About Us

About the Orchestra

The Bob Saul Orchestra is made up of 17 talented and professional
musicians. The Bob Saul Orchestra has performed together for over
10 years, with regular performances throughout the San Francisco
bay area.

Bob Saul: Orchestra Leader, Male Vocals, & Trombone.
Bob's musical career began playing trombone and singing
background vocals for the Canadian rock band, Wyndham. After the
band’s break-up, he switched to classic guitar while he worked as a
biochemist and managed a biotech firm. He since has played in
various classical music groups including the De Anza Symphony, the
Foothill Orchestra, and the Oakland Community Symphony. In 1995,
he started playing swing music with the “Elby Coy Orchestra”, and
later with the Matt Gerhardt’s “Sultans of Swing” and Jeff Fillipi’s
“BackSwing Big Band” where he became that band’s male vocalist.
After Jeff’s retirement, Bob took over “BackSwing” and turned it into
the Bob Saul Orchestra, a dance orchestra performing a broader
range of styles, with an emphasis on waltz and Latin rhythms.

Lori Devey: Female Vocals.
Lori began performing as a vocalist at the age of three. She had 12
years of private study as a vocalist and 15 years as a pianist. She
received a B.A. in Music from Oregon State University and did two
years of graduate studies in Vocal Performance & Opera at The San
Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has performed as a classical
vocal soloist in the OSU Opera Workshop, the OSU Chamber Choir,
OSU Corvallis Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Theater Corvallis, the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music Baroque Orchestra, and the
San Francisco Conservatory Baroque. She did a Choral Tour of
China and soloed on Chinese National Television. She also did a
concert tour of Japan with Integrity Music’s Marty Nystrom. She
recently did a Jazz & Bossa Nova recording with Flamenco guitarist
Glenn Staller. She joined the Bob Saul Orchestra in 2003, and has
quickly picked up a repertoire of swing and Latin vocals.   Lori has
taught voice and piano since 1990 and she is currently a music
instructor at Humbolt State University.

Dennis Parke: Lead Trumpet.
Dennis was a Music Major at De Anza College and Fresno State
University in the 1970’s. He has performed with many well-known
artists, including Glen Stuart (of the Don Ellis orchestra), Grant
Giesman (Chuck Mangioni Orchestra) and Gary Pack (Stan Kenton
Orchestra). Besides the “Bob Saul Orchestra”, he currently performs
with the “Mike Sloan Orchestra”, “Tuesday Nite Live”, and the
“Sultans of Swing”. Dennis is a music teacher giving private trumpet
lessons in the San Francisco Bay Area.

John Farey: Lead Trombone.
John is also a vocalist, songwriter, and keyboard player. He is the
son of Everett Farey, renowned jazz trumpeter and founder of the Bay
City Jazz Band. John began playing professionally at the age of 13.
In the late 1970’s, he played keyboards for “Sly and the Family Stone”
and recorded on two of their nationally distributed albums. He toured
with Van Morrison’s band and has recorded with “Huey Lewis and
the News” and with members of the “Grateful Dead”. He was a
founding member of the band “Zero” and the leader of the “John
Farey Group”, which released one album, “Lost at Sea”. As a
songwriter, he created material recorded by Marty Balin, among
others.

Ron Gariffo: Lead Alto Sax, Clarinet, Flute, Soprano Sax.
Ron has formal music education from the Manhattan School of Music
and also from the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music, where he
studied woodwind instruments and Orchestration. Ron leads his
own band, the “Ron Gariffo Octet” for which he has written most of
the arrangements. He is also an arranger for the Bob Saul
Orchestra.

Jud Flato: Lead Tenor Sax.
Jud also plays soprano, alto, and baritone sax, as well as piano,
accordion, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, piccolo, and bass guitar. He
has done undergraduate course work in composition, arranging,
piano and clarinet. While living on the East Coast, Jud played with
various groups run by Hal Silvers, Hal Darnell, Herb Sherry, Steven
Scott, and the famous Klezmer player Naftule Brandwein. He was an
instructor for the clarinet and accordion in Brooklyn. On the West
Coast, Jud has played with the “Russ Button Band”, “Dave Altschuler’
s Band”, “Mystic Moods”, and the “Bob Enos Big Band”.   Jud runs
several small bands of his own, including the “Diablo Street Jazz
Band” and “Costa Klezmorim-Shabbatones”. With the Bob Saul
Orchestra, Jud plays lead tenor sax and also does arranging for the
orchestra.

Bill Belasco: Drummer.
Bill has been playing drums since the age of three. He started his
professional career at the age of fifteen playing with a brass-rock
band. Bill then played with various show and dance bands until
coming to the Bay Area in 1975. Soon after arriving in San Francisco,
he got a steady gig at the nite-club “Ivan Alexander’s” with a band
called Jumpstreet featuring Joahym Young. In 1980, Bill joined the
Pickle Family Circus (later the New Pickle Circus), where he learned
show drumming, and toured the United States as well as Europe
and Japan. He has recently worked as a drummer with “Speedy
Garfin and the Garfin Gathering” in the Catskills in New York. Bill has
recorded with the “Jules Rowell Quintet” and the “Dave Miller Trio”.
He also plays with “Majestic Swing”, “Waldo Carter”, “Patrick Maier”,
“Jules Broussard”, and “Grant Ewall” bands.

James Moran: Guitar.
James is an accomplished musician, having played with numerous
bands and organizations. He has done studio work in Los Angeles,
supplying guitar and harmonica for commercial work and demo
recordings. He has played with Albert Collins, Z.Z. Hill, John Lee
Hooker, Luther Tucker, “The Ojays”, “The Sterlings”, and with Dizzy
Gillespie.

Carol Rischer: Piano.
Carol began her music education in Canada where she studied
classical music at the University of Manitoba. She has worked as an
elementary school teacher, specializing in music, and has
conducted choirs & taught music in public schools. She continues to
teach piano privately. She plays regularly with church bands &
orchestras and has played for Community Theater. Along with her
musical family, she has recorded albums, toured many countries,
and has appeared on Christian television. In addition to the “Bob
Saul Orchestra, Carol has performed with several Bay Area dance
bands including the “Sultans of Swing”, “Swing Solution”, the “Metro
Big Band”, and the “Mike Sloan Band”.

Al Gonzalez: Trumpet, Flugelhorn, & Superbone.
Al began playing the trumpet at age 12. Al plays in numerous rock,
jazz, latin, funk, and big bands in the San Francisco Bay area,
including his own band, the “Latin Funk Express”. Musical highlights
include the honor of sharing the stage with Louie Bellison, Joe
Henderson, Allen Vizzutti, Greg Abate, The Smother Brothers, Miles
Anderson, Tony Orlando And Dawn, Larry Vockuvich, The
Temptations, and Mic Gillette.

Will Magid: Trumpet.
Will is a young prodigy, still in high school, but already with
considerable music experience. He is a member of the “San
Francisco All-Star Jazz Band” which recently performed at the Lincoln
center in New York in a competition directed by Wynton Marsalis. He
has also performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Will has played or
studied with trumpeters John Faddis, Victor Goines (The Lincoln
Centre Jazz Orchestra), Gary Burton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and our own
Dennis Parke.

Greg Saul: Trombone. Greg studied trombone with his father, Bob
Saul, and later with Robert Szabo. Greg started playing
professionally at age 15 in the “Elby Coy Orchestra”. He has toured
nationally with jazz vocalists Rosemary Clooney and Michael
Finestein, with jazz band “Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack” and
with ska bands “Monkey” and “Warsaw”. He recorded on several
nationally distributed albums, including Rosemary Clooney’s
“Sentimental Journey” which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
He has performed with the “Honolulu Symphony Pops” at Blaisdell
Concert Hall and with “Big Kahuna” on the “Rosie O’Donnell”
television show.