Dixon Then & Now: Phirehouse Philharmonics Closing Colorful Chapter of City History?

Sometimes Dixon’s history involves something which hasn’t changed drastically or disappeared.

One of those things is Dixon’s renowned Phirehouse Philharmonics Jazz Band, which performed with its usual vim and vigor at an American Legion Valentine’s fundraising dinner at the new Veteran’s Hall Friday night, Feb. 11. There was a dinner, dancing, and even a laudatory proclamation from the city. Read by Mayor Jack Batchelor, Jr., the document said this was to be a “farewell performance,” but we’ll see ….

After the evening had wound down, when the musicians were packing up, and most of the approximately 60 attendees had left, I sat down with band leader and trumpeter Ross Hanna, who kindly had the patience to lay out the group’s history since it was first conceived around 1960.

Hanna himself grew up in Martinez, where he was musically active in high school. After graduation, he moved on to Phoenix where he got a trumpet-playing job at an Ice Capades show. Then he attended Modesto Junior College and was part of a band there.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II he enlisted in the Coast Guard and served on an LST (landing craft) in the Pacific. He likes to tell the story of how he found a partly dismantled trumpet in a Honolulu store while serving, managed to get it working again, and found another shipmate who would play guitar with him.

After the war he attended the College of the Pacific and played in a band there. Eventually, he moved to Dixon where he married the former Gladys Stoeven (whom he met in college) and came to be involved in rebuilding and helping to run the Stoeven slaughterhouse for 31 years (the plant is now called Superior Farms).

But he always kept his musical side active and began to jam with local firemen. Although Hanna was used to playing from sheet music, these musicians played by ear. They (led by Hanna and Willie Marks) began playing for enjoyment at fundraisers. In 1960 they obtained the use of Dixon’s old fire truck, and entertained everyone at that year’s May Fair parade by riding it while playing. Because of the fire connection, Hanna’s wife suggested the name Phirehouse Philharmonics for the group. It stuck.

Over the years, some musicians left and new musicians joined (including many Dixon civic officials), and several male and female vocalists supplemented the instrumentalists. Instruments changed too, ranging from the zany (washtubs), to banjos and tubas, to the traditional. They continued to play for the love of it, or charged just enough to pay their transportation and hotel costs.

Soon, they were in demand beyond Dixon. They were invited to join Vacaville, Fairfield and Quincy’s annual parades in their colorful “Phiretruck.” Then, after being invited by Santa Barbara’s fire department, they played the Biltmore Hotel there. In 1966 they were invited to play at a new hotel on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, and 100 others from Dixon joined the entourage. For some time after that, they returned every two years.

According to the city’s proclamation, the band performed at “… Dixon District Chamber of Commerce dinner dances … the Bing Crosby Golf Tournament … the Association of Rural Fireman conventions, (and) jazz festivals.”

At this time, they were performing with 10 or 11 musicians. Their repertoire included (and still includes) classic jazz standards from the 1930s and ‘40s, along with some selections from musicals.

Going to Hawaii must’ve gotten their travelling juices flowing because they went international. In 1977 they played on a cruise ship going to Mexico, and again, there was a happy Dixon fan contingent along. Things really opened up when Neal Rotteveel, from Holland, began to work at the slaughterhouse and helped popularize soccer in Dixon. He arranged for a soccer team to play in Holland, so – why not? – the Phirehouse Philharmonics accompanied them. Ultimately, the band ended up playing in many European countries – becoming jazz ambassadors of a sort. Some of the members even performed at an appearance by the Pope in St. Peter’s Square.  

“Everything just happened,” said band leader Hanna.

In 1984, some older band members had passed on, and Hanna and his wife retired and moved to Hawaii. He considered formally disbanding the Philharmonics, but returned to live in Dixon in 1992 and continued playing informally with local musicians. It wasn’t long before his pastor at the Dixon Community Church asked him if he could reconstitute the Dixieland-style band and play at the church’s annual Mardi Gras fundraiser, and that became an annual performance through the turn of the century.

At the American Legion fundraiser Feb. 11, the Phirehouse Philharmonics band certainly had a grandfatherly look, with only one saxophone player of a young age. Band leader Hanna said that he hadn’t performed in public for over six years, and that one of their trumpet players recently had a stroke and wasn’t able to join them. The number of musicians was down to eight (with three vocalists). When asked if he would try to recruit new players to perpetuate the Philharmonics, he simply replied “No.”

At the Vet’s Hall dinner, Suzanne Haase had come with her daughter Jackie and fondly remembered hearing the Philharmonics perform at a dance club at the fairgrounds in the 1960s. “They play very upbeat music,” she said. “Some of them are self-taught.”

Syd Schroeder and his wife Diane, also at the dinner, also heard the Philharmonics in the ‘60s and travelled with them to Hawaii once. Syd knows most of the musicians.

It would be sad if the fun-loving Phirehouse Philharmonics bunch never played again in public. If that is the case, they leave behind many happy memories and the knowledge that they helped spread a uniquely American style of music world wide.