Vegas Jazz

[Rabshakeh]

Las Vegas was presumably comparatively important to a jazz (or jazz adjacent pop) musician trying to get by during the lean years, equivalent to other drop-out-of-the-game contexts like the studios a few years earlier, or rock session musician work.

Nonetheless, it strikes me that very few musicians were able to pick up a jazz career around or after working in Las Vegas, and there were very few records that have emerged from their experience of playing in Las Vegas.

In the other contexts mentioned above, musicians collecting their paycheck seem to have fraternised and played together. There are occasional records and groups that emerged (Steps on the East Coast probably being the biggest one, but there were plenty of examples of LA musicians cutting records with studio colleagues). 

But Vegas seems to have given rise to very little. You'd think that different casino's orchestras might have cut the occasional record playing jazz charts to show their firepower, or that there'd have been after hours jam sessions by frustrated horn section players. But overall, it just seems like a dead zone. Despite the fact that there were a number of well drilled groups playing there at one time it is hard to name even a single player who was part of the scene (although I have read a few Wikipedia entries that mention players ending up there).

Interested in forum members' views.

[Niko]

i've been wondering about this, too,... part of the answer is certainly that there was almost no documentation of the little that there was... I was immediately reminded of Isoardi's interview with Clifford Solomon (here) which has some memories of Vegas, especially the passage starting with "In '58, I think, I went to Vegas with Tommy and Evelyn Roberts") ... 

[Teasing the Korean]

Did any semi-famous jazz players end up backing up folks like Frank, Tony, or Jack Jones?

[jlhoots]

Bobby Shew once told me that he was in Wayne Newton's band.

[Teasing the Korean]

37 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Bobby Shew once told me that he was in Wayne Newton's band.

These must have been sweet gigs, provided you didn't have any gambling or alcohol addictions.

[Dan Gould]

Didn't Randy Marsh once share that his Dad, Arno, ended up working in Vegas for a good number of years?

[Rooster_Ties]

I think the fairly extensive liners for this obscure 1971 date by a band from Las Vegas paint a picture of the general Las Vegas jazz and ‘jazz-adjacent’ scene — iirc.  I’ll have to look later and see what else they say that might be relevant here.

https://www.organissimo.org/forum/topic/81816-spirit-free-plays-starship-dandy-obscure-1971-lp-by-las-vegas-group

Edited July 27, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

These must have been sweet gigs, provided you didn't have any gambling or alcohol addictions.

He told me that Wayne would plant people in the audience so that he would get a standing ovation.

Edited July 27, 2023 by jlhoots

[Larry Kart]

Frank Strazzeri was Elvis' pianist of choice.

 

 

 

 

[BillF]

The only Las Vegas jazz story I can recall is that when the Ellington band played there every year Duke said that on occasions people would leave off gambling and come and listen to the band which he found particularly rewarding.

[JSngry]

James Moody did a stint in Vegas, as did Red Rodney.

Don Menza was on faculty at one of the colleges there.

And Louis Bellson's Thunderbird record on impulse! Used a band that he was leading in Vegas, iirc. 

[JSngry]

I also maybe recall Carl Fontana being in Vegas for a while, actually leading a working jazz group? 

[Rabshakeh]

I wish I could remember the names of the individuals who went to Vegas who led me to start this thread. I'd come across two quite recently.

[T.D.]

Liner notes to Dexter Gordon's True Blue said that Sam Noto played primarily in Vegas for a long time, and Noto's website says 1969-76.

Wardell Gray of course died mysteriously outside Las Vegas. I assumed he'd played there, but the only concrete thing I found (WIki) is that he had been hired by Benny Carter to play there, attended rehearsals, but missed the opening date and was found dead the next day.

[Rabshakeh]

On a slightly separate note, you would think that the big bands there would have tried to record. It would have been good publicity, if nothing else: Nestor Snodgrass and the Caesar's Palace Centurions!!!!!! The Biggest Band in Vegas Plays the Hits!!!!!! (RCA, 1958)

[cliffpeterson]

There are all the small group recordings, produced by Woofy Productions, made by musicians that lived in Las Vegas or made a living in Las Vegas, e.g., Arno Marsh, Carl Fontana, with their friends at Capozzoli's in Las Vegas:

 

https://www.discogs.com/label/1460539-Woofy-Productions-Inc

 

https://www.discogs.com/label/1030442-Capozzolis

 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

Am I misremembering, or did I read in Straight Life that Art Pepper played Vegas, maybe with Buddy Rich?

[JSngry]

Pepper did play with Buddy Rich and appeared on a PJ record. 

 

[Rabshakeh]

36 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Pepper did play with Buddy Rich and appeared on a PJ record. 

 

I guess there was a Caesar's Palace record after all, even if it wasn't quite the 'Vegas musicians' own scene' thing that I was getting at.

[JSngry]

If memory serves, Buddy formed his band in Vegas and broke them and the new book there.

Also, Harry James fronted Buddy the money to get that band started. He too was based in Vegas. I believe he made records with his Vegas bands, covering several decades. 

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Pepper did play with Buddy Rich and appeared on a PJ record. 

I have this.  Is this the LP where Buddy's daughter is forced at gunpoint to sing "The Beat Goes On?"

[BillF]

18 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I have this.  Is this the LP where Buddy's daughter is forced at gunpoint to sing "The Beat Goes On?"

No. It's this one:

[JSngry]

Yep. And I don't think she was forced into it. She actually made some 45s, one with Kim Foley producing! 

 

[JSngry]

 

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I wish I could remember the names of the individuals who went to Vegas who led me to start this thread. I'd come across two quite recently.

Jack Montrose played there for a good while.