Irv Gordon: 1933-2007

Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

The last time I saw saxophonist Irv Gordon was five or six years ago at Pogo's, where he got together and jammed every Friday night with drummer Irv Kluger and an ensemble of other old-time jazz musicians.

The club was owned by Jim Holcombe, who provided the place for musicians to come and play the kind of music they didn't often get to play on the Strip.

On that night, a young clarinet player slugged Gordon in the mouth and was ejected by Holcombe. Gordon had criticized the playing of the amateur musician and the man took offense and expressed it with a right hook.

The punch was a surprise, but that Gordon would criticize inferior playing was not. He was a purist who didn't condone someone passing himself off as a musician if he wasn't serious enough about it.

"My father taught me that you either play or you don't, you (give it your all) or you don't do it at all," said his son, saxophonist Rocky Gordon. "He said to go with both oars in the water 'or else I don't talk to you.' That's the way he treated me. He said, 'Are you serious about this, because if you're just doing it as a hobby, let me know and I won't think anything, but if you're doing it for real you're going to have to put more time in.' "

Irv Gordon died Nov. 8 of complications following a heart attack. He was 74.

Irv Kluger died last year, Jim Holcombe the year before that.

Music was the highlight of memorial services for Kluger and Holcombe.

It will also take center stage during a memorial planned for Gordon, which will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the E-String Grill, 2031 W. Sunset Road in Henderson.

"My dad didn't want a big memorial service," Rocky said. "He wants us to all go to a club and play. That's his memorial. He doesn't want guys to get up there and say a lot. He'd basically rather just get into the music. My father could say a lot of wise things, but the playing was the most important thing."

Irv Gordon had an illustrious career that began in his native Philadelphia. When he was 18 he performed behind Billy Holiday during the first interracial jazz concert in that city, Rocky said. It was the summer of 1952.

His credits include performing with such legends as Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Tony Bennett, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Elvis Presley.

He came to Vegas in the early '60s and played for orchestras at resorts, including the old Thunderbird and Caesars Palace.

In addition to Rocky, Irv Gordon, who had been single for the last 17 years, had five other surviving children: daughters Maia Matisse-Lorenzen and Ameena Gordon and sons Aaron, Ian and Jared Gordon.

Gordon tired of playing for production shows in the '90s and retired to play jazz with such greats as Kluger and the late Carl Fontana and saxophonist Bill Trujillo.

"My father was a really humble man," Rocky said. "He was not a big social guy."

He was devoted to music.

"That was his religion, his spirituality," Rocky said. "He was in a constant growth mode as a musician."

His son has become one of the top jazz saxophonists in the city, thanks to his father's guidance.

"He told me the reality of the dark side of the business, the way it would really be," Rocky said. "He taught me that you didn't get a lot of pats on the back, other than knowing yourself that you did a good job. If you don't get thrown out of the band, then you're doing a good job. But they will tell you if you do something wrong. That's they way it was with the jazz groups in Philly. They weren't great communicators, and maybe that's why they played - it was a higher level of communication."

Rocky learned honesty from his father.

"He taught me that I would be the one to know before anyone else whether I was playing well," he said. "He was as hard on himself as he was on everyone else."