Casino lounge piano player Sims dies in Florida at 65

Wednesday, July 14, 1999 | 10:58 a.m.

Bob Sims, a hulking piano player who packed Las Vegas Strip lounges for three decades, utilizing a great command of many musical styles and a wide-ranging repertoire to keep casino patrons spellbound, has died in Tampa, Fla. He was 65.

Sims, who as leader of the Bob Sims Trio performed at the Flamingo, Frontier, Sands, Caesars Palace and Tropicana lounges from the early 1960s through the 1980s, died June 20 of brain cancer and diabetes. His family disclosed his death this week.

The late legendary Las Vegas entertainment director Walter Kane in 1982 wrote of Sims: "I have been involved with many entertainers over the past 50 years, but I know of no one quite as excellent as Bob Sims at the keyboard."

Though probably remembered best for his unique jazz style, Sims was a versatile performer who would one minute play the nightclub standard "New York, New York" and the next minute break into a Rachmaninoff concerto.

It was not uncommon for a Bob Sims set to include such varying tunes as "MacArthur Park," "Feelings," and "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Sims, who stood 6 feet tall and weighed 230 pounds in his prime, displayed both great sensitivity and a powerful command of the instrument over which his chubby fingers would gracefully glide.

"He knew practically every song that was ever written so if you hung around long enough -- no matter what your taste -- you would eventually hear something you liked," said longtime Las Vegas Sun entertainment columnist Joe Delaney. "If you stayed more than five minutes, Bob would hook you."

Sims performed with such entertainment giants and Las Vegas favorites as Harry James, Sarah Vaughan, Fats Domino, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Della Reese, Xavier Cougat, the Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra Jr., the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Lionel Hampton.

For the cover of his late 1960s' album "Bob Sims Plays Las Vegas Style," the Smothers Brothers comedic duo wrote: "We don't see what's so great about Bob Sims. Anyone with four hands could play just like he does."

Born Dec. 16, 1933, in Seminole, Okla., Sims started taking piano lessons at age 5. Seven years later, he performed the Gershwin classic "Rhapsody in Blue" at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium before a crowd of 4,000.

Sims graduated from Mount St. Mary's High School in Oklahoma City in 1953 and over the next three years attended the University of Texas at Arlington and Oklahoma A&M (now known as Oklahoma State University) where he studied music and played football.

Sims served in the Marine Corps from 1956-57, and performed in its band. He put his first trio together in 1959, playing the wealthy oilmen's clubs of Texas and Oklahoma.

While performing at the Tent Club in Midland, Texas, Sims impressed then-Flamingo owner Morris Landsburgh, who was sitting in the audience.

Landsburgh signed Sims to a two-week contract in 1961. Sims wound up performing in the Flamingo's Driftwood Lounge for more than eight years. He later played the Frontier Hotel's Cabaret Room (1969-71) and the Sands Regency Lounge (1971-80).

Sims was a resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., at the time of his death.

Sims, who was buried in Seminole, Fla., is survived by his ex-wife, Pat Sims, a former Maitre 'D at the Top of the Dunes, who now is a resident of Chicago; two daughters, Mandalay Bay hotel-casino pit manager Judi Abbate and her husband, Michael, of Las Vegas, and Diane Rapp and her husband, William, of Schenectady, N.Y.; and four grandchildren.