All jazzed up: Founder has high hopes for LV festival

Thursday, May 31, 2001 | 8:22 a.m.

Will this weekend's Las Vegas Jazz Festival launch a new era of music in Las Vegas, or are promoters just whistling Dixie?

The festival is scheduled to get under way at 3 p.m. Friday at the Fremont Street Experience, with 25 jazz bands performing on five indoor and five outdoor stages sponsored by various downtown venues.

"This is the first time for anything of this nature in Las Vegas," said Dan Shumny, vice president of marketing for the Golden Nugget and the man who devised the festival.

"We will look to see if it is popular. If it is successful we could expand it and end up doing festivals for other music styles."

"This is not modern jazz. It is the traditional form from the first 50 years of jazz, from 1895 to 1945. It's not improv," Shumny said.

The type of jazz that will be performed at the festival however, is "the kind of music the customer base for downtown Las Vegas likes. This kind of (traditional) jazz lends itself to the environment. It really reaches the demographics.

"The modern jazz buff tends to be more eclectic, more sophisticated (about jazz) and may not like to gamble and drink."

Much of the jazz played will be Dixieland, which is a concern to some local jazz buffs.

Patrick Gaffey, editor of Jazz Notes newsletter for the Las Vegas Jazz Society, is one who would like to see a broader spectrum of jazz at the festival.

"Music is good, jazz is good," Gaffey said. "But this looks more like a Dixieland festival."

Even though the genre of music at this weekend's event is not his preference, Gaffey said "I think it's a good thing to have the festival."

Patricia Anderson, president of the Jazz Society, says, "Anything we can do to bring more diversity into town is good."

Although the organization had nothing to do with putting the festival together, Anderson said several members of the society have volunteered to work in various capacities.

Anderson, too, noted that there were more Dixieland bands than any other.

"It's Dixieland as opposed to the straight ahead jazz," Anderson said. "But there is room for everything."

Shumny said the idea for the Las Vegas Jazz Festival came from the popular Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, which had its 28th annual gathering in Sacramento, Calif., last week.

More than 130 bands from all over the world performed at the Memorial Day weekend festival, playing everything from Western swing to Latin jazz.

Shumny, who has been with the Golden Nugget for three years, said he owned a restaurant in Sacramento in the early 1970s when the Jubilee began. He had a close-up view of its success and thought the idea might also work in Las Vegas.

The first jubilee in Sacramento 27 years ago earned a modest $32,000, Shumny said. This year it is expected to have brought in $2 million from ticket sales and vendors.

And the event usually pumps $20 million into the Sacramento economy.

Shumny said the Las Vegas Jazz Festival could have a similar impact.

"The environment of the downtown here lends itself to a similar festival format," Shumny said.

He said he convinced the organizers of the Jazz Jubilee to bring 25 bands from that event to Las Vegas.

"At first they thought we were trying to steal their festival but I convinced them it would be a way for them to grow it (through wider exposure)," Shumny said.

Now the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society is helping Las Vegas put on the event.

Shumny said the Las Vegas Jazz Festival is a carbon copy of the Sacramento event, only on a smaller scale.

"Bands play an hour, there is a half-hour break and a new band takes the stage," Shumny said. "There is not only music, but it's a whole festival atmosphere, with food and beverages, the usual distractions."

He said in addition to traditional jazz there will be a smattering of blues, gospel, Western swing, Latin jazz, swing and Cajun zydeco.

Individual stages are sponsored by different venues. "The Golden Nugget is sponsoring two stages, and the Fremont Street Experience is sponsoring two," Shumny said.

Venues sponsoring one stage each include Main Street Station, the Fremont, Four Queens, Fitzgeralds and Lady Luck. Raley's supermarket is sponsoring a jam stage.

Outdoor stages will be at First and Fremont streets, Third and Fremont streets, in the Main Street Station's south parking lot, at the Golden Nugget pool and on Fremont Street between the Las Vegas Club and the Golden Gate. The outside stages will be fenced off from the general flow of pedestrian traffic in the downtown area.

"People will hear the bands, but not be able to sit down and listen unless they pay to get in," Shumny said.

Indoor stages will be at the Lady Luck Pavilion, the Fremont's Gold Ballroom, the Four Queens' Pavilion, Fitzgerald's Vincenzo's Restaurant and the Golden Nugget Theatre Ballroom.

Among the Las Vegas musicians will be Stan Marks & his Sin City Suitz and Chuck Diamond & the Royal Dixie Jazz Band.

Bands from out of the area include the 10th Avenue Jazz Band from San Jose, Calif.; the Big Band Trio & Jumpin' Jazz Band from Victoria, British Columbia; Big Tiny Little's Show Band from Reno; the Boondockers from Sacramento; Chicago Six from San Diego; Dog With a Bone from Davis, Calif.; and Paco Gatsby from Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Dan Skea, former president of the Las Vegas Jazz Society, said he looked at the lineup of musicians and saw "several who were internationally known. They aren't huge names, but certainly respectable.

"It's a real nice, positive thing to have the city involved with at this level," he said. "It will expose a few more people to jazz."