Written by Jerry Fink Tuesday, 04 May 2010 23:09
GOLD COAST JAZZ COMING TO AN END
May 27 marks the end of a jazz era in Las Vegas.
Dan Ellis, leader of the Las Vegas Classic Jazz Band, says Boyd Gaming has pulled the plug on the long-running afternoon music performance.
“A lot of fans are going to be upset,” said Ellis, a keyboardist.
The roots of the six-piece band stretch back 34 years, making it the longest-running lounge act in Las Vegas.
Local casino legend Michael Gaughan hired a jazz band in 1973 to play at his Royal Inn (now the Greek Isles). It was called the Royal Dixie Jazz Band.
When Gaughan opened the Barbary Coast, the band (then headed by trombonist Jim Fitzgerald) followed him and performed at the venue for six years.
When he opened the Gold Coast in 1987 they followed him there and became the Sorta Dixie Jazz Band and eventually the Kinda Dixie Jazz Band.
In a shakeup in 2005, the Kinda Dixie Jazz Band dis-banded and then re-banded days later as Dan Ellis’ Las Vegas Classic Jazz Band. That was about the time Gaughan sold his Coast properties to Boyd Gaming.
That makes 23 years that the band, or a version of it, has played afternoon jazz at the Gold Coast.
Members include Ellis (leader, piano, vocals), Steve Johnson (frontman, sax, vocals), Tom Ehlan (trumpet, vocals), Nate Kimball (trombone, vocals), Kenny Seiffert (bass) and Paul Testa (drums).
Ellis says he isn’t sure why management decided to turn off the music.
“We were drawing pretty good crowds, under the circumstances,” he says. “And our Wednesday afternoon dance sessions were always packed.”
Ellis is looking for a way to keep the music alive.
He’s knocking on doors from one end of the valley to the other. He even approached Gaughan, who now owns the South Point.
“I talked to him already, but it’s not going to happen,” he says. “I would love to work for Michael Gaughan. He’s the greatest guy in the world, but all he has at the South Point is that one showroom, and it’s just not the right fit.”
Written by Jerry Fink Tuesday, 04 May 2010 22:58
She’s the most unlikely comedian on the stand-up circuit.
At 75, Grandma Lee has been disarming audiences with her often ribald comedy for a little more than 10 years.
My favorite line, the one that made her a finalist in 2009’s “America’s Got Talent – her college-student daughter said, “I ain’t a virgin anymore” and Grandma Lee deadpans, “After all that tuition money, you still say ‘ain’t’?”
Comedy guru Joe Sanfelippo, owner of Bonkerz Comedy Club chain, has taken the sad sack comedian under his guidance, becoming her manager. She has appeared several times at the Bonkerz at Palace Station and will have a month-long engagement there this month – through May 29 (the show is dark on Sundays). “We’re so excited to have Grandma Lee at Bonkerz for all of May,” said Sanfelippo. “It’s a great chance for her fans to see her in an intimate venue and hear the jokes she couldn’t do on television.” Grandma Lee was doing comedy long before “America’s Got Talent.” “I dreamed about it as kid, being a comedian,” says Grandma Lee, who was born in Oklahoma City.
But it was a dream that remained unfulfilled until late in life.
After graduating from Otterbein College in Ohio, she married a Marine, Ben Strong, and spent the next 20 years or so raising their four children and traveling the world.
She eventually settled in Jacksonville, Fla., where she worked as a telephone operator until she turned 63 and the company bought her out.
Grandma Lee began going to comedy clubs and her life-long interest in stand-up was rekindled.
After her husband died in 1995, she pursued the career in earnest.
“I went to an open mike night at a local comedy club, and that was it,” she says.
In 1997 she hit the road and her star has been rising ever since.
“I was successful almost immediately,” she says. “I just had to perfect my timing. I talked a little fast in the beginning.”
She writes her own material and follows her own path.
“My comedy is patterned after no one,” she says. “It’s based on truth, though exaggerated a little.”
Grandma Lee played Vegas before she became a household name thanks to television.
“I worked a lot of clubs – the Plaza, Lady Luck, Casino Royale,” she says.
She works most of the time.
“I get bored when I’m not working,” she says. “After a couple of days off, I’m ready to get back on stage.”
Now that she found her niche in life, she has no thoughts of slowing down.
“I will do this from now on,” she says.
Grandma Lee is continuously on the lookout for new opportunities.
The job offers aren’t coming fast enough to suit the indefatigable Grandma.
“I’m in kind of a holding pattern right now,” she says.
After Las Vegas, she heads to Virginia and Minnesota.
“Then I guess I’ll just sit back and wait,” she says.
But probably not for long.
This is one grandmother who eschews knitting, rocking chairs and canning.
She’d much rather be telling dirty jokes than cleaning house.
Who: Grandma Lee
Where: Bonkerz Comedy Club, Palace Station
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Tickets: $29.95 ($10 off for Nevada residents)