CULTURE
Słill a Milwaukeean PAUL CEBAR REFLECTS ON 45 YEARS IN MUSIC
Photo courtesy of Paul Cebar. Photo by Kathleen Hill.
BY DAVID LUHRSSEN
Photo courtesy of Paul Cebar. Photo by Kathleen Hill.
A
lthough he is one of Milwaukee’s most recognized musicians, and one of the most recognizable for his retro-future style sense, Paul Cebar was seldom seen in public from March 2020 through August 2021. The pandemic lockdown, however, never silenced his voice, heard on his Wednesday show on WMSE in between spinning records by other artists. Despite leading the band that was formerly called The Milwaukeeans, Cebar doesn’t sound like he comes from these parts. Whether speaking or singing, his words are steeped in an easy warmth and good humor that suggest life along Lake Pontchartrain more than Lake Michigan.
The native Milwaukeean first appeared on small stages around town, sometimes playing solo, sometimes singing with Robyn Pluer and backed by saxophonist Rip Tenor. By the mid-‘80s he co-commanded (with John Sieger) a regionally popular touring and recording act, The R&B Cadets. When the Cadets disbanded in 1986, he continued as Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans, a band that traveled a circuit of music festivals each year from coast to coast. During the first decade of the new century, he changed the band’s name to Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound. “The studies that talked about Milwaukee as the most segregated city in the country played into it,” he said, adding that it was also simply time for a change. “By calling us The Milwaukeeans, I took the example of Duke Ellington’s band, The Washing-
tonians,” he explained. “It should have been cautionary to me that Ellington soon changed his band’s name to the Jungle Orchestra—and I failed to make the Jungle Orchestra move.” The Milwaukeeans were a racially integrated band as they toured the U.S. in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. The lineup has changed since then; Tomorrow Sound shrank to quartet-size with bassist Mike Fredrickson joining longtime saxophonist Bob Jennings and drummer Reggie Bordeaux alongside Cebar on guitar. Like the compact R&B combos of the 1940s that supplanted the swing orchestras of the 1930s, economics is a factor. “Part of me would love to have a conga player back and another horn player, but it’s been a strong consolidation,” Cebar says. “Tomorrow Sound relies on less of us to make the rhythm emphatic. Given the nature of club work and travel, the fourpiece made it possible to travel in one van instead of two.” Despite the changes, Tomorrow Sound continues along The Milwaukeeans’ path. In his early years Cebar emulated the uptempo fervor of ‘40s R&B but has long since evolved a distinctive sound that blends rock energy with Latin rhythms and classic ‘60s soul in songs that amplify his love of succinct, vivid language. The Tomorrow Sound name captures the idea that while historically rooted, the music is striding towards the future. Altogether, Cebar has released a dozen albums, several of them for niche labels with national recognition.
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