Dan Reed, Guitarist

Dan is one of the newest members of the Streetband.  It all started with a "need a guitar  player" leaflet posted in the Columbia, Missouri music store that he worked in as a "techie of all trades".  The contact was made, the proverbial shoe did fit so Dan got together with "The Kansas City Streetband" and the rest is history.  

Dan claims the southern United States as his birthplace.  Somewhere between Dallas, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana, he hit the ground running.  At the age of six, he started playing the guitar and some 35 plus years later, with numerous musical entities under his belt, ("The Jungle Heirs", "Bill Bailey & the Wild Bunch", "The Bearcats", and "The House of Cards"), Dan Reed is now a full fledged Streetband guitar slinger.  

Though he never quite recovered from a real live handshake with guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Dan has found his niche in the Midwest.  "The Kansas City Streetband" is fortunate to have found him, especially since he just released a new compact disc with his wife entitled "Blue Baby & The Hired Guns".  Guitar savvy and a room full of guitars makes Dan Reed a welcomed addition.

Omar Bilal, Bass Guitarist

Omar Bilal started playing the guitar at age 12 in St. Louis, Missouri.  One stolen guitar later he switched to the bass guitar.  In 1964 he moved to New York City and started his first band "The Soul Trio Plus One", playing jazz and R & B.  That band played at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York City, and among other various gigs, an annual garden party for Count Basie's wife. 

 At the age of 17 Omar moved back to St. Louis, Missouri and started the band "The Paramonts" with band mates, jazz recording-trombonist Joe Bowie and recording artist-guitarist Marvin Horne.  A stint of freelancing has had Omar playing with the legendary band leader-saxophonist Oliver Sain, saxophone duo extraordinaire "The Bosman Twins", and former "Ike Turner Revue" member Billy Gayles. 

Six years later, Omar left St. Louis and headed south to Atlanta, Georgia and to Tallahassee, Florida, doing free lance work with "The SOS Band" and the legendary trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.  In August of 1997, Omar Bilal moved to Columbia, Missouri and continued to free lance for the next few years.  The year 2002 brought Omar Bilal into contact with "Bummer the Drummer" and "The Kansas City Streetband".  A brief telephone conversation and a personal meeting later and we find the legendary Omar Bilal playing five string bass guitar with "The Kansas City Streetband". 

Matt Myler, Trombonist

Matt was born in the city they call the "gateway to the west" and they have "The St. Louis Arch" to prove it, St. Louis, Mo. He honed his chops playing jazz and blues on the Mississippi Riverfront. Before that though, Matt did undergraduate work at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. and it was during that period of time in 1992 that he met Glen "Bummer the Drummer" Ward. 

Matt had the horn playing and arranging skills, Bummer had The Kansas City Streetband, and a marriage was made in musical heaven. Matt set about arranging and rewriting many of the horn charts that the Streetband was playing. He gave the band that unique element; that "Matt Myler horn section sparkle". 

He left the band in 1997 and set out on his own for five years playing on the cruise line ships "Princess Lines", "Carnival Cruise Lines" and "Caribbean Cruise Lines". This extraordinary gig had Matt playing with the legendary oldies groups "The Platters", "The Coasters", and "The Diamonds" as well as variety entertainment luminaries, "The Osmond Family", "Ben Vereen", "Carol Lawrence", "Charo", comedienne "Yakov Smirnoff", and "Pery Ribeiro" to name but a few. This gig took Matt to Europe and to South America as well, playing with musicians from all over the world. In 2002 he came back to the states to Columbia, Mo. and to make a much longer story short, back to playing with and putting that "Matt Myler horn section sparkle into "Bummer the Drummer and The Kansas City Streetband".

Mike Fruin, Trumpet & Flugelhorn

As far as I am concerned there are two people of note that have come from Marceline, Mo. One is a fellow by the name of Walt Disney and the other is a master trumpet/flugelhorn player named Mike Fruin. 

Marceline is located about 65 miles northwest of Columbia, Mo., the current home base of "The Kansas City Streetband", but Mike didn't come to Columbia directly from Marceline. From 1963 to 1967 he played with "The United States Navy (22 piece) Show Big Band" in Washington D.C.. That band traveled throughout South America, Europe and The Orient, as well as the U.S., backing USO shows featuring such internationally known artists as the legendary Ray Charles, Anita Bryant, Joey Heatherton, Victor Borge, and The Kingston Trio.

 The band played "The 1964 New York City World's Fair" and also made television appearances on "The Mike Douglas Show", "The Merv Griffin Show" and "The Tonight Show". From 1967 to 1971 Mike played with The University of Missouri Marching Band "Marching Mizzou". Other notable musical kudos include gigs with "The St. Louis, Mo. Symphony Orchestra", "The Henry Mancini Orchestra" (at The Kansas City Starlight Theater Concert), and along the way, gigs backing legendary country artists Tex Ritter, Ernset Tubb and
Hank Williams Jr.

You might say that Mike Fruin took the long way home to be playing with "The Kansas City Streetband", but no doubt the band is "trumpetfully thankfullicious" to have Mike Fruin in our musical midst.