Columnist Jerry Fink: Lodico and orchestra still giving musical tutorials

Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.

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

They aren't exactly dinosaurs, but to kids brought up on the limited beats of today's rock 'n' roll Carl Lodico and his Big Band might seem prehistoric.

"Today's rock bands play three chords. That's all they play," lamented Lodico, who has been performing with jazz and dance bands for most of his 70-plus years. "It's very monotonous."

Amateur musician Richard Hague, the band's manager and unabashed super fan, says bands today seem to think bass and drums are melody instruments.

"That's where they go wrong," Hague said.

Lodico and his 16-piece orchestra can be heard in their full, rich sounds at the Italian American Club most Thursdays starting at 8 p.m., jazzing up such tunes as "My Funny Valentine" and performing classic numbers such as "Basin Street Blues."

"Most of these guys played on the Strip with a house band at one time or another," Lodico said. "Most are retired, but they still love to play, like I do."

The band includes a guitarist, a bass player, five saxophonists, four trombonists and four trumpeters.

Although the Italian American Club, 2333 E. Sahara Ave., is the band's main gig, they pick up other dates from time to time -- a concert in the park here, a private affair there. Individual members have different gigs, such as trumpeter Ed Sherry, who performs with the Kinda Dixie Jazz Band in the lounge at the Gold Coast.

"We go either route," Lodico said. "We're either a jazz band, or a dance band. But here at the Italian American Club, we play for listeners."

The room could use a few more listeners. One recent evening there were only 15 or 20 in the audience, the approximate size of the band itself.

But the musicians don't seem to mind. They are there because they enjoy playing their music. Listeners are a bonus.

Lodico's passion for music began when he was a teenager growing up in Chicago in the '20s and '30s. He performed in a high school band, took private lessons and briefly attended college before quitting to pursue the only career he ever considered.

"I got so involved with music," he said. "I loved it. It was in my heart."

But it wasn't in the heart of his father, an Italian immigrant.

"My dad was a barber," Lodico said. "He didn't want me to be a musician. He came from the old country. He thought I should go into business and make a lot of money. That's what immigrants would tell you."

Lodico's mother also immigrated from Italy, but she was more understanding of her son's desire.

"She told my dad not to worry, to let me do what I wanted to do," he said.

What he wanted to do was to go on the road with a big band.

"That was the big thing at that time, back in the late '30s, early '40s," Lodico said.

He played sax, flute and clarinet for a few local bands, and then began touring with big bands headed by such directors as Bob Crosby, Bobby Sherwood, Charlie Barnett and Paul Monroe.

"I'd get bored with a band after a year or two and join up with another," Lodico said. "What a marvelous era that was -- happy, happy times."

"All there was was radio and live music," Hague said.

In the late 1940s Lodico ended up in Los Angeles, performing with orchestras, making sound tracks for motion pictures and going out on gigs with different bands. After eight years, he returned to Chicago.

"I hated to go back, because I can't stand the climate," Lodico said. "But a depression set in in the movie industry. There wasn't a lot of work."

After gigs with the orchestra at the Chez Paree theater-restaurant and a band at a local movie theater, he decided to move West once again.

Lodico arrived in Las Vegas in 1955, when the lounge era was in full swing and entertainers in showrooms were backed by house orchestras.

His first job was at the Sahara, were he was in the orchestra that performed with Marlene Dietrich, Edgar Bergen and other celebrities of the era. When not with the orchestra, Lodico rubbed elbows with Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera -- who were putting the Casbar Lounge at the Sahara on the map.

Lodico wasn't impressed with some of the musicians in the house band.

"I was with a lot of good players all my life," he said. "I was disappointed in the musicianship at the Sahara."

After four years he joined the house band at the Flamingo.

"That was a good band," Lodico recalled. "But playing for the shows -- like 'Follies Bergere' -- was kind of boring."

When the bandleader at the Flamingo decided to go to the Riviera, Lodico went with him.

"I stayed there for five years," he said.

Then officials with the Riviera made him an offer he couldn't refuse -- to take over the band for the lounge entertainers.

"They decided to start bringing in big names to perform in the lounges," Lodico said. "They had Vic Damone 20 weeks a year."

Those days are long gone, a victim of corporate planning.

But the music is still around, if you search hard enough -- kept alive at places like the Italian American Club by old-timers who learned their craft in Las Vegas' stone age.

Lounging around

If the NFR has aroused your cowboy spirit, check out Danny Cooper and the Honky Tonk Heroes at The Orleans' Bourbon Street Cabaret tonight and Saturday, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Lonesome Larry and the Scooters blues band perform Saturdays at 10 p.m. at Michaels Pub, 4012 S. Rainbow Blvd.

Guitarist/vocalist Michael Soli hosts an acoustic open mike night Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at Frog Lodge, 1610 Nellis Blvd.,

"Gettin' Loose at the Moose," an open-mike night, is held at Moose McGillycuddy's (4755 W. Flamingo Rd.) Sundays, 8:30 p.m. to Midnight.

Gizmo's Blues Bar, 3975 Vegas Valley Blvd., features the Dam Band Fridays, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

If you find yourself in desperate need of a jazz fix on a Monday night, check out the Barbary Coast Lounge at 8 p.m. for "Monday Night Jazz on the Strip."com