently spends his time at his West LA recording studio, working at local clubs & restaurants, providing entertainment at private & corporate functions, playing charity events & working as an occasional street performer on the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade & on the Santa Monica Pier. Lately you can catch him most weekday mornings on the Pier. Due to his focus as a street performer & recession based shrinking entertainment budgets Bobby generally performs solo with pre-recorded rhythm section.

Dr. Bobby Alto grew up in New York City, began studying music in grade school & minored in music at Haverford College. Early in college Bobby's group won a "Battle of the Bands" contest at the Philadelphia Garden &, oddly, he's never again played in that huge a venue - go figure. While earning a Doctorate at Boston University he became involved in theatrical productions at Harvard & was composer and musical director of 2 productions starring Stockard Channing & Tommy Lee Jones (Alice In Wonderland & an original work, White Sale). He was also composer & musical director of a few radio productions at Boston's WGBH-FM during that time. After graduate school Bobby spent over a decade on the road playing rock & R&B all around the US. During that time he spent a few years completing an online Certificate Program in Arranging & Composition from the Berklee School of Music in Boston. He also wrote a book now published by the Hal Leonard Corp. entitled JS Bach For Electric Bass (www.halleonard.com or www.aebersold.com).

After the decade as itinerant road warrior Bobby eventually settled in Los Angeles. Aside from gigging & studio work, his 1st major project in Los Angeles was a post as composer & musical director of a jingle for a franchised hair salon chain that had national radio airplay for nearly 1 year.

Some of the prominent Los Angeles studio musicians performing in Bobby's backup tracks include Ann King on trumpet (annking.net) who's performed with Guns N' Roses, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Don Henley, Michael McDonald & Spinal Tap; Grant Geissman on guitar (grantgeissman.com) who's early notable accomplishments were his unique guitar solos on Chuck Mangione's 1978 Grammy nominated Record of the Year, "Feels So Good" (losing out to Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are"). Grant has performed & recorded with Elvis Costello, Quincy Jones, Burt Bachrach, Paula Abdul, Ringo Starr & Van Dyke Parkes. Most recently Grant is co-composer of the theme song & music of the hit CBS TV show Two and A Half Men; Glen Garrett on tenor saxophone who's a Cal State Northridge Music Dept. faculty member & has performed & recorded with the Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra, Ian Whitcomb, Captain & Tennille, the Les Hooper Big Band, Michael Bolton, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rankin, Carter Burwell (compos er for most of the Coen Brothers' movies) & Jobim / Gilberto; Jeff Miley on guitar (jeffmiley.com) who's currently on a national tour with Britta Swearingen & teaches guitar at Questa College; & Jennifer Hall on baritone sax (cdbaby.com) whose jazz quintet currently performs "A West Coast Tribute to Jerry Mulligan" around Southern California.

Other top flight LA musicians appearing in Bobby's rhythm section include Doug West on B-3 Hammond organ, Doug Shreeve on electric bass, Richard Behrens on keyboards & Lee Witherspoon on drums. Rhythm section arrangements were produced & recorded by Bobby & by Wayne Cook. Wayne, a keyboardist, recording engineer & producer was a member of Steppenwolf from 1976-1977 & of Player from 1978-1981 at the time of their 1978 No. 1 US Billboard Magazine hit, "Baby Come Back."

GEAR - Bobby plays a 1958 Mark VI Paris Selmer Alto Saxophone SN 78,XXX with a Lebayle 7* brass mouthpiece, a Selmer ligature & #4 Vandoreen Jazz reeds. When using a hard wired microphone he uses a Shure 545SD Classic Unidyne Instrument Microphone. His wireless system is a Shure L4 Diversity receiver & microphone. In addition to his Selmer Alto he adds an occasional touch of variety with a Yamaha WX5 Wind Controller played through a Yamaha VL70-m Virtual Acoustic Tone Generator.