Columnist Jerry Fink: Swede sounds emanate from Smallest Jazz Band

Friday, April 27, 2001 | 8:44 a.m.

Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.

The World's Smallest Jazz Band performs every Sunday on one of the world's smallest stages at Swede's Corner, one of the city's smaller saloons.

Swede's is a nondescript club on East Charleston Boulevard, where nondescript people drift in and out to shoot pool or throw darts and have a cool drink. It is attached to the rear of the Blue Angel, a motel that fronts on Fremont Street.

The bar isn't on a corner.

"I named it Swede's because of my heritage," said Gary Westin, who bought the place two years ago, "and in my mind, it includes the whole corner."

Before Swede's, he owned the Bank Club, which was just around the corner.

Westin likes the feel of the hardscrabble neighborhood and the club that holds 50 or 60 people.

"To me, this is old Las Vegas," he said.

Old Las Vegas clubs had live music, and so when Westin ran into the members of the World's Smallest Jazz Band last year he invited them to perform on Sundays. They are there from 2-5 p.m.

The band consists of George "Moose" Mosse on tenor sax and Ronnie Di Fillips on piano.

"We call ourselves the World's Smallest Jazz Band because if we were any smaller we'd be a one-man band," Mosse said.

Between them, the veteran Las Vegas performers have almost 100 years of musical experience.

Mosse, 71, began playing in high school. He joined the Army in 1946 and played in the Special Services for five years. After his discharge he studied music at Southern Methodist University and North Texas State University.

"Originally I had planned to go to Los Angeles after graduation, but I stayed in Dallas for 15 years," Mosse said. "I worked everywhere there was to work."

One of those places was a supper club owned by Jack Ruby, who later would shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on national television after Oswald was arrested for assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

"Jack always used live music in his clubs," Mosse said.

Mosse moved to Las Vegas in 1965, when it was ripe for musicians.

"It was a great town, busy as could be," he recalled. "There was more work than we could provide musicians for."

Di Fillips, 70, studied classical piano when growing up in Denver. He dropped out of school at age 12, then dropped out of classical music when he heard boogie-woogie. After playing professionally for a few months, he returned to high school.

"After I finished school, I was more or less on the road till I got to Vegas," he said.

Di Fillips arrived here permanently in 1957 and performed at almost every major venue in town.

"Four bands a day were playing in every hotel," he said.

One recent Sunday afternoon at Swede's the band launched into its first set with a rendition of "Mack the Knife." When the music began there were four or five locals in the bar, but it quickly filled up with fans who squeeze into the room every Sunday.

While the band played, a mandolin player limbered his fingers and tuned the strings.

The last hour of the day is for jamming. Mosse and Di Fillips don't know who will show up on any given Sunday -- sometimes professionals slumming it; sometimes retired musicians; sometimes amateurs.

One person who shows up regularly to sing with the band is 72-year-old Marty Weinstein, who says he discovered late in life that he has a singing voice good enough that he might have made a living performing professionally.

"What's frustrating," Weinstein said, "is that all those years I had talent I didn't know about."

He sang all the time when he was alone and knew he had a voice pleasing to himself, but he never had the nerve to test it in public until after he sold his bicycle shop in Los Angeles and moved to Las Vegas.

People do things here they wouldn't dream of doing anywhere else. Weinstein's epiphany occurred four years ago at a karaoke bar at the Gold Coast. He belted out a Frank Sinatra song and people actually applauded.

He's been singing ever since -- Sundays at Swede's, Thursday's at the Kitchen Cafe on West Flamingo Road and karaoke bars almost any night.

Weinstein sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a softball tournament and sometimes sings at centers for senior citizens.

"One professional musician who heard me sing said I was born with an instrument and I didn't use it," Weinstein said.

Even though he regrets having missed his chance to be a contender onstage, he is grateful to be able to grab a piece of the spotlight on a tiny corner of Las Vegas.