Pianist Marcus Dagan’s music reaches from one Eiffel Tower to another

Monday, July 10, 2000 | 9:31 a.m.

Who: Marcus Dagan.

When: 7 p.m. to midnight, Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Where: Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino.

Cost: Free.

Information: Call 946-7000.

The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino may be half the size of its big brother in Paris, France, but it has just as much style and grace.

Just ask Marcus Dagan, the only entertainer in the world who has played piano in restaurants at both distinctive landmarks.

"It is a very elegant atmosphere here," said Dagan, who played at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Paris (now the Jules Verne Restaurant) for a month in 1979 and has been playing at the one here since May 1. "But the two restaurants are not really alike. Both are very different (in design). The one in Paris is much larger.

"This is a brand new one and, to me, is the best."

Dagan was playing at the Paradise Bistro on Paradise Road earlier this year when he heard that the luxurious restaurant was looking for a piano player. The fact that he had played at the Eiffel Tower in Paris didn't carry much weight when he auditioned, but his ability to speak French did. Although his native tongue is English, he also sings in Spanish, Greek, Hebrew and Japanese.

The two Eiffel Tower restaurants are similar in that they attract international customers to a dining arena that sits part-way up the tower for a bird's-eye view of their respective cities.

And customers are fawned over by a cadre of tuxedo-clad attendants as they walk across plush carpeting and sit at quiet tables covered with fine linen. The difference, according to Dagan, is that diners in Las Vegas sometimes must be reminded to dress appropriately -- no shorts or sandals.

"In Paris, they know better," he said.

And even though the restaurant is larger in Paris, it is quieter. The crowds in America seem a bit more boisterous. "The French take dining out seriously. They have fun, but there is just a murmur," Dagan said.

The British-born singer-musician knows what he is talking about when he discusses dining atmosphere. Before pursuing a music career in earnest he spent a number of years designing and opening restaurants and nightclubs in Europe.

But Dagan is a man who not only sings from his heart, but follows his instincts as well. His parents, who were professional musicians, instilled in him a love for music.

"I came to a realization a long time ago that I have been very fortunate," he said. "I prefer to play music rather than anything. I have a hard time taking vacations. If I go on vacation (and) there is a piano, I end up playing. It drives my wife crazy."

The first few years of his career he spent in Europe, playing piano and singing from one end of the continent to the other and satisfying a wanderlust he says has been with him since childhood.

One of his first engagements was at an Israeli nightclub in Amsterdam called Jerusalem Gold. "The atmosphere there was very intense. They were there to listen to music."

Much of the second half of his career was spent in New York City. His first experience with Las Vegas was a three-month stay in 1980, when he played at the Dunes and Sahara hotel-casinos, among other locations.

He and his wife, Kasea, moved here in May 1999, and he has been performing in clubs and restaurants since then. One writer (Bill Lorraine of Tropic Keys Magazine in Key West, Fla.) called Dagan a "singer's singer."

Dagan said that he searches for new meaning in a song every time he sings it. "To me music is everything I can do to find, on a nightly basis, different phrasing in a song that I played the night before," he said. "I don't do it the same way every night."

Dagan becomes so engrossed in his music that he often loses track of time and forgets about taking breaks. "I don't think of 40 (minutes) on and 20 (minutes) off," he said. "I sing a song from the inside out. There is an emotional commitment to each song I sing. Every night is the sum total of everything I've learned. That's 25 years of doing this."

Dagan describes his tastes as eclectic. He sings and plays standards by such composers as Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, as well as songs by Neil Diamond. He is as comfortable in a smoke-filled saloon as he is in elegant restaurants or prestigious concert halls.

He is putting the finishing touches on a CD (produced by his wife) entitled "Old Friends," a collection of songs he has written and songs by others he admires. It is scheduled for release in September.

Dagan has noticed a number of other little ironies besides the Eiffel Tower connection.

He has played at clubs in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He also has played in the Club Monaco, on East Flamingo Road, and at the Monte Carlo hotel-casino. He has played in clubs in Bermuda and is looking to buy a home on Bermuda Road in the southeast area of town.

"Everything," Dagan said, "comes full-circle."