Biography
Bill Stegmeyer never reached broad renown, yet he proved a capable clarinetist who thrived in traditional settings while remaining in the background; he also showed skill as an arranger, though that side of his work stayed underappreciated. From 1934 to 1936 he studied at Transylvania College. He first gained arranging experience in 1937 with Austin Wylie and, the next year, played clarinet and alto in an early edition of Glenn Miller’s Orchestra. Notice for his clarinet arrived during his stint with Bob Crosby in 1939-40. In the 1940s he both performed and arranged for Billy Butterfield, Yank Lawson, Bobby Hackett, Will Bradley, and Billie Holiday, the last three collaborations falling between 1945 and 1947. Stegmeyer served as staff arranger at Detroit’s WXYZ radio station from 1948 to 1950. Steady work followed as an arranger for the television program “Hit Parade” during 1950-58 and, in the 1960s, as staff conductor for CBS, until cancer ended his life at age 51. He stayed active as a player, belonging to the Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart band from 1951 to 1954 and sitting in occasionally with Lawson, Haggart, and Butterfield in later years. Five titles recorded under his own name appeared on Signature in 1945, along with a pair of V-Discs, and he was heard on discs with most of the musicians already named as well as Jimmy McPartland, Will Bradley, and Ruby Braff.