Tisdale shows smooth moves at Boulder Station

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Jan. 31, 2005 | 8:12 a.m.

To prepare for concert assignments, Las Vegas Sun photographers sometimes dig up recent photos of their subjects before heading to the venue.

When I bumped into our shooter before Saturday night's Wayman Tisdale show, he joked that he didn't need any help identifying the headliner this time. All he had to do was look for the tallest microphone stand.

Sure enough, when Tisdale arrived onstage at Boulder Station's Railhead, the former collegiate, Olympic and NBA basketball star towered over the five musicians in his band.

Even if he weren't 6-foot-9 -- and heavier than his listed playing weight of 240 -- Tisdale wouldn't have been difficult to pick out.

The power forward-turned-jazz bassist held the attention of the sold-out crowd of 660 throughout his 80-minute set with the same fun-loving personality that helped make him a fan favorite on the basketball court.

Cradling his comparatively tiny electric bass guitar in his tree-trunk arms, Tisdale bounced from side to side as he played, flashing his familiar toothy smile at his bandmates -- and the audience -- with regularity.

I'll stop here to admit that I don't spend a lot of time listening to contemporary, also known as smooth, jazz. I prefer the traditional side of jazz, as I find it more organic and, typically, a lot edgier.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Tisdale's performance. It might have been relatively easy on the ears, but he and his band did push the envelope with plenty of improvised solos, some of which likely would have impressed even the most skeptical jazz "purist."

At this stage of his musical career, Tisdale hardly needs to prove anything to anyone. He has sent five albums into the top 10 of Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart, reaching No. 1 with 2001's "Face to Face."

If any doubters remained, moments into Saturday's set the 40-year-old Oklahoma native proved that an athlete can indeed excel as a musician, showing off nimble fingers and clever phrasings during his first solo.

Tisdale played his bass more like a guitar or a trumpet than a rhythm instrument, spending most of his time working the lower half of his fretboard to provide notes higher than one might expect from a bass.

Tisdale also demonstrated a veteran ability to keep his crowd involved.

"How many old-schoolers do we have in the house?" he asked early on, drawing heavy applause from the mostly middle-aged audience.

"I was on a cruise ship last week and asked 'How many old-schoolers do we have?' and somebody yelled, 'New Edition!' New Edition ain't old school."

Throughout the night, Tisdale provided a better definition of "old school," working bits of material by the Isley Brothers, the Gap Band and Sly & The Family Stone, among others, into his music.

At one point, Tisdale and saxophonist David Hayes played a game of one-upsmanship, trading licks from nursery rhymes ("London Bridge," "Mary Had a Little Lamb") and television theme songs ("The Brady Bunch," "Sanford and Son"), prompting laughter and cheering from the crowd.

Later, the entire room came to its feet for the final number, a grooving version of the McFadden and Whitehead disco classic "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now."

As fans filed out, they buzzed about Tisdale's music, not his sports career. I doubt any of them needed an NBA media guide to identify him.