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Vegas Jazz


Rabshakeh

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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.

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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") ... 

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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 by Rooster_Ties
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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 by jlhoots
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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.

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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.

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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

 

 

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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. 

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