When pianist Bobby Gangloff plays Vero’s first Blues and Barbecue Festival next weekend, it’ll make the inaugural event seem like a long Vero tradition.
After 27 years here, that’s how familiar he is, either playing solo, as he does at Quail Valley four nights a week, or with his two popular bands, “The River Rats” and “Bobby and The Blisters.”
In fact, Vero isn’t the only town that claims him as the house band – Gangloff’s popularity extends across the Treasure Coast. He has even played at PGA National and West Palm Beach’s huge music festival, Sunfest.
This weekend and next, he’ll be playing at two Barbecue and Blues festivals, Friday night as Jensen Beach hosts the Treasure Coast Marathon, and next Saturday, when the same festival organizers come to Vero’s Riverside Park.
For those who have followed his career from the start, one New Year’s Eve at the Patio restaurant back in 1988, he still shows a youthful exuberance well into middle age. And he is that much better at his craft, his skills accrued not only during his long career but of a top-notch music education.
A transplant from Saratoga Springs, NY, Gangloff found his way to Vero via his high school friend and jazz bandmate, Neil McHugh, who invited him down on winter break in his senior year at SUNY Albany.
Their impromptu gig on Dec. 31 that year led the Patio’s then-owner, Tom Beaver, to guarantee Gangloff a standing gig at the popular nightspot after he graduated. That spring he commenced his nearly three-decade career of entertaining audiences in Vero, Stuart, Jensen and beyond.
Gangloff’s talent was apparent at a young age. When he was still in high school, his versatility of keyboard styles, rhythms and genres enabled him to join established bands in the Northeast.
He started out playing as a keyboardist for two upstate New York rock bands, Eros and ProtoFoto, and was touring known venues throughout New England before he was 18 years old.
He recalls the multiple synthesizers he needed back then to play all the different shows. “In those days you would have to have one synthesizer for every sound,” he says. “I had at least six keyboards with me every time I played out.”
His professional success during his formative years compelled Gangloff to pursue a degree in music from SUNY-Albany. He majored in electronic music composition, studied with electronic music pioneer Joel Chadabe and graduated magna cum laude.
Gangloff remembered fondly his initial foray into Vero’s music scene back in the ‘80s.
“I loved it,” Gangloff says. “The Patio had me put my keyboard right on the inside bar, which was great, at first, and then I realized it was also a little dangerous because you would get your drinks way too quickly.”
Recalling his set-lists, Gangloff said he was always more than happy to cater to the requests of visiting snowbirds in need of island music, reggae tunes and society standards; songs like “Margaritaville” got played again and again. “Every song has its price,” he quips.
He also played what he loved. A long-time fan of the band “Little Feat,” Gangloff’s current vocals and piano stylings reflect that band’s fun blues and creole jams that have always resonated with him.
Not long after his arrival in Vero, Gangloff, McHugh and friend Billy Willer formed the well-loved group The River Rats. Despite their strong following in Vero, Gangloff discovered he was playing more and more in Stuart and Jensen Beach. So he moved out of Vero and a little further south.
His fan base has followed and expanded with the popularity of his more recently formed rocking jazz and funk group, Bobby and The Blisters. Comprised of equally talented local musicians, it includes the high-energy and crowd-friendly saxophonist Ron McCode, versatile drummer Todd Walker, and percussionist Tony Cruz. Gangloff provides commanding vocals and dazzling piano solos all the while deftly filling in the bass rhythms with his left hand.
His workstation of choice these days is a Kurzweil with weighted keys; long gone are the days of multiple synths.
Despite their inclusive repertoire, Gangloff says Bobby and the Blisters still gets pegged as being a jazz band, either because it includes saxophone and piano or “maybe just because you’ll never hear a song done the same way twice.”
Gangloff claims musicians Sting, Dr. John, Jerry Lee Lewis and Tom Waits as some of his more major influences. The Blisters’ set-lists are equally varied, offering smooth jazz, R&B, Zydeco and upbeat classic rock tunes.
Though they often play society jobs that require being more background entertainment – a little more “heard and not seen,” as Gangloff puts it, he says, “Make no mistake about it: the Blisters can rock and funk with the best of them. If we have a group that wants to dance and be thoroughly entertained by our antics, we are more than happy to oblige.”
Those crowds typically show up at his gigs at Osceola Bistro, Havana Nights and the Vero Beach Hotel and Spa’s Cobalt.
Further proof of Gangloff’s continued mass appeal is the recent request for him to play at both of the Treasure Coast’s upcoming Blues and Barbecue festivals. Gangloff plays at the Treasure Coast BBQ & Blues Marathon in Jensen Beach this Friday (Feb. 27), and the Vero Beach’s BBQ & Blues Festival in Riverside Park on March 7.
Meanwhile, in addition to playing a regular every-other-Sunday solo gig at Sailor’s Return in Stuart, he plays Wednesday through Saturday nights at Quail Valley’s River Club.
The Quail Valley gig is one of Gangloff’s personal favorites. “As I play the piano inside the club’s main dining room, I can look outside and see my best bud Neal McHugh playing guitar to the members out on the deck. Twenty-seven years later and we’re still having fun, still playing in Vero.” No little feat at all.