Columnist Jerry Fink: Flowers’ melody grows in a desert mirage

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 8:27 a.m.

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

According to reports, 6,000 new residents move to Las Vegas each month.

There's no way of knowing, of course, but I estimate half of them are musicians. They are drawn like moths to the neon flames that light the desert at night, lured by the beacon and trying their chances at finding fame and fortune.

For most, the beacon is a mirage.

"I know Grammy Award winners who can't get arrested in this town," said keyboardist Dennis Mellen, one of the better local musicians who has to support himself, his daughter and his musical career with odd jobs.

Vocalist Alan Broze has been knocking on Las Vegas entertainment doors for almost 15 years, looking for that big break. He's got a voice that probably is as good as many who are making a living singing full time -- but his full-time job is driving a cab.

One of the most recent arrivals with aspirations of finding their place in the local limelight is 40-year-old Melody Flowers.

Flowers has been making the rounds since October, sending her CD to entertainment directors, radio program directors and anyone else who might give her the opportunity she craves.

When she isn't knocking on doors she networks at one of several networking nightclubs, including Bootlegger Bistro (where she was invited to sing, sharing the lounge's stage with such old-timers as Sonny King).

"I always dreamed of opening for a headliner," said Flowers, who sang Wednesday at Capozzoli's open-mike night. "I always dreamed of walking onstage and doing a few numbers before a major star performed."

Being the star of a show is not so important to her. She would be content to sing in a classy restaurant or lounge.

Flowers is aggressive, but not pushy -- merely persistent. She knows what she wants and she goes after it.

While living in Los Angeles in 1997, she heard about an opening for a singer in The Bar, an exclusive watering hole in the exclusive Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.

She jumped on a plane, flew to Asia, auditioned, was hired and spent four months crooning for rich clientele who sipped cognac and smoked cigars while listening to the torch songs she sang.

Early in her career, before marriages and children interrupted her pursuit of a dream that fell dormant for awhile, Flowers sold vibrating pillows to make ends meet.

A native of Westport, Conn., Flowers isn't pursuing her career blindly. She knows what she is up against. Her parents were in the business awhile, which is how she came by the name Melody.

Her late mother, Bea, had an operatic voice and sang in a traveling show of "Oklahoma!" She was in the production when she met her future husband, Phillip Weil, who played trumpet in the orchestra when the show was in Phoenix.

Weil (who now lives in San Diego and charters yachts) was an aspiring musician himself when he was a young man, majoring in trumpet and minoring in voice in college.

He performed with the Woody Herman Orchestra for a few months, but his knack for sales and entrepreneurship took him in a different direction. Music became more of an avocation than a vocation.

Among his many enterprises was a magazine called "Homemaking with a Flair," which he owned for eight years before selling.

While he had the publication he did a lot of entertaining, which was how his daughter first began to perform.

"When I was a little girl, every other weekend he would have 200 people over for a party and he would wake me up to sing for his guests," Flowers recalled.

When she was 10 the family moved to Honolulu, where she took private singing lessons. When she was 18 she struck out on her own, moving to Los Angeles to study music and drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Over the years Flowers landed a few professional gigs, her longest almost three years singing at the Rex II Ristorante in Los Angles in the mid-'90s.

Her father is biased of course, but he thinks his trained musical ear can hear the quality in his daughter's voice.

"Sometimes I wonder if a father's pride gets in the way," he said. "But so many have told me she has the pipes. She just does great.

"But the thing is, she's a package. She has the voice, and she is marvelous with people."

Flowers says she is sometimes frustrated, but not discouraged.

"It's frustrating how many hoops you have to jump through to get work," she said.

But she says she has no illusions about making it.

"I can certainly see it's the luck of the draw," Flowers said. "You have to be in the right place at the right time.

"But at least I know I am doing everything I can. What if I never tried? I have to take my best shot and hang in there."

Lounging around

"Sixtiesmania" continues to fill the room at the Castaways lounge. The group has proven so popular it has been extended three or four times since arriving in December. You can hear a tribute to the '60s at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

Since we last visited the Joey Bistro & Bar (on the ninth floor of the Carriage House on Harmon Avenue east of the Strip), General Manager Drew Baker has made good on his promise to expand the entertainment in his lounge. Joining the entertainers already there is Randy Martin, who does a tribute to Dean Martin from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. There are happy-hour specials during Martin's performances.

Frank Sinatra tribute artist Bobby Barrett, formerly of the MGM Grand, is crooning for Station Casinos these days. He will be in the Green Room at Santa Fe Station for shows at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday.

Poppermost (a '60s and '70s "new-retro" alternative pop/rock band will be at the Off Ramp Lounge (3935 E. Charleston Blvd.) 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on April 11.

John Earl and the Boogie Man Band are performing these days at the Hurricane Bar & Grill, 10420 S. Bermuda Ave. Catch them from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. Thursdays and Saturdays.

Mark your jazz calendars: The 10th annual city of Lights Jazz Festival has been set for April 6 at Desert Breeze Park (at the corner of Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive). The event starts at noon and ends at 10 p.m. Featured artists will include: Richard Elliot, Peter White, Kim Waters, Brenda Russell, Jeff Golub, Phil Perry, Steve Cole, Bob Baldwin, Chuck Loeb, Marion Meadows and Freddie Ravel. The event is sponsored by Las Vegas Events, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Clark County Parks and Recreation and KOAS 105.7-FM.