Vince was born into a musical family. His dad (Vince Senior) had a 45-piece concert and marching band
and his brother (Freddie) was a drummer also. From the time he could carry a drum he would play and march with his dad’s band. When he was about 13 he would sub when a drummer was sick with the big dance bands like the Bob Vern Orchestra, Tony Bradley Orchestra and the Paul Moorhead Dance Band.
When he was about 15 he would get jobs in the local honkytonks like the High Low Bar and the Silver Tap bars that played country western music. About the same time frame he also played drums on a Carl Cherry record with Ronnie Tuccitto on bass. When he started High School (Central 1957 & Tech 1958) he was put directly into the Senior Band because he could read music.
By the time he was 16 he was playing ROCK and ROLL at The Cave Under The Hill, which later became The Peppermint Cave. When he was 17 he formed his own band consisting of LaMar
Mc Daniel's (guitar) Jerry Sammons (bass) Herbie Rich (organ, sax) and Vince on the drums. This was the start of Vince and The Premiers. They were the first and only integrated rock and roll band in Omaha. To them it was the love of the music, the sound and the beat that was important not the color of your skin.
They played regularly at Buff’s Lounge at 9th Pacific. This group lasted for a year, then Bobby Jones was added on bass and Stemzy (Harold Hunter) was added on alto sax. Mickey Sparano (Mickey’s) opened three night clubs in Omaha and the Premiers were used as the house band at each location.
It was one big party playing at your gig Monday thru Saturday and then on Sunday’s it was jam session day. If you wanted to play jazz everyone would go to Alan’s Show Case. From there they would go across the street to the Off Beat Lounge, which was the Rock & Roll hot spot.
For whatever reason the musicians seemed to jump from band to band. At one point there was Vince on drums, Stemzy on alto, Henry Redd on tenor, Jerry Bennett on guitar and Hoshal Wright on bass. The band was transformed again with Vince, Stemzy, LaMar, Joe Monastero on tenor and Dave Ecker on bass. They started doing a little traveling and they ended up at Rosemary’s in Kansas City. It was a big place that held close to 300 people and the big name stars would play there on Wednesday nights as they traveled from coast to coast. A few of the stars they backed up were The Impressions, The Drifters, The Coasters, Gene Chandler and Chuck Berry. One of the first things the guys did was hook up with other musicians so they could go to 18th Vine, the inspiration for the song Kansas City.
Vince toured around for a while before coming back to Omaha. He got married in 1966 and played for a couple of more years before he settled down to raise a family. Till this day whenever he puts on his CD’s and you can call it 50’s music or Doo Wop, or whatever he still gets goose bumps because he was part of an era. This era had the best music and musicians in the world. Fats Domino, Ray Charles, BB King, Bobby Blue Bland, James Brown and so many more you just can’t mention them all.
