Local musician remembers late Tower of Power founding member

(Originally published in the 1/26/16 edition)

   Mic Gillette, a founding member of the legendary Oakland-based funk band Tower of Power, died of a heart attack Jan. 17. He was 64 years old.

   In recent years, Gillette was a member of the Mic Gillette Band. The group featured his daughter Megan McCarthy on vocals and a variety of Benicia residents, including keyboardist and trumpeter Ryan Habegger, guitarist Jason Stewart and saxophonist Andres Soto.

   “I met Mic about five years ago,” Soto said. “My friend started taking trombone lessons from Mic, and we all played together at my friend’s wife’s birthday party.”

   A year ago, Soto learned that the Mic Gillette Band was looking for a new saxophone player, so he sat in on a few songs the group performed at Armando’s in Martinez and was asked to join the band in May. 

   “When I first joined, he put his arm around me and said ‘Welcome to the family,’” Soto said. “He treated the band as an extension of his family.” 

   Soto was thrilled to be working in a band with Gillette.

   “Growing up in Richmond, we idolized Tower of Power,” he said.

   Tower of Power formed in 1968 as The Motowns and quickly gained a reputation in the Bay Area after playing in clubs in Oakland and Berkeley. Within a few years, the newly christened Tower of Power went on to play large venues such as The Fillmore and scored six top 40 R&B singles in the process. Gillette was the lead trumpeter during the band’s peak period, and his trumpet lines on hits such as “What is Hip?,” “So Very Hard to Go” and “You’re Still a Young Man” are instantly recognizable to listeners. 

   “One of my fondest memories was standing next to him playing the introduction to ‘You’re Still a Young Man’ and hearing that amazing trumpet,” Soto said. 

   Soto enjoyed playing Tower of Power songs with one of its original members, and he also enjoyed being able to collaborate on original music with Mic.

   “One of the big thrills for me was playing with him and hearing our sound blend into a singular horn section whether it was on trombone or trumpet or tenor saxophone,” he said. 

   One of the things Soto said stood out about Gillette was his sense of accuracy in playing.

   “Mic was a very unique musician in that he could play trumpet and trombone with equal precision,” Soto said. “In particular, his ability to play high notes on trumpet as the lead trumpeter and also play trombone at the bottom end of the horn and the top end of the horn with equal precision was very unique.”

   Gillette was also a member of the Bay Area bands Cold Blood and Sons of Champlin and played trumpet with Blood, Sweat & Tears in the early ‘80s. Gillette also worked as a session musician, having played with legendary acts like The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Santana, Rod Stewart, the Doobie Brothers and numerous others. In 2008, he provided the horn arrangements for a few songs on Sheryl Crow’s holiday album “Home for Christmas.” Gillette would perform songs from many of his associated acts and would provide stories abut working with them at Mic Gilette Band concerts.

   “We did The Rolling Stones’ version of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ where he had done all the horn arrangements,” Soto said. 

   Gillette left Tower of Power in 1984 to raise his daughter. He rejoined the band from 2009 to 2011 but found a new calling with the Mic Gillette Band. As lead vocalist, McCarthy would bring her sons Maverick and Wyatt to shows, and Gillette’s wife Julia booked a lot of the band’s shows and wrote them checks.

   “It was a family operation,” Soto said. “At the core of his values, he was a family man.”

   Additionally Gillette founded the Music in the Schools program to promote the importance of music education, and he performed the national anthem on trumpet before a San Francisco Giants game in 2014.

   “He could do it all, and he did it all,” Soto said.

   A private memorial will be held up in Oregon in December. Additionally, McCarthy is looking to put together a musical memorial on May 7, which would have been Gillette’s 65th birthday.

   

Mic Gillette, holding grandson Maverick McCarthy, performs the Tower of Power classic "So Very Hard to Go" at the San Luis Obispo Jazz Festival in 2014.

Photo courtesy of Megan McCarthy

   

  

Benicia centenarian and former riveter dies

(Originally published in the 12/27/15 edition)

   Benicia resident and World War II riveter Dorothy Wivel passed away from pneumonia Wednesday, Dec. 16, at the age of 100. 

   Wivel was born Nov. 20, 1915 in the small town of Cedar Grove, Ark. In 1934, she married Ernie Wivel, and in 1942, she moved to California shortly after the U.S. started taking part in World War II. As her son-in-law Richard Reza described it, she became a bit of a “Rosie the Riveter,” working as a welder in shipyards in San Francisco, Richmond and even at Mare Island.  Her husband served as supervisor.

   “She used to tell us stories about things that happened to her when she was working on ships,” Reza said. “She’d talk about going down into the bilges or having to go to the top of masts on ships to replace the lights and replacing lightbulb holders on Liberty ships that had been shot out.”

   “She had done a lot of things that the other women didn’t want to or wouldn’t do, and she did them because her husband was the supervisor,” he added. “He called for Dorothy to do the things the other women didn’t want to do.”

   After the war ended, Wivel continued to work as a welder until 1955. In 1965, Ernie became ill, and Dorothy looked after him until he died in 1984. The Wivels had moved to Benicia in 1978, and after Ernie’s passing, Dorothy moved into the Benicia Senior Center in 1984. She lived there until 2008, when she was transferred to a senior care facility in Vallejo.

  Even in her later years, Wivel loved the outdoors and traveling to places like Germany and across the country for family reunions in Ohio and Arkansas. Additionally, she shared her husband’s love of hunting, camping and fishing. One of her proudest moments came when she caught a 6-foot-plus sturgeon all by herself while fishing in Rodeo in the ‘50s.

   Wivel also loved her family and would come to visit her grandchildren at their football, baseball and basketball matches.

   “She used to just walk from the senior building to the little league field to watch them play,” Reza said.

   Wivel was also loved for her generosity and perseverance. 

   “She was generous to everyone,” Reza said. “She wasn’t financially set, but that didn’t stop her from doing the things she wanted to do. She was a wonderful lady.”

   A memorial is planned for early 2016, but a date has not yet been set. 

   

   

BUSD Board Member Rosie Switzer dies

(Originally published in the 12/1/15 edition)

   Rosie Switzer, a longtime Benicia educator and school board member, died Sunday afternoon. 

   Dubbed “a tireless champion for students” by Superintendent Charles Young in a statement, Switzer had been serving the Benicia Unified School District for 46 years. In 1969, she and her husband Alan moved to Benicia where they both had long careers as teachers. Alan taught math, physics and computer science at Benicia High School until his retirement in 2004, and Rosie became an elementary school teacher. She taught at Mills Elementary from 1969 to 1977, Robert Semple Elementary from 1978 to 1987 and Joe Henderson Elementary from 1987 until her retirement from teaching in 2004.

   Switzer remained involved with the district when she was elected to the school board in 2005. She was re-elected in 2009 and 2014, serving as president for much of her time on the board. 

   "When I started as the new superintendent, I met with the board members. Rosie said she wanted to be on the school board to give back to the district that had given her so much in her career," Young said.

   "Rosie really touched a lot of people's lives in positive ways," Young told The Herald. "It's endearing to see the work she did."

   The board will observe a moment of silence for Switzer at the Dec. 10 board meeting.