Columnist Jerry Fink: Trumpeter, pianist Mills is still a prime-time networker

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

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

There wasn't much to do growing up in Watha, N.C., where most of the town's 195 residents depended on tobacco for their income.

"All I did, all day long, was play piano and trumpet -- eight or 10 hours a day," recalled Ned Mills, a multitalented musician who has been part of the Las Vegas entertainment scene for the past two years.

Today the 37-year-old native of the South still plays piano and trumpet all day long, but for grateful fans instead of tobacco plants.

Audiences marvel at his ability to play keyboards and trumpet -- often at the same time.

Mills is musical director and keyboardist at Tropicana's Celebration Lounge for Gary Anthony's "Our Way," a tribute show to Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. He also is musical director for a lot of individual musicians in town; he owns an arranging business (currently he is the main arranger for Bill Acosta) and is in demand at nightclubs, conventions, concerts, private parties and weddings.

When Mills has time, he jams at the Kitchen Cafe's lounge.

The Kitchen Cafe, at West Flamingo Road and South Decatur Boulevard, is popular with many local musicians, who show up to play for fun when they finish performing at their paying gigs.

"Most of my connections started out right here in the Kitchen," Mills said. "I'm very grateful to this place. Even though I have plenty of gigs now, I still come here and meet my friends."

Since arriving in Las Vegas, Mills has become a networker.

"I don't go into a grocery store without someone getting my business card," he said.

Mills' self-promotion has paid off. He has been showing up all over the map in recent months.

If he isn't performing somewhere in Vegas, he may be found in Los Angeles or Philadelphia or Albuquerque or any one of a dozen other cities around the country.

"I've been very lucky," Mills said.

But luck has little to do with it. Talent is what it's all about. Anyone can promote themselves, but the key is to be able to deliver, and Mills is a delivery man.

He can't remember ever not wanting to be a musician.

"I have never had another job," Mills said. "I don't know what a 9-to-5 job is like."

Mills, whose grandmother used to play piano at silent movies in the early 1900s, started taking piano lessons at age 7.

"I wasn't a good student," he said. "I always wanted to play by ear, to do my own thing. I was my piano teacher's worst student."

At the same time, he was learning to play the trumpet.

"My father played," Mills said. "He told me if I could learn to play 'God Save the Queen' he would give me a dollar. I learned it and have been playing trumpet ever since."

After high school Mills studied music at East Carolina University at Greenville, N.C., and then at North Texas State University, at Denton, Texas.

"I took off a year from school when I was 21 and played on cruise ships," Mills said. "I got to see the world -- Alaska, Japan, Australia. Even saw the Great Wall of China."

After a year at sea, he returned to school in Texas, got his degree and started cruising again. But working seven days a week took its toll.

"I started developing problems with my arms -- tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome," Mills said. "I had to quit playing. It took me two years to recover."

He went home and watched a lot of television -- depressed and wondering what he was going to do with his life.

While recovering, he developed a production show, "Ned Mills' Piano Follies," a glitzy, Las Vegas-like production that included tributes to Liberace, Jerry Lee Lewis and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

After he recovered from his ailments, Mills rented a concert hall and in 1994 "Follies" debuted in South Carolina.

"I knew from then on, that was what I wanted to do," he said.

Mills said the show had some success, but he didn't have the financial backing he needed to keep it going.

"I got sidetracked with gigs at clubs, weddings -- you know, what every musician does," he said.

Eventually, he ended up on cruise ships again -- this time in Hawaii. Two years ago, when he was a music director for one of the lines, he decided to take a shot at Las Vegas.

"I had always been intimidated by Vegas because it's so competitive," he said.

But one day three different people told him he performed like a Vegas entertainer -- one of them was his father.

"The word Vegas came up three times, and then I met a lady who had a townhouse in Vegas that she said she would rent to me," he said.

Who can deny fate?

So Mills came to Las Vegas and found the Kitchen Cafe.

"I didn't know one living soul here," he said. "My first job here, I sat for (lounge pianist) Howie Gold at a wedding reception. After that, I got a gig at the Paradise Bistro on Paradise Road. Then I joined Back Street, group."

Mills said in the last two years he has performed in all of the lounges in all of the major hotels in town -- but he doesn't want to be typecast as a lounge performer.

"My goal is to do my own show, maybe take it on tour, but in the meantime if I can help out other shows along the way, that's fine," Mills said.

Recently Mills was able to pay homage to his favorite showman, Liberace.

Thursday the Liberace Museum had a grand opening gala for its renovated facilities. Mills was one of a handful of pianists chosen to play one of Liberace's pianos.

"I'm always hustling, looking for the next job," Mills said. "I never want to leave the runway with empty seats. I have to keep busy."

Lounging around

The first Suzy Firth Memorial Scholarship benefit, held recently at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, raised more than $5,000. Firth died in August. She and her husband, Brian, started the comedy band The Dummkopfs almost 20 years ago.

Legendary saxophonist Sam Butera blew away fans of the "Dennis Bono Variety Hour" with his rendition of "Night Train." Butera, who performed with Louie Prima during the heyday of Las Vegas lounges, is 74 years old and still blowing strong. The "Bono" show is performed live Thursdays at Sunset Station's Club Madrid. It is taped for airing at 7 p.m. Fridays on KJUL 104.3-FM. On the bill with Butera was another legend (as far as I'm concerned) -- comedian and musician Peter Anthony. When Anthony stepped onstage, he took control of the room and ran amok for 10 minutes.

Things got hot at the Manhattan of Las Vegas last week -- an electrical fire caused the restaurant/lounge to close for a couple of days. Fortunately there was no major damage and the venue is open again.