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PHIL VONDER HAAR (tenor sax) — After first learning about the band by finding one of its records at a garage sale, Phil Vonder Haar started subbing and knew he wanted to be a regular member.  When long-time band saxophonist Jim Knox retired in 2000, Phil filled his position.

 

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.

Click on a name below to read about other retired band members.

PHIL BALBI
(trumpet)

HERB BOOTH
(trumpet)

BOB BUDDEMEYER
(trumpet)

VICTOR HERBERT
(baritone sax)

JIM KNOX
(alto/tenor sax)

JIM MOORE
(alto sax)

PHIL VONDER HAAR
(tenor sax)


Gateway City Big Band

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