Bobby Faria

Raised in Newport, Rhode Island by two very musical parents, Bobby has been playing music since the age of 5 or 6 when he used to jam with his Mom and Dad in the living room. Little Bobby would strum his toy ukulele while Tony, his father, stretched out on violin or guitar and Lolly, his mother played the piano and sang. Later, for a short time while in junior high school, his parents rented a tenor sax for him to play in the school concert band. The music wasn't all that motivating to a 13 year old, but the experience of playing that horn was the beginning of a lifelong love of the sound of the tenor saxophone. However, the popular music of the late 60's and early 70's was strongly pulling him toward the electric guitar. 

It was during his high school years that he realized how much he loved performing live when he started singing and playing his guitar with a few local Newport rock bands. Later, after college and a move from Newport to Boston for a career in computer software, he discovered many more opportunities to get out and perform.  So, after work, he began putting himself out there at the many jam sessions available to him in the "Big City" and he managed to achieve quite a bit of notoriety as a guitar slinger.  The jams allowed lots of people to see what he could do and it led to offers for gigs on the active Boston music scene.  He's still going strong.

It wasn't until 1998 that he realized his lifelong dream of finally getting his own saxophone. It turned out to be a match made in heaven and before very long, he was getting calls for gigs as a sax player too.  "Ever since I was a kid in junior high I had thought that all saxophones cost thousands of dollars to buy. I found out that you could buy a Vintage, professional level sax for way less money than a new modern pro horn would cost, so I decided to finally give it a try.  Quite frankly, a big part of the reason I wanted to do it was that I noticed at the end of every gig, the sax player was always the first one who was all packed up and sitting at the bar waiting to get paid. Meanwhile the rest of the band was still wrapping wires and carrying heavy gear to their cars.  So I decided that playing the saxophone could be my "Retirement Plan".  It has turned out to be a very good decision."

His musical resumé has since included working with a Who's Who of Rock, R&B and Blues artists who have recognized his abilities and made him an in-demand side-man sharing the stage with Toni Lynn Washington, Ronnie Earl, Little Joe Cook, Peter Wolf, Buddy Miles, Bernard Purdy, Jonny Lang and many others. All these experiences eventually culminated in his decision in 2015 to start to showcase his writing talents by forming The Bobby Faria Band.  

Bobby has been writing original music since the 1980’s and his music comes in a wide variety of styles. This is because he believes that a song has the ability to create its own little universe with a lyric message that has a unique character.  He tries to match the musical genre to the character of the song's message.  This makes it  pretty difficult, if not impossible to categorize his body of work in any particular genre. 

When asked about his musical influences Bobby says, “Everybody wants to think of themself as unique, but truthfully, every musician is a product of their musical influences combined with whatever they can bring to the table. I can't objectively compare myself to any specific artist because I've learned something from all of them. I always try to incorporate the influences of people that I have loved to listen to... I like to think I only steal from the very best.”

When push comes to shove, I think Larry Carlton may have said it best. It's all "Just Another Excuse to Play the Blues"

Stream Bobby Faria music on Spotify or Apple Music, videos on YouTube.com/@bobbyfaria8130 or download individual songs and albums at  BobbyFaria.BandCamp.com

Awards

2008 Boston Urban Music Award

Gear

Tenor Sax: 1963 Selmer Mark VI, GS Mark II Freddie Gregory mpc 
Alto Sax:    1965 Selmer Mark Vi, Theo Wanne Durga4 mpd with 
Baritone Sax:  1960 Keilwerth Superba II (low Bb), Theo Wanne Durga V

Reeds:  I use Rigotti Gold reeds for all my horns. They are the only consistently good brand in my opinion. 

Guitar:       2008 Paul Reed Smith DGT
Amp:         Paul Reed Smith DG-30