Columnist Joe Delaney: After 56 years, Treniers have stood test of time

Joe Delaney

Friday, March 16, 2001 | 9:05 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com

The first time I saw Claude and Cliff Trenier, I was just out of the service in 1946 and back in the record business ... A friend suggested catching the Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra, one of the top swing and performance bands, at Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre ... One of the Treniers was singing, holding an extended note, as he departed on stage right.

At the same moment, he apparently reappeared from stage left, still holding that note, then finished the song ... We joined the audience in asking, "How did he do that?" ... It is 56 years later and neither of us can remember whether Claude sang first or his late brother Cliff did.

Claude and Cliff had left the Lunceford band later in 1946 to form their own group with saxophonist Don Hill as leader and arranger, an association that continues today, 55 years later ... The Treniers and I became friends a few years later when they were performing in Wildwood, N.J., south of Atlantic City.

The Treniers made their Las Vegas debut in 1948 at a club called the Bar of Music, which folded in the middle of their engagement and forced them to take musical instruments and furniture in lieu of payment.

In the 1950s the Treniers were hot on records and were featured in several of disk jockey Alan Freed's films, making a major score in "Don't Knock the Rock," co-starring with Bill Haley and his Comets ... There were several successful tours with Johnny Ray in England in the late 1950s ... In 1996 the Treniers were the hit on another nostalgia tour in England.

During the ensuing years the Treniers have opened in main showrooms with Bill Cosby and the late Bobby Darin ... They have been the most enduring of the Las Vegas lounge acts, now in their 53rd year here ... Brother Cliff left us, a cancer victim, in 1983 ... Claude will be a very young 82 on July 14 ... Nephew Skip Trenier shares the chores with Claude.

With due respect to the memory of Al Jolson and Judy Garland, no one can get an audience going like Skip can, singing "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody."

Other nostalgia favorites include "Go, Go, Go," a Top-10 hit, "Drinking Wine, Spod-e-odee," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Saturday Night Fish Fry" and "Old Man Time," plus comedy songs "Get Out of the Car" and "Bald Head," a Delaney household favorite.

This weekend and next, treat yourself to the Treniers, living legends undiminished by time, at the Castaways ... Friday and Saturday night shows are at 8, 9:30 and 11 p.m. ... Take your teenagers along, give them a taste of the real thing ... The Treniers were a hot rock 'n' roll act long before Freed ever thought of the phrase.

Weekend wrap-up

Jazz notes: Tonight it's Pogo's; Saturday, Paisano's; Sunday, the World's Smallest Jazz Band at Swede's Corner; and Monday, Joe Lano Quintet at the Riviera ... Trumpeter Carl Saunders and conductor-pianist Vincent Falcone will be the soloists with a 20-member string ensemble, 2 p.m. Sunday (Charleston Heights Center); also at 2 p.m., it's the Walter Boenig Big Band Bash at CCSN's Horn Theatre.

Reminder: The St. Patrick's Day Parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, proceeding north on Fourth Street from Hoover to Ogden avenues ... The Sons and Daughters of Erin Irish Festival is at the Sahara hotel parking lot, starting at 10 a.m. ... Noel V. Ginnity and Dublin's Irish Cabaret performs at the Suncoast at 7 p.m. on Thursday, with special salutes to the Clancy Brothers, the late Frank Patterson and "Riverdance." ... Tickets are available at the Suncoast box office.

Have a safe and sane St. Patrick's Day ... See you next Thursday.