Vern "Mojave" Schueller might lack the star power of Bob Dylan or other inductees to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, but then as a drummer he was accustomed to being the man in the back — keeping the time whether playing polka, swing, jazz, Latin or Dixieland.
Schueller, who died April 18 at age 95, will be remembered as a versatile, charismatic, stick-flipping drummer whose 72-year career made him well known throughout the state, and whose sense of rhythm made thousands of toes tap and dancers dance.
His 2003 induction into the state Music Hall of Fame in New Ulm was humbling, said Barbara Snyder, the oldest of his four children. "He didn't understand why people loved him so much, because he was just a drummer. But he was a major part of any band that he played with. He was a drummer [who] stood out without him wanting to stand out. He just had a smile that people loved."
Schueller grew up on a Minnesota farm, drawn to drumming by age 10 through music on the radio. His first drum was a hollow tree trunk over which he stretched a piece of leather.
Fellow musicians eventually dubbed him "Mojave," because of his many stories about Army basic training in the California desert.
A formative moment came around the time of his World War II service, when he took a bus to New York to see Count Basie play. He was turned away — told that no white people could purchase tickets — and stood by the door to listen until he was told to leave.
That moment of racial division was potent for a Minnesota farmboy, who developed a sense of love and understanding for other people without judgment — unless of course they didn't appreciate the importance of a drummer in a band.
"It only encouraged him more to become a musician," his oldest daughter recalled. "He said, 'That's how we communicate. That's how we can tell the world who we are.' "
