What About Bob?
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Bob‘s training included four great trombone teachers, Don Kimble, Jeff Reynolds, Robert Simmergren and Roy Main; they made all the difference. (Playing duets with Phil Teele didn't hurt, either! Nor did working with some of the finest brass players in the world for four and a half decades.)
Two High School Band Directors, Duane Keith and Earl Treichel, were hugely important influences. High School Choir Director, Gerry Schroeder, is also a fine jazz pianist Bob worked with for decades after High School. The interviews on this page may (or may not) be of interest. Bob's professional career began in 1972 at the age of twenty with the Disneyland Band where he stayed three years. It was a de facto apprenticeship, working day in and day out with 15 experienced professional musicians. It was sort of like being on the road – minus the bus! Thereafter he stayed busy performing hither and yon in the greater Los Angeles area, including 30 years with Pacific Symphony, 24 years as a founding member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, 10 years with Long Beach Symphony, 22 seasons with Opera Pacific, 12 years in the Composers Brass Quintet, and of course, several decades in Hoyt's Garage on Tuesday nights. He has played bass trombone (and other low brasses), on a freelance basis, at one time or another, for pretty much every dog and pony show to come through Southern California for 45 years; including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, hundreds of motion picture and television scores, and considerable time in various and sundry theater, opera, and ballet pits. He has been a member of the Bill Watrous Refuge West Band, the Jack Sheldon Orchestra, the Jimmy Cleveland Orchestra, The Orange County Rhythm Machine (for those who may remember), and did two, all too short, tours with the west coast iteration of the Toshiko Akioshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band filling in for Phil Teele. He is presently retired after 45 years of low brass performance and 11 years as President of Local 7, American Federation of Musicians. He has taught trombone at California State University, Fullerton for more than three decades; where he co-founded (with Jeannie Little and Alex Iles) Trombone Day So Cal in 2004 – now at Mount San Antonio College (many thanks to Karen Marston for keeping it alive). He is also on the faculty at California State University, Los Angeles. Bob is a Greenhoe Artist and plays a couple Bob Sanders Signature Giddings Mouthpieces. |
Bob’s discography can be found at Discogs. These are mostly motion picture soundtracks, some other LPs and CDs, and a few amusing cases of mistaken identity.
Bob began playing for motion picture scores in 1980. He played his last score in 2012. A list of those scores can be found here. Television shows here. A few pix. |