Friday, Nov. 29, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.
Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] at (702) 259-4058.
Pianist-vocalist Shelly Taylor is blessed with beauty, talent, personality -- and a job she loves.
The Denver native has had no trouble finding work since arriving in Las Vegas from San Francisco three years ago, which might make some local out-of-work musicians jealous.
Gigs are scarce for lounge musicians in the Entertainment Capital of the World, but Taylor has been running from one venue to another without pausing to catch her breath.
Taylor's first job was in the Orchid Lounge at Mandalay Bay.
"That was right when it opened," Taylor said. "I was there maybe two or three months. Then I was at the Resort at Summerlin for a while, then at Gatsby's at the MGM for eight months."
She has also performed at New York-New York and at the Baccarat Lounge at Bellagio, where she still fills in from time to time.
Taylor's main gig is at The Mirage's Baccarat Bar, where she has been performing five nights a week (Fridays through Tuesdays) for two years. She recently agreed to another year at the Baccarat, where her particular style of light jazz and pop is a crowd-pleaser.
"I love this place," Taylor said. "It's classy."
So is her music.
"I consider myself to be basically a jazz musician," she said. "But since coming to Vegas I'm a little more lounge-y. I have to do all the Frank Sinatra stuff -- I prefer not to do that, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do. I'd rather do more jazzy, more obscure kind of stuff. I could do that in San Francisco, but not here."
Taylor didn't start out to be a performer, even though she has been surrounded by music her entire life -- her mother has a PhD in music.
"I started playing the piano when I was 5," she said. "Everyone in the family had to play the piano. Everyone else hated it, but I loved it."
Taylor was a music major in college.
"I hated it, being in those stuffy little practice rooms," she said.
Taylor trained in classical music.
"I always loved to sing, but I knew I didn't have a classical voice," she said. "I didn't know what I was going to do."
After getting her degree Taylor married and accompanied her husband, Frank, around the country. He was a chef who eventually ended up at the historic Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, where Taylor decided on a whim to seek a career in music.
"I loved staying home with the kids," Taylor, who has a son and daughter, said. "But I wanted to do something to get my brain working again."
She heard about an audition at the St. Francis.
"I hadn't done music for six years," Taylor said. "I learned four songs and went to the audition."
She was hired on the spot to sing and perform in the Compass Rose Room, where she was a mainstay for over two years before moving on to the Mark Hopkins and the Ritz-Carlton and other venues.
Eventually she was hired to perform at the Westin Hotel in Tokyo. She was there for two months and then returned to San Francisco.
"I decided then that San Francisco was too expensive," Taylor said.
Las Vegas seemed to be a better alternative.
"It was cheaper to live, and I could make more money," she said.
Her former husband also moved to town. He is the executive chef at Treasure Island, next door to The Mirage.
Since coming here, Taylor has released her debut record "Sugar," and plans are underway for her second record, due out in 2003.
Although Las Vegas lacks the sophistication of San Francisco, Taylor loves her new city.
"It took me a couple of years to figure out how the place works," she said. "Everybody knows everybody here, like in Mayberry. Las Vegas is Mayberry with a million people. I like it."
Lounging around
The cast of "Our Way," a Rat Pack tribute show, will be moving from its home at Tropicana's Celebration Lounge to the Westward Ho starting Jan. 15. Gary Anthony (as Frank Sinatra), Lambus Dean (Sammy Davis Jr.) and Bill Whitton (Dean Martin) will perform at 7 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays in the Westward Ho showroom as part of the venues production "Putting on the Ritz."
Tony Sacca's 17th annual "Merry Christmas Las Vegas" will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Stratosphere's Broadway Showroom. The event will be taped for local and national television audiences. Featured entertainers will include Charo, Clint Holmes, Marlene Ricci, ventriloquist Ronn Lucas, the Checkmates, the Edwards Twins, Sandy Hackett and many others. The show is open to the public. There is a suggested donation of $35, with the funds benefitting the Youth Foundation for the Performing Arts.
The Bootlegger Bistro has added the "Rock and Soul Revue" with Chuck St. Troy and the Saints and Sinners to its lineup of entertainment. The "Revue" starts at 11 p.m. on Tuesdays. Mondays are jazz nights with Gus Mancuso. On Friday and Saturday nights Sonny King and Blackie Hunt host "The Off the Cuff Show."
Catch Poppermost, an alternative-rock group, at the Thunderbird on Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Don't forget the Tourbaby.com concert tonight beginning at 7 at The Orleans. Twenty groups of musicians will be performing in Brendan's Irish Pub, Bourbon Street Lounge, Esplanade Room and Mardi Gras Ballroom. For $10, fans can see one miniconcert or wander in-and-out of all four.
Las Vegas Lounge pianist/vocalist Marcus Dagan, on hiatus in the Bahamas, reports that he will be appearing at the Aqua lounge in Michael Douglas' Ariel Sands hotel in Bermuda Dec. 23 through New Year's Eve and will provide the entertainment for Douglas' mother's wedding on Dec. 28.
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