Columnist Jerry Fink: Sax man Alvarado enjoys sweet smell of success

Friday, April 12, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at jerry@lasvegassun.com at (702) 259-4058.

Saxophonist, percussionist, keyboardist and vocalist Tommy Alvarado has performed with some of the best, among them Joe Cocker and Frankie Valli.

Now the versatile musician (equally at home with jazz, pop, rock 'n' roll and R&B) is ready to set his own course in the rough seas of the musical world.

"I was the perfect sideman," Alvarado said, "singing background, playing sax, playing percussion. 'What do you want me to do next, juggle with my feet? Sure, I can do that.' "

Alvarado's agent, Jet Loring, says she discovered him a couple of months ago at the Blue Note Las Vegas and fell in love with his style.

"He has a rocking, soulful sound of his own," Loring said. "He has an original voice and an original sound."

Alvarado hosts the Sunday-night jam session at the Blue Note, doing his own thing from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., then mixing it up with guest musicians.

"I was the house band here six nights a week for a whole year when it first opened. Never took a vacation. Then things started to change. Management started to change," he said. "We've rolled with the punches. I'm still here."

When the Blue Note opened in August 2000, it had a 500-seat showroom plus a smaller venue that included a 250-seat restaurant. When the jazz club failed to attract the number of customers owners hoped for, the showroom was leased out and the music moved into the dining room.

Besides the jam session, Alavarado sometimes can be heard at Mandalay Bay's Island Lounge. He will be there through the first two weeks in May.

And he has a new CD out, "Inner Soul."

Alvarado says he comes by his musicianship naturally.

"I had two uncles who played sax professionally," the native of Bakersfield, Calif., said. "My grandfather on my mother's side also was a sax player.

"Both my uncles had their own bands and both of them played at a family reunion when I was 8 or something. I was enthralled with the sound of the horn."

Alvarado recalled asking an uncle to see his saxophone.

"He opened up this old case, an alligator kind of bag with a hard shell," he said. "This musky smell, like it had been in the case too long, rose up and it wasn't too bad. For me it was the smell of music. It was magic dust that came out of the case and engulfed me."

His father gave him his first alto sax at age 9, and he's been blowing and going ever since.

When Alvarado was a 19-year-old college student he stumbled into his first semi- major gig.

"I went into this bar- restaurant for dinner and a guy was doing a single (act) onstage," Alvarado said. "After a couple of drinks I started singing along with him, and he asked me if I wanted a job, just sitting next to him singing harmony and beating on a conga drum."

He performed with the musician awhile and then, in 1974, he went on the road with The Coasters. The group needed a bass player.

"I said, 'You know what? I'm a bass player,' " Alvarado said. "But I'd never tried it before, so I went out and bought a bass guitar and taught myself to play it by listening to records made by The Coasters. I emulated what was on the recording. I didn't even know how to tune the thing."

After six months he joined the Olympics, famous for 1961's "Doin' the Hully Gully." Then, for a while, he performed with his own band at the Bombay Bar & Grill in Ventura, Calif.

"I was discouraged with the local players. They all thought they were hot," Alvarado said. "So I started hiring guys from L.A. They were paid $50, but they'd spend $10 in gas, and drink $15 after work and go home with what was left. They just loved to play. Some of those guys went on to perform with Guns N' Roses and Dwight Yoakam and other groups."

Alvarado performed with the band El Chicano for five years, and in the mid-'80s joined Valli and the Four Seasons.

"When I first started with Valli I was playing keyboard, sax, percussion, singing, doing dance steps, doing little skits, doing a little doo-wop thing," he said. "It was a cool show. I enjoyed it."

He last performed with Valli about five years ago at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, quitting the group to go on tour with Joe Cocker.

What's Cocker really like?

"Turn off the tape recorder, man," Alvarado laughed. "No, really, Joe's a wonderful, giving man. Very nice. He's just a sweetheart, beautiful to work for. He would get up every morning to walk -- he'd walk all over town. He's played every city at least 20 times so he knows all the places to walk and where to eat. He would take everybody out to eat every couple of weeks -- everybody: production people, sound guys, the band, the wardrobe girl. And you could order anything you wanted. These $200 bottles of wine would be going around. That was nice."

The Cocker tour lasted about three months, and Alvarado returned to Las Vegas, which has been his home since his last year with Valli.

"I moved to Vegas because of the airport. It's so convenient. I hate LAX," he said.

When his gig with Cocker ended, Alvarado said he decided it was time to make some changes. He put together a five-piece jazz band and performed at Bellagio's Fontana Room and the Allegro Lounge and at many other venues around town.

"I decided no more top 40 for me," Alvarado said. "I have to be at a place for me to do what I do."

Lounging around

Acerbic comedian Pat Cooper was the featured guest on Ira David Sternberg's weekly radio program, "Las Vegas Notebook" (noon to 1 p.m. Mondays on KDWN 720-AM), broadcast from the Bootlegger Bistro on Las Vegas Boulevard South. The more I listen to Pat the more I'm sure he's the illegitimate son of Don Rickles. "Nah," Cooper said. "Rickles would never say the things I say."

Speaking of the Bootlegger, Sonny King could barely speak last Friday night after celebrating his 75th birthday at three separate parties earlier in the week. He lost his voice saying "thank you" to his legion of friends. But the showbiz veteran still managed to belt out songs during the evening.

And speaking of showbiz veterans, on June 25 Larry Taylor will celebrate his 15th anniversary as DJ for ballroom dancing at the Gold Coast (1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays).

A young pharmaceutical salesman (legal pharmaceuticals) chucked his sample case and moved from Rhode Island to Las Vegas last month to pursue his dream of singing tribute songs to his idol Frank Sinatra. Brian Duprey was impressing the crowd at Cappozzoli's Italian Restaurant last week with his Sinatra-like presentation.

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