Legendary jazz bassist Bob Magnusson, who cut his teeth in Buddy Rich’s big band before joining Sarah Vaughan’s combo, was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame on Saturday, September 27, 2025.
Magnusson joins 2024 inductee Jim Plank (drums) and 2023 inductee Mike Wofford (piano), the three of whom comprised the classic house band at Elario’s nightclub in La Jolla in the 1980s—where they backed a veritable Who’s Who of national touring jazz artists. (Wofford passed on Sept. 19, just over a week before Magnusson's induction.)
In his introductory remarks, Plank pointed out that Magnusson grew up playing classical French horn in San Diego before he picked up electric bass in his teens and joined a local R&B band, The Kingsmen, led by George Semper.
Magnusson exlained in an earlier interview that the older musicians in The Kingsmen turned him on to jazz, and he added double bass to his repertoire just so he could learn jazz. Soon after, due to his strong sight-reading skills, he got a gig in a pit orchestra in Las Vegas, and within a year of first playing upright bass he was in Rich’s band.
After being fired and rehired several times by the mercurial Rich over the course of a year, Magnusson quit to move back home to San Diego—but was soon recruited by Sarah Vaughan, and moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s to play for her.
He again returned to San Diego when a double bass position opened in the Symphony. But two years later (1975) Vaughan asked him to return to her band, and he and his wife moved their young family back to Los Angeles where he not only backed Vaughan, but Joe Farrell, Art Pepper and Victor Feldman as well.
In addition, he, Plank, guitarist Peter Sprague and pianist Bill Mays formed a working quartet they ended up calling Road Work Ahead after Magnusson’s 1981 album of the same name on which they all played. They would end up recording three more albums under that name. Magnusson also recorded one more album as leader, in addition to a classical album with his father, clarinetist Daniel Magnusson.
But in 1983, he once again returned to San Diego—which has remained his home base ever since.
Magnusson is retired from performing now—although he often loans his bass out to other players. (At a Mays gig in San Diego earlier this year, Magnusson excused himself at intermission to go pick his bass up from another engagement, joking that he’s now his bass’ booking agent.)
He still does some teaching, and gets to do something that working musicians rarely get to do: Go out and see live jazz.
Other members of the 2025 class of the San Diego Music Hall of Fame are professor, jazz producer and composer Kamau Kenyatta, who holds the jazz teaching position at the University of California, San Diego that the late Jimmy Cheatham once held. Local Latin percussionist Eulogio “The Soul Man” Fos was also inducted this year.
Other inductees were rockabilly pioneer Rosie Flores, 1970s San Diego punk icons The Dinettes, and alternative rock star John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Pitchfork, Hot Snakes). (Interestingly, Reis’ parents are longtime friends with Bob and Janet Magnusson, and the two couples sat by each other during the ceremony.)
The seventh-annual induction ceremony (there was no event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions) was held in the worship center at Vision: A Center for Spiritual Living.
Previous jazz artists inducted into the Hall, in addition to Magnusson, Plank and Wofford, include Sprague, the late Daniel Jackson, Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham, Charles McPherson, Bill Caballero and Sue Palmer. In addition, blues artists Tomcat Courtney, Robin Henkel and Candye Kane are all enshrined, as is guitarist Fred Benedetti, who plays jazz as well as classical and pop and holds the distinction of being the final master class student of the legendary Andrés Segovia.
Magnusson joins 2024 inductee Jim Plank (drums) and 2023 inductee Mike Wofford (piano), the three of whom comprised the classic house band at Elario’s nightclub in La Jolla in the 1980s—where they backed a veritable Who’s Who of national touring jazz artists. (Wofford passed on Sept. 19, just over a week before Magnusson's induction.)
In his introductory remarks, Plank pointed out that Magnusson grew up playing classical French horn in San Diego before he picked up electric bass in his teens and joined a local R&B band, The Kingsmen, led by George Semper.
Magnusson exlained in an earlier interview that the older musicians in The Kingsmen turned him on to jazz, and he added double bass to his repertoire just so he could learn jazz. Soon after, due to his strong sight-reading skills, he got a gig in a pit orchestra in Las Vegas, and within a year of first playing upright bass he was in Rich’s band.
After being fired and rehired several times by the mercurial Rich over the course of a year, Magnusson quit to move back home to San Diego—but was soon recruited by Sarah Vaughan, and moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s to play for her.
He again returned to San Diego when a double bass position opened in the Symphony. But two years later (1975) Vaughan asked him to return to her band, and he and his wife moved their young family back to Los Angeles where he not only backed Vaughan, but Joe Farrell, Art Pepper and Victor Feldman as well.
In addition, he, Plank, guitarist Peter Sprague and pianist Bill Mays formed a working quartet they ended up calling Road Work Ahead after Magnusson’s 1981 album of the same name on which they all played. They would end up recording three more albums under that name. Magnusson also recorded one more album as leader, in addition to a classical album with his father, clarinetist Daniel Magnusson.
But in 1983, he once again returned to San Diego—which has remained his home base ever since.
Magnusson is retired from performing now—although he often loans his bass out to other players. (At a Mays gig in San Diego earlier this year, Magnusson excused himself at intermission to go pick his bass up from another engagement, joking that he’s now his bass’ booking agent.)
He still does some teaching, and gets to do something that working musicians rarely get to do: Go out and see live jazz.
Other members of the 2025 class of the San Diego Music Hall of Fame are professor, jazz producer and composer Kamau Kenyatta, who holds the jazz teaching position at the University of California, San Diego that the late Jimmy Cheatham once held. Local Latin percussionist Eulogio “The Soul Man” Fos was also inducted this year.
Other inductees were rockabilly pioneer Rosie Flores, 1970s San Diego punk icons The Dinettes, and alternative rock star John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Pitchfork, Hot Snakes). (Interestingly, Reis’ parents are longtime friends with Bob and Janet Magnusson, and the two couples sat by each other during the ceremony.)
The seventh-annual induction ceremony (there was no event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions) was held in the worship center at Vision: A Center for Spiritual Living.
Previous jazz artists inducted into the Hall, in addition to Magnusson, Plank and Wofford, include Sprague, the late Daniel Jackson, Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham, Charles McPherson, Bill Caballero and Sue Palmer. In addition, blues artists Tomcat Courtney, Robin Henkel and Candye Kane are all enshrined, as is guitarist Fred Benedetti, who plays jazz as well as classical and pop and holds the distinction of being the final master class student of the legendary Andrés Segovia.
