Columnist Jerry Fink: Martin a skip away from landing showroom gig

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 9:06 a.m.

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

Fifteen years ago Grammy Award-winner Skip Martin was looking for a warm climate after a relationship went cold.

The vocalist and trumpeter for Kool & the Gang, United We Funk and Dazz Band landed in Las Vegas. It has been his home ever since.

Martin will perform for free tonight from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. in the Stardust's Wayne Newton Theater, where he will give fans a sampling of the first solo album of his distinguished musical career -- "From the Heart."

"I've recorded 24 albums," said the 45-year-old smooth jazzman, "but this is the first I've done on my own after more than 25 years in the music business."

The CD is available at Tower Records, Sight and Sound, Odyssey and can also be purchased at skipmartinmusic.com.

Now that he has his first CD out, Martin says he is trying to get a showroom.

"Like what Clint Holmes does," he said. "It would be ideal, to have the world come to me."

Holmes has been described as the successor to Sammy Davis Jr.

"One of my secret idols was Sammy Davis Jr.," Martin said. "He was one of my heroes that put the stamp on my brain as a child to perform. I want to be like him."

Martin was with the Dazz Band in 1982 when the group won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for the song "Let it Whip," which hit No. 5 on the charts and became an international favorite.

He still performs with the group, when he isn't with Kool & The Gang (which he joined in 1988) or with United We Funk, a band of lead singers from several groups popular in the '80s (SOS, the Barkays, ConFunkShun and Gap Band, among others) that formed in 1999.

In the months ahead Martin will perform with Kool & The Gang in Chile, Puerto Rico and England. He will be with United We Funk in Japan, Korea and Australia.

When he isn't performing on a big stage in some distant part of the world, or doing volunteer work with the library or school district, Martin can be found in a small spotlight with a three-piece combo in the lounge at the Bootlegger Bistro.

Monday nights at 9 p.m., for almost three months, he has been a staple at the Bootlegger, which is owned by Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt.

Hunt invited Martin to do the Monday night gig after he joined her in a song during one of her "Off the Cuff" performances, hosted on Friday and Saturday nights by her husband, Blackie Hunt, and Sonny King.

"Afterwards she looked at me, grabbed my face with both hands and got real close to my face, like she was looking into my head to the back of my skull," Martin recalled. "She is like, 'You are going to be a star,' and she gave me the lounge on Monday nights to play and to hone my group."

Not that Martin needs much honing -- the native of Sacramento has been playing trumpet professionally since age 15. He has made 13 albums with the Dazz Band and six with Kool & The Gang. He is a lyricist, songwriter, producer and music publisher.

Martin was lead vocalist and trumpet player with the Dazz Band when it formed in the late '70s. ("Dazz" was a hybrid of "danceable jazz"), and when it signed with Motown Records in 1980 and became one of the hottest acts of that decade.

"I ended up leaving the Dazz Band in 1988 for a solo career," Martin said. "But then J.T. Taylor (lead vocalist for Kool & The Gang) left Kool to do a movie. When he left, Kool held an audition and I started singing with them on April 3, 1988."

He was with Kool & The Gang for eight years.

"Then, they decided to bring J.T. Taylor back and so I left and went back to the Dazz Band," Martin said.

The reunion between Taylor and Kool & The Gang was short-lived, however.

"Awhile later, when they came to Vegas for a corporate party, Kool let me come and sit in with them," he said. "It was a nice gig. So the next thing I know, I get a call and they want me to come play with them. So now I'm with both bands, Kool and Dazz."

Three years ago, during the Millennium New Year's Eve Celebration on Fremont Street, Martin had the unusual opportunity of being onstage as lead singer with both groups.

His group, Dazz Band, opened for his group, Kool & The Gang.

Cool.

Lounging around

The April Spain Quintet will make its debut at the Bootlegger on Feb. 9. The jazz ensemble, made up of some of the finest musicians in town, will perform on Sundays from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. The group includes Spain (vocals and piano), pianist Dennis Mellen, bassist Chris Gordan, guitarist Marcel Longwell and drummer Dominic DeRosa.

The popular dance band Doo-Wopp.com is at the Fiesta's Cabo Lounge Saturdays at 7 p.m.

The Reflex, which performs hits from the '80s, has joined four bands that rotate performing duties at the Sahara's Casbar Lounge. The newest group's repertoire includes songs by Blondie, Madonna, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Cindi Lauper and Men at Work.

Among other bands are Area 51, Smooth, Forward Motion and Chyna.

American Pop performs from 4 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays at New York-New York's Big Apple Bar.

Michael Lee, "The Singer of Memories," is at Fitzgerald's First Floor Inn from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m., Thursdays through Mondays. com