Musicians who currently play with Karl

Roy Kaufmann

Roy was fascinated by the drummer working with his pianist father and started playing drums in 4th grade at the age of nine. He played in various concert, marching, dance and jazz bands while in school and college in upstate N. Y. Because of the prominent Polish population in the upstate are, he became familiar with their ethnic dance music.

While an army musician in the U.S. Military Academy Band he studied rudimental drummingand as a member of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers. He studied jazz drumming with Charles Perry in NYC and more recently with Scott Morris in Redwood City, CA.

Roy has worked with such notables as Alan King, the Ink Spots, Art Van Damme, Dave Pell, Carl Saunders and various local bands, musicians, and vocalists. He has performed at the San Jose Jazz Festival with his jazz quartet "DeJazz Vu" and the "Octobop" jazz octet. In addition, he has been the house drummer for shows at the Palo Alto Children's Theater since 1999 and demonstrates drumming yearly for his wife's elementary school music and art classes.

Recordings include a college Dixieland Band album and Octobop's 3rd and latest CD, "After Dark". In October you can often find him in Lederhosen playing Oktoberfests, and throughout the year playing for European-influenced dancing with the Swiss accordionist Karl Lebherz.

Bob Johnson

Bob plays saxophones and tuba with Karl. He is one of Karl's long-time musicians, having played with Karl for fifteen years.

His educational and professional background includes four years as principal bassoonist, saxophonist and head sound engineer for the USAF Europe Band in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he traveled extensively throughout Europe playing for many diplomatic functions, music festivals, radio broadcasts, etc. in both the concert band and big band. During his stay in Germany he also played with the Wiesbaden orchestra and many side gigs on saxophone.

He holds a degree electrical engineering from U.C. Berkeley and studied sound recording at Eastman School of Music. In addition to playing with Karl, Bob is a member of the San Jose Metropolitan Band and also plays frequent engagements with his wife, Karen, who is a professional pianist.

Bob's broad professional music experience includes playing classical and jazz in addition to popular standards and traditional ethnic German music. He also runs a successful business as a respected classical music recording engineer working with many of the well-known conductors, composers and soloists in the Bay Area.