[1][2] Cebar recounts his musical journey beginning as an eleven-year-old back in the 1960s when he attended Milwaukee's Lakefront Festival of the Arts where he saw the Wild Magnolias from New Orleans as well as drummer Babatunde Olatunji and fell in love with the style and sound.
[3] Cebar graduated from Pius XI High School in Milwaukee and began performing in coffeehouses on the local folk scene in the mid-1970s.
[1] The group played many R&B, jazz, and bebop songs, by Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and others.
The band gradually expanded into a unique R&B/Worldbeat fusion in the late 80s with horn section (Juli Wood, Tony Jarvis, Greg Tardy, Paul Scher), keyboard & accordion (Robin Pluer), lead guitar/lap steel (Peter Roller, Rob Gjersoe) and continuing Milwaukeeans (Cebar guitar/vocal, Al Anderson/electric bass, Randy Baugher/drums).
Garrison Keillor commented to Cebar after the band's performance on his show, A Prairie Home Companion, "Mr. Reggie Bordeaux... You got a great percussion section there mister.
"[citation needed] Patrick Patterson was one of the longest acting members of Paul Cebar & The Milwaukeeans, playing electric bass & singing harmony.
Some alumni of the band are: saxophone: Tony Jarvis, Greg Tardy (briefly), Paul Scher guitar: Peter Roller (Yank Rachell), Rob Gjersoe (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, The Flatlanders), Terry Vittone bass guitar: Mike Kachou, Ethan Bender (briefly), Patrick Patterson percussion: Michael Walls, Romero Beverly The latest line-up includes the former R&B Cadet Bob Jennings (saxophone, keyboards), Mike Fredrickson (bass guitar), Reggie Bordeaux (drums) and McKinley "Mac" Perkins (percussion).