[Dixielandjazz] Bill Gunter, Sacramento Bee, memorial piece

[Norman Vickers]

Listmates:  at the suggestion of Bob Ringwald, I am posting the memory piece
about Bill which appeared in today’s ( Sat July 21, 2007)Sacramento Bee.

Nice picture but to get that need to go to www.sacbee.com/news

 

He will be missed.

Norman  Vickers, Pensacola

 

 

 

 

This story is taken from Sacbee <http://www.sacbee.com>  / News
<http://www.sacbee.com/101/index.html> .

  _____  


Bill Gunter taught English but loved performing jazz


By Robert D. Dávila - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, July 21, 2007


Bill Gunter, a retired teacher, lifelong musician and versatile entertainer
who sang, told jokes and played the washboard with bands from pizza parlors
to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, died Wednesday. He was 80.

The cause was heart failure, said his wife, Beverly Gunter.

Mr. Gunter enjoyed a steady career as a teacher, including 20 years at San
Juan High School. But his calling was making music, and he spent most of his
life singing, playing in bands and earning a reputation among fans as
"chairman of the washboard."

In 1959, he formed his first musical group, the Boondockers, a folk duo on
guitar and gutbucket at the Boon Dox Hotel in Walnut Grove. The pair added
comedy routines, expanded to a ragtime/Dixieland quartet and moved to Johnny
and Red's Pizza Pub on Florin Road and other local venues.

Mr. Gunter was a natural musician who could play any instrument he touched,
his family and colleagues said, including the piano, violin, guitar and
banjo. As band members came and went, he took up the washboard and rounded
out the Boondockers as a skiffle band that was popular with audiences for
its high-energy music, corny jokes and zany skits.

He also joined Cell Block Seven, a West Coast traditional jazz band, and
performed with both groups for many years at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee and
other music festivals.

"Bill was a master at comedy timing," Boondockers bandmate Bob Ringwald
said. "When he got on stage, he had a presence that the audience just
focused on. He was a born entertainer."

Mr. Gunter was active in the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society since 1982,
including terms as president and publicity director. Since 1983, he
organized a Jazz Jubilee washboard extravaganza that grew to more than 40
players on one stage thumping thimbled fingers on ribbed, galvanized sheet
metal. The rowdy jam session became a festival highlight, said Beverly
Gunter, who met her husband in the jazz society and married him in 1988.

"Bill loved to wear crazy hats and make up lyrics and do crazy stuff on
stage," his wife said. "He was always laughing and making sure everybody was
feeling good and having a good time. At the end, everybody would just stand
up and cheer."

William Milo Gunter was born in San Francisco. His father played violin in
the Oakland Symphony, and his mother was a pianist. He grew up in the Bay
Area and played stand-up bass in the Oakland Junior Symphony. He served in
the Navy and Air Force National Guard and earned a bachelor's degree from
California State University, Fresno.

He began performing music but turned down an offer to tour with the New
Christy Minstrels in favor of steady work as a teacher, Ringwald said. He
taught elementary school in Fresno and Sacramento before earning a
high-school teaching credential from UC Berkeley. He taught English at San
Juan High School until retiring in 1982.

"Bill was absolutely one of the sweetest, nicest guys you'd ever meet,"
Boondockers band member Jim Maihack said. "He was somebody who would help
anyone and always had a smile. He loved making music."

 

 
--End--

 

 

F. Norman Vickers

3720 McClellan Road

Pensacola, FL 32503-3412

850-432-9743 (home)

850-324-5022 (cell)

850-433-8382 ( Jazz Society of Pensacola)

nvickers1 at cox.net ( that's ONE not L)

www.jazzpensacola.com