Lead vocalist Richard Ortiz has played in the North Jersey area for the better part of the last 30 years with a 6-year stint in the Southern California circuit.  Rich displays a remarkable vocal range and depth. His formal music education began with saxophone lessons in third grade, and he subsequently taught himself the bass and guitar. Among his musical highlights is his national debut as a Gong Show finalist and opening up for Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers Band guitarist). Rich also contributes instrumentally to Captains of Leisure including percussion.  He has been a featured member of Blues Elixir (8 years), The Lost Dog Acoustic Project, The Hairingtons, and The Passengers (9 years) and often guests with other area bands.  Rich also regularly spends some of his spare time working as a soundman for dozens of bands, both local and national, and is an active charter member of the music ministry steering committee for St. Mark's RC church (Long Valley).

Bassist Jim Risley hails from the Hackettstown area of Northwest New Jersey, known as a breeding ground for many talented area musicians. Jim studied under bassist Dave Larue (Dixie Dregs, Steve Morse) in the early 80’s, and has been playing bass for over 25 years. He has played in various jazz, concert, rock and pit bands in his school years. Since then, he has been a member of several local bands such as Premonition, The Hairingtons, The Passengers, Tapestry, and The Call Boys in the North Jersey club circuit since then. His bass influences range from Jaco Pastorious, Jeff Berlin, Dave Larue, and Pino Paladino to Geddy Lee and Billy Sheehan. In addition to playing bass and singing in Captains of Leisure, Jim is the musical co-director of the Contemporary Praise Band at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Drummer Scott Miller started playing drums at the age of 6 or 7. Whenever Scott would go to his grandparent's house he would sit at his uncle's red sparkle Slingerland drumset and bang away. At the time, he was so short that tey would have to sit him on a huge speaker just so he could reach the drums. It wasn't long before his parents enrolled him in drums lessons and he never looked back. Scott studied music at William Paterson University. He also studied privately with Vincent "muzzy" Mizzoni, Dom Famularo, Al Miller (no relation) , Zoro (drummer for Lenny Kravitz), Willie Ornales and Jim Chapin. Over the years, Scott has worked with many bands and artisit in the NJ and NY area. He has performed and /or recorded with Second Left, Elisa Peimer, AD West, Soul Symphony, Kevin Brennan Band, 3 Way Street and Zand Zio just to name a small handful. He even spent some time touring with pop singer Lesley ("it's my party") Gore. Additionally Scott teaches approximately 50 to 60 drums students and is an experienced recording engineer. Now he is most content to spend a whole lot of Leisure time.

Guitarist Jeff Crimando discovered his true purpose in life at a very young age…“Must…Play Guitar!” As Jeff puts it, “Studying true greats like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and other jazz and rock artists soon led me to being able to play just like none of them.” At the not-so-tender age of 15, he began performing every weekend at the Still in Allamuchy with a band named Reminisce. One notable highlight was backing up country legend Charlie Pride on the old chestnut “There’s A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea”. Later, Jeff attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and continued to study with jazz greats Eddie Berg and Harry Leahey. Jeff has previously been a member of local bands Tapestry, Premonition and the seminal oldies/rock tour-de-force KrackerJax. He continues to teach privately, and at the Music Den in Ledgewood. Jeff also serves as Liturgy of The Word For Children music minister for Blessed Kateri RC church (Sparta). With Captains of Leisure, Jeff also sings. He notes “I am finally playing a mix of music that really excites me, with a great bunch of very talented musicians. And who knows… maybe Charlie Pride will show up at one of our gigs someday.”

Chris Arnold has been a trumpet player, arranger and teacher in the area for many years. He has done studio work for multiple radio and television productions including Northwest NJ cable show The Gig. His freelance work in New York and New Jersey has ranged from classical to jazz. Chris earned his Masters degree from the University of Massachusetts along with his Masters in education from Marygrove College in Michigan. He has taught, marched, and written for drum and bugle corps performance groups as well. He is the former Band Director at Parsippany High School and is currently the Band Director of Sparta Middle School. Chris has been fundamental to the development of the horn section in Captains of Leisure; structuring parts that are both innovative and true to the original songs. Chris has made many contributions to the music community as well in educating young players to take interest in a variety of music performance. In his spare time, he leads The Jazz Players Anonymous big band based in Sparta.

Saxophonist Bob Celusak who after being born at a very young age (in lovely Downtown Newark, NJ), and having taken advantage of the invention of the transistor radio, developed an obvious penchant for music.  Having spent the majority of his younger years trudging through cow pastures and patties, he decided to take his musical career to the next level.  So he quit the marching band and became a singer.  The flute came next (a manly undertaking for sure), but alas Jethro Tull was just a passing fancy.  The love of Bob’s life, that is to say, Bob’s saxophone, then found him, and a burning desire to play it as much as possible soon followed.  Thousand of hours of practice, bar bands, weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Christenings, Golden Anniversaries and such, along with a zillion Jazz gigs, led to a critically acclaimed Iron Monkey Trio CD (see AllAbout Jazz.com review).  This veteran jazz-trained musician whose key influences include Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and Wayne Shorter now brings his fluid horn mastery full circle to Captains of Leisure.  Bright moments!