One Voice: Lounge crooner Tiffe reflects on 25 years in Vegas

Thursday, April 17, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

At first the voice on the phone is low and raspy, similar to that of a heavy smoker who has inhaled a couple of packs of cigarettes the night before.

But as the conversation moves along the scratchy tone fades and the familiar smooth, mellow tone of the pervasive crooner Jerry Tiffe emerges.

It's noon on a Monday, Tiffe's day to sleep in. He has just begun to stir and it takes a couple of minutes for the pipes to clear.

His trademark tuxedo is hanging in the closet.

"The band started wearing tuxedos when we came to Vegas in 1978," Tiffe said. "A lot of hotels really liked that. It dressed up the room, so we have always worn tuxes. Plus, it's really easy to choose your wardrobe. You never have to think about what you're going to wear. You just put it on and go to work and you look nice."

For 25 years the 54-year-old, bearded saloon singer has been a nattily dressed fixture in Las Vegas lounges. He has managed to work steadily when many other performers often have to scramble for gigs that are becoming increasingly scarce, thanks to canned music, DJs and karaoke.

"We were doing nine jobs a week, up 'til 9-11," Tiffe said.

Now he's down to six.

Wednesdays he's at Santa Fe Station from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Thursdays it's Boulder Station from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.; Fridays he performs at Arizona Charlie's West from 4 p.m. to about 8 p.m. and then at Tropicana from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m.; Saturdays from 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. he performs at Capozzoli's, and Sundays he's at Texas Station from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"After 9-11 I lost my Tuesday gig, Arizona Charlie's cut my Saturdays and I lost a Wednesday afternoon gig," Tiffe said. "I started to sweat, so I made a phone call to Ginny Murphy, entertainment director at the Tropicana."

Murphy is trying him out at the Celebration Lounge.

"Jerry has a huge following," said Murphy, who counts herself among his legion of fans. "We're evaluating where we're going with the lounge right now."

She said Tiffe doesn't want a full-time gig at the Tropicana.

"He doesn't want to go back to working a six-night lounge shift," she said. Murphy says she's amazed at the breadth of Tiffe's fan base.

"I went to one of his shows to assess who was in the crowd, and there was a wedding party," she said. "The ages of those in the audience ranged from early 20s to late 60s, and he was entertaining them all."

Murphy described Tiffe as a "bottle of wine that gets better with age."

He lives up to the Tropicana slogan.

"Our tag line is, 'The way Las Vegas was meant to be,' " Murphy said. "When Jerry takes the stage, it is the way it was meant to be. People are experiencing a lounge legend."

Baby rocker

The legend began in Cleveland.

"When I was a kid, I use to sing and rock myself to sleep at night," Tiffe recalled. "It scared off the bogeyman, or whatever. I was 5 years old and I would roll back and forth in bed, humming and singing. That's how I started.

"Then when I was 7, Mom bought me a record player and put it next to my bed. I listened to it constantly, singing along with Elvis and Johnny Mathis and all the other greats. I did three shows a night rocking myself to sleep."

From that grew his urge to perform.

"Even when I was a little kid, I just knew I wanted to be a singer," Tiffe said.

He was part of a vocal group in high school, performing at teen dances.

"We made five bucks apiece on Friday nights," Tiffe said.

When he was old enough to drive he bought a new Triumph TR-6 sports car.

"I needed to make some money to make my car payments," Tiffe said. "This organ player I knew had his own nightclub, and he said he would give me $50 a week to sing."

While still a teen in high school, Tiffe began singing three to four nights a week with a group put together by the club owner.

"That's really how I began, professionally," Tiffe said.

From the tiny club, he and the group got a gig at a local Ramada Inn and he received his first big paycheck -- $150.

"That $150 made me realize I could make money doing this in lounges," he said. "Until then I never thought about money."

Eventually he put his own band together.

"I wanted to do more material, hipper stuff," Tiffe said.

He performed at college dances, in supper clubs and nightclubs and other venues. His music ran the gamut, from rock 'n' roll to soul to standards to jazz.

Tiffe's talent is in doing a variety of music well, a talent that has kept him steadily employed most of his career.

Eventually, Vegas beckoned.

"We were traveling all around the East Coast," said Tiffe, who has been married to his wife, Dawn, for 33 years. "We started opening for acts like (comedians) Norm Crosby and Pat Cooper. I thought, 'This is is great, being in a showroom.' The only place for us to go was Las Vegas. So we packed everything in '78 and came out."

Vegas vibes

Tiffe's first job was at the Frontier, but he quickly inked a five-year contract to perform in the lounge at the Sands.

"They would work me into the showroom when somebody would get sick," Tiffe said.

He learned to play to the crowds. If high rollers wanted to hear Frank Sinatra songs, he did Sinatra songs. If they liked Louis Prima, he did Prima.

"Before we came to Vegas, we were a disco band," Tiffe said. "It was the '70s, and disco was big. But when we came out here, I started doing a lot more variety."

He has always kept up a grueling pace of entertaining.

"When the Sands sold we went to the Tropicana for 10 years," Tiffe said. "And in the interim I was at the MGM and the Desert Inn for a couple of years."

And he has appeared in a couple of movies along the way, including "Hollywood Trouble" (1989) and "Sword of Honor" (1994), which was produced by his brother, Bob.

But it's the music that gets his juices flowing every day.

One of his favorite gigs is late Saturday nights at Capozzoli's.

"That place is a hangout," he said. "That is old Las Vegas, right there. I need it for my soul. The people that come into Capozzoli's are just a ball, sitting around drinking -- and everybody's dancing. It feels like I'm in a real nightclub."

When Tiffe isn't singing for money, he sometimes sings for free.

"When I get an hour off, I go sing with somebody," he quipped.

He sits in with friends at places like Murphy's Pub, where he recently joined the jazz combo We Be 3 for a couple of numbers.

"I've always liked jazz," Tiffe said. "I would like to do more. I enjoy it. I listen to it. As I get older I would like to be in something like that jazz group, just sit there and concentrate on the music, the style."

Tiffe's friend, organist Ed McKeta, performs with We Be 3. McKeta also is a native of Cleveland. So is keyboardist Tom SanFilippo, who has been with Tiffe for 33 years.

"I've got great guys in my band," Tiffe said. "Personality wise, we get along great. The problem in a lot of bands is that there are a lot of headstrong guys, they get in arguments and they break up.

"There's a lot of talent in my group. We never have any problems. We have fun."

Tiffe's drummer is Dale Sweetland. Saxophonist Nick Tahoe, who recently joined the group for the Tropicana gig, is from Cleveland and performed with Tiffe when Tiffe was in the East.

Bill Owen plays guitar.

"He's one of the nicest guys in the world," Tiffe said.

Tiffe says he doesn't get around town much to hear other entertainers.

"I really don't go see anybody," he said. "I'm busy, and I'm just tired. I play golf or something."

Although Tiffe has had one of the most successful entertainment careers in Las Vegas, he says he doesn't feel he is hall-of-fame material.

"I never feel like I made it in Las Vegas, that I have obtained any recognition," he said. "It's not that I don't think I'm a good entertainer, I just don't think of those things. The people and the music, the crowd, that's all I'm concerned about."

Tiffe never gets bored with his career.

"I really love singing, that's the bottom line," he said. "Honest to God, I can't wait to get to work at night. Some nights are better than others, but every time I'm on my way to work, I'm excited."

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