KEVIN SCHRIEWER
Piano
Piano/keyboard player Kevin Schriewer (pronounced Shreever) was born and reared in the German community of Hermann, Missouri. He began classical piano lessons at age five and branched out from there playing trumpet in the high school band. He also sang and tap danced in the school musical productions.
Performing was a big part of his younger years. As early as age 13 he was playing with the Moonlight Serenaders of Foristell, Missouri, followed by the B. A. Wagner Band and the Sonny Leftholtz Band. Though these bands were generally dance bands, young Kevin enjoyed playing rock and roll also.
Kevin went to St. Louis University on a golf scholarship. Before he graduated the program was cut and he went to work for Chrysler. After two years he enrolled in the Rolla School of Mines (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) and acquired a Master's degree in Ceramic Engineering.
After high school, Kevin "kind of quit music." He married Debbie and they had two daughters. He traveled worldwide with his job and has lived in Texas, Ohio and Taiwan.
In 1997 Kevin began subbing for dance bands in the St. Louis area, including the Gateway City Big Band. By November, 2001 he had become a full time member of the GCBB.
Kevin loves to play jazz and considers Art Tatum one of his favorite jazz pianists. Although he has played and performed most of his life, he feels he is still learning. "You have to train your ear to play jazz," he explained. His dedication and sense of humor have been enjoyed by the entire band. He may be still learning but he's having a good time in the process.
DAN ANGLIM
Trombone
Dan began playing trombone in 1954 and went on to Purdue where he played in both the marching and symphonic bands. When he graduated in 1966 with a degree in Engineering, he came to St. Louis to work for McDonnell Aircraft (now Boeing). He was out of music for about ten years then decided to take it up again.
He joined Professor Ron Stilwell's concert band at Meramec Community College, then Bob Waggoner's jazz lab band at Meramec. In the early 1980s the Gateway City Big Band found him, and the rest is history. "I'm just a hobbyist," Dan says. But anyone who has heard his rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" on the band's "Dedication" recording would disagree.
Dan left the GCBB in 2004 to pursue a job transfer in Mesa, Arizona. He played there in a community college jazz lab band. Dan retired in 2007 and he and his wife, Jane, relocated to Sacramento, California to be near one of their sons. With more time on his hands, he's found playing opportunities in three big bands and one concert band. Dan says the training he received in nearly 25 years with the GCBB has made all the new opportunities possible.
PHIL BALBI
Trumpet
He sang, he played, he just about did it all and he was one of the band’s favorite people. When he wasn’t executing a dazzling jazz solo, he was belting out a tune like “Mack the Knife” or crooning with “The Dreamers”, the band’s former vocal quartet.
Phil joined the Gateway City Big Band in 1980. He got his start in Bayonne, New Jersey, at the age of 15, taking community lessons for 15 cents a week. He went on the road when he was 18, playing in the Eddie Rogers band. It was a hotel band that played one-night engagements at hotels all over the east coast, and as far away as Chicago. To pick up extra money, Phil was also the bus driver and male vocalist. “It was weird,” Phil said. “I would drive all night while the guys slept. Then I would play the next day on two hours sleep. You have to be a certain kind of person to live that life. You’re on the road 50 weeks a year. It’s a rough life.”
Phil realized the musician’s lot wasn’t for him and he returned to his love of engineering, moving to the St. Louis area to work for ACF Industries. He was married to his wife, Jo, for 40 years at the time of her death. They had two daughters and a son.
Phil’s rich vocals added a special touch to tunes like “I Can’t Get Started” and his love of music showed in everything he did. Phil retired from the band and passed away in 1999.
HERB BOOTH
Trumpet
Herb came up through kicks bands around St. Louis and played his way through Washington University. He then took a long musical hiatus, focusing on business and family. Brushing up on long-lost skills many years later, in the mid-90s he joined the Gateway City Big Band.
Devoted to Swing, he has toured with the “ghost” bands of Sammy Kay, Jimmy Dorsey, Dick Jurgens, Russ Morgan and Jan Garber around Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the length of the Mississippi. Herb also fronts his own dixieland and swing combos, and has a brass ensemble for church events.
His trumpet icons are Harry James, Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan. As editor of the GCBB newsletter for about three years, he enjoyed writing tales of the Swing Era for our many band friends and followers.
Herb retired from the band in December, 2010, and passed away in December of 2013.
BOB BUDDEMEYER
Trumpet
The Gateway City Big Band caught up with Bob in 1974. They asked him to join several times and he turned them down because he was too busy. Finally he decided it would be great to play trumpet again and he joined the band.
In 1983 Bob returned to teaching and taught in the St. Louis Public Schools at the magnet school for music. Bob retired from teaching in 1999 and enjoyed his new life as a golf enthusiast. Bob had two sons, Eden and Roman.
Bob enjoyed being a part of the band. “I always felt this band was more than just a band, more like a fraternal group. They get you through the hard times“, Bob said. Bob recruited many of the members of the band, getting names of potential players from his many contacts. With his infectious smile and sense of humor, Bob was a band favorite. It was easy to tell he liked being a member of the Gateway City Big Band.
Bob retired from the band and passed away in 2001.
DON CLAUSON
Tenor Sax
Don is a native St. Louisan. He received his first saxophone when he was 9, and by age 16 he was performing for pay and helping support his family. After graduating from Cleveland High School, he joined the Army Band and toured with them all over the United States. After returning home from the Army he played with Stan Kenton. In 1975, Don was named "Mr. Tenor Sax of Metro St. Louis" by the Jazz All-Stars Unlimited. He performed with other all-star jazz musicians around the metro area, giving fundraising performances for the promotion of modern jazz.
Don formed his own group, the Checkmates, and appeared with them until 1982, when he decided to join the Gateway City Big Band. But that was not the end of his performing with name bands. Over the years Don has appeared with the Jimmy Dorsey and Sammy Kaye bands on riverboat and ocean cruises several times a year. He has also appeared with other St. Louis groups, and is much in demand as a solo tenor saxophone player.
Don retired from his day job as an accountant with Missouri Pacific Railroad after being there 32 years. These days he can also be seen as a member of the Moolah Band with the Shriners. He is a Mason and member of Scottish Rite.
Don married his wife, Karen, in 1981. Between them they have 6 children, 11 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. Don retired from the band in 2012.
VICTOR HERBERT
Baritone sax
Vic studied piano with St. Louis jazz great Herb Drury for most of his years with the band, but we never heard him play. Professionally, he was a chemical engineer at Monsanto. Personally, he had a beautiful wife, Lue, loving children, and was a good friend to us all.
Vic retired from the band in 2009 and passed away in 2010.
JIM KNOX
Alto/Tenor Sax
Jim joined the band in 1966 and was a big part of what the Gateway City Big Band is today.
Jim began playing the clarinet at the age of 9. When he was in high school, a group of friends formed a band they called the “Metropolitans.” To join the band, Jim paid $107 for a new Conn saxophone and taught himself how to play it. Later he went to Kansas University, paying his expenses by playing the saxophone. He graduated in 1942 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and was immediately sent to Oak Ridge to work on the top secret atom bomb project. He sent his girlfriend a ring and after they were married, she joined him.
Jim put the saxophone away, busy with his career and his two daughters, Marcia and Melissa (Missy). He worked for Monsanto for 35 years.In 1966 a group of his musician friends decided to start their own big band for fun. They called themselves the “Friends of Music” and Jim was back on the sax. In 1975 the group renamed themselves “The Gateway City Big Band”. One by one Jim’s fellow founders left, but he stayed and watched the band grow and evolve.
Jim and his wife, Jacqueline, were married for almost 30 years when she passed away and he has two grandsons, Nathan and Jay. Jim sponsored a jazz scholarship at Meramec Community College and had a large collection of saxophone player figurines that was once displayed at a museum in Kansas.
Jim loved to travel but his greatest loves were family and the Gateway City Big Band. He was hugely responsible for the accumulation and organization of hundreds of tunes in the band’s library and served as its librarian until 2001. He also did a fair amount of arranging of tunes to fit the band’s instrumentation and directed the vocal quartet formed within the group, “The Dreamers”.
Jim retired from the band in 2000 and passed away in 2006.
JIM MOORE
Alto sax
When our nightly band breaks came the other musicians would scurry to do what musicians do on breaks, but Jim would head straight for the audience, walking from table to table meeting the crowd and, of course, telling jokes. Often they were the same jokes on every gig, but they were new to the crowd, and they loved them. Mainly, the crowd enjoyed seeing how much fun Jim had telling the jokes – as he just loves to tell jokes.
The GCBB was part of Jim’s life almost every day. Jim was the band’s business manager and handled the booking of the band for most of the years he was with the band. Included in that commitment was the promotion of the band – another job he loved. He talked about the band constantly, and was on the phone so frequently that the Moore family added a second phone line so that Jim’s beloved wife Pat (an extremely patient person) could have access to a phone too. At each gig it was guaranteed that as I walked away from the bandstand someone in the crowd would approach me to ask, “Could you point out Jim Moore for me?”
Jim honed his wonderful people skills selling Stetson Hats door to door; Fuller Brushes would have been far too easy for Jim. He was a gunner in a B-17 during the war and played in the 521st Army Air Force Jazz Band throughout the U.S. He attended Westminster College and built a successful business, Moore Research, which continues to this day.
Jim gave the Gateway City Big Band his best, and he was a major force in making the band what it is today. Jim passed away on April 29, 2018.
PHIL VONDER HAAR
Tenor Sax
Phil graduated from Southside Catholic High, now St. Mary's. He joined the army, attended the Army Band School and played in the 24th Division Band in occupied Japan. Feeling that his career was to be in music, he took courses at the Ludwig College of Music. The urge became great enough that he left school to "go on the road". One of his first jobs was with Nick Stuart, a 20’s era movie star who was labeled “The Man with the Band from Movieland”. He was with this group for about 18 months, during which time they broadcast, appeared on television and recorded. After leaving the band, he went to work in data processing and spent most of his working years in that profession.
Phil was a versatile musician. He played tenor saxophone and clarinet in GCBB (and flute with Nick Stuart), and has sung in and arranged music for vocal groups. He's enjoyed backing performers like Lena Horne at the Chase Hotel and Victor Borge and Liberace in Las Vegas; playing the Trianon Ballroom, the Blue Room, in Gaslight Square, on the streets of New Orleans; and the Casa Loma Ballroom close to 200 times!
One of Phil's fondest memories was easily refreshed - he had a tape of the band’s broadcast from the Chase Club on the day he asked his wife Jane to marry him. They married in October, 1949, and had four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, at last count.
As an entertainer, Phil was a natural. He loved to perform and "would go out of my tree" if he didn't have the opportunity to play. There'd been more bands than he could remember during his teens, places he wouldn't have gotten to, people and experiences he couldn't forget. He felt very lucky to have been on the road during the end of the big band era and eventually with the Gateway City Big Band.
Phil retired from the band in December, 2010 and passed away in March of 2011.
JERRY WOOD
Alto Sax
Jerry grew up in South St. Louis and graduated from Southwest High School. He played a “C” melody saxophone in grade school. "A ‘C’ melody saxophone (which is pretty rare today) was the only one available in grade school because you could read violin music", Jerry explained. After a couple of years, he switched to the Eb alto sax, which is his primary instrument today.
Jerry was just one member of a very musical family. His mother played piano and his father played guitar. He had uncles who played mandolin, guitar and cornet, and a grandfather who played violin and tuba. "They were country musicians in southeast Missouri, playing hoedowns, as they used to call them", added Jerry. "My mother had a great ear and could pick up the melody of any tune right away. She used to play for silent movies in East Prairie, Missouri as a young girl." At the age of thirteen Jerry started playing with dance bands around St. Louis. He learned to play other reed instruments as the need arose – clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, baritone (bari) sax and bass clarinet.
Over the years Jerry has performed with many local band leaders including Gary Dammer and Russ David, as well as playing engagements with the 5th Dimension, Tommy Dorsey Band, Buddy Morrow Band and Jan Garber Orchestra. He was a member of the 571st Air Force Band (Air National Guard) for 32 years, retiring in 1998 as the unit’s Superintendent. He played the lead alto book for 30 of those 32 years.
Jerry’s non-musical career included being a Tech Illustrator of maintenance manuals at McDonnell Douglas in 1958. He went to civilian flight school in 1966, planning to be a commercial airline pilot. When that didn’t work out he went to Mosby Publishing where he was Director of Manufacturing when he left after nearly thirty years. He still enjoys flying, especially with his son whom he taught to fly. He flies heath care missions for the needy for the Wings of Hope. Jerry and wife, Ann, also have a daughter and four grandchildren.
Jerry had heard about the Gateway City Big Band over the years but didn’t realize a current band member was working with him at Mosby in the mid-90s. Karen Sharp (trombone/vocals) and Jerry started swapping stories about their musical backgrounds and Karen passed his name on to the sax section leader at that time, Jim Knox. In 1996, Jerry started coming to rehearsals and substituting for full-time members, eventually joining the band full time when Will Dyer retired.
"I have enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s something that came along at the perfect time in my life. My concern was what playing opportunities I would have when I retired from the Guard Band."
In 1999 as Jim Knox was planning his retirement from Gateway, he asked Jerry to be the saxophone section leader. In July of 2002, Jerry became president of the band and in February of 2008, Jerry retired as President and became Treasurer and later Booker for the band.
Jerry would like to see the band work with younger musicians to give them the opportunity to hear and play with a "working" band, giving them a different dimension to their education. He believes the band may also want to explore some different types of literature and venues to expand the band’s experiences.
Read about the other band members
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