Jazz drummer Montgomery dies

Friday, June 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A day after a pacemaker was installed in jazz drummer Tom Montgomery, he walked out of Desert Springs Hospital with his wife, Vicki.

"The doctor says I can play this Saturday," the hulking stick man for Marv Koral's All-Stars told his wife of 37 years after his release from the facility Tuesday.

"Oh no you won't, not after what you've been through," Vicki said, referring to Montgomery being helped from the stage at The Melrose Sunday night and rushed by ambulance to the hospital.

"Okay, I won't," he said, respecting his wife's wishes that he wait until he got stronger. But, he would never play again.

Thomas Edwin Montgomery, former music director for country-western star Roy Clark for 17 years and an accomplished jazz and symphony musician who played at numerous Las Vegas hotels and clubs for four decades, died Tuesday. He was 74.

When the Montgomerys got home shortly before 11 a.m., Tom felt dizzy and laid down in bed. He complained to Vicki that he was having trouble breathing.

"As I called 911, Tom jumped up to a sitting position, then fell back into bed and was gone -- it was that quick," Vicki said. "Knowing how much Tom loved playing drums, if he couldn't ever play again, he wouldn't have wanted to go on living."

There will be no services for the 30-year Las Vegas resident (1960-68 during his first stay and 1974 to present). However, a benefit concert to honor Montgomery is being arranged by Koral. The date is pending. Bunker Mortuary handled the arrangements.

As a musician, Montgomery was a purist. Although he was a master drummer, he despised drum solos, saying they had no music value and that "a drummer's job is to keep time."

World-renowned trombonist Carl Fontana remembered his friend of 43 years as a man who "had a good sense of humor and a great sense of time. And, even though he was ill Sunday, he played well -- didn't miss a beat."

Bill Moody, president of the Las Vegas Jazz Society, who replaced Montgomery on drums for the second set Sunday night, remembered him as "a very accomplished percussionist."

"Tom liked to play swing and bebop," Moody said. "He was a fixture on the Las Vegas jazz scene for so long."

Montgomery long performed with Koral's band -- it features the cream of Las Vegas jazz musicians, including Fontana and bass player Rudy Aikels -- at Paddy's Pub before it recently discontinued Saturday night jazz sessions.

Montgomery also was a versatile musician who could play the piano, trumpet, guitar, bass and flute. His cat-like growl at the end of some tunes was his trademark. He also had a fondness for smoking cigars and eating fatty foods.

The Illinois-born son of a retail store owner grew up in a musical home. Montgomery's mother was a singer who gave up her career to raise five children -- all boys. Montgomery's brother John played the viola, brother Bob the organ and brother Bill the piano. But only Tom made music his career.

He took up the drums in high school and, while still a teenager, hung around with musicians at clubs in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Montgomery performed for the Air Force ROTC Symphony. After leaving the service, his career took off and he performed with such orchestras as the Boston Pops and the Wichita Symphony.

While performing with Woody Herman's band at Johnny Molina's in St. Louis in the late 1950s, Montgomery met Vicki, a big jazz fan who would follow him from city to city.

"I spent about $1,000 traveling to see him," Vicki recalled. "I always said I'd marry a jazz musician or never marry at all. I just waited for one with real character."

Vicki spent Sunday working as a cashier at a local shoe store, where she listened to tapes featuring her husband and his jazz colleagues. Shortly after 5 p.m. that night, a heavily sweating Montgomery sat in his seat as the band left the stage after the first set.

Moody and Aikels assisted Montgomery from the stage and helped him lie down, while paramedics were called to the scene.

"I was just shocked when Marv told me Tom was dead," Moody said. "The last we had heard Sunday was that he would be held a couple of days for tests and was resting comfortably."

In addition to Vicki, Montgomery is survived by brothers John and Bob of Massachusetts and brother Bill of Michigan, and a nephew, John Montgomery of Las Vegas.