For nearly two years, the Fremont East district has fought the good fight to provide Las Vegans with urban entertainment options. Establishments like the smooth Downtown Cocktail Room, the hipster hive Beauty Bar and the convivial keep the Griffin have infused some much-welcome life into the zone just across Las Vegas Boulevard.
But those locales only open at night, leaving Fremont East pretty much deadsville in the daylight. Except now—curiously enough on Sunday afternoons—the somewhat hard-scrabble street is getting some good riffage action from the Take 1 Nightclub (707 E. Fremont St., 433-8253).
Since early winter, Take 1 has held an increasingly popular jazz brunch revue, Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Led by drummer Larry “Wild” Wrice, these hopping afternoons are bringing in audiences to enjoy standards from Sinatra to Ellington with a little hard jazz à la Miles Davis thrown in now and then. (Note: There’s no faux “smooth jazz” in this joint; head to a hotel lobby for that lame jive.) It’s like a bit of old swinging Vegas revivified. And, not surprisingly, audiences have trended to the 50s-and-up crowd. But there’s a wealth of good jazz awaiting younger aficionados.
Outside the Take 1 entrance, emcee and singer Allen Tramont, a New Yorker in town since 1980, describes the vibe that draws audiences. “What they’re hearing is the songs they long to hear—the standards,” Tramont says. “The stuff that never dies out, the stuff that Rod Stewart re-records and Tony Bennett sings. You know, the beauty of this stuff is some of it’s so old, it’s new again. Younger folks, they get hooked [too].”
Though not so free-form as a Friday night jam at Pogo’s Tavern on North Decatur, the Take 1 Sunday gigs bring out the best of Entertainment City, Nevada, for Tramont. “We have real good players that stop in ... real good sax men and guitar men,” Tramont says.
And of course, a scratch roster of lady singers serves up songs made famous by Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald.
In between sets, spry 81-year-old cool cat Wrice, who has played with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and more, further sizes up Vegas’ inherent genetic jazz pool. “We have an array of top singers here in this city that just seems to flood in,” Wrice says.
In addition to legitimate jazz listening, there is plenty of dancing at Take 1 when the syncopation favors legwork. Food and drinks are offered up from a full menu and bar.
Sinatra, Basie, Davis, Fitzgerald, close dancing and a mimosa: It’s just the kind of addiction Fremont Street needs to foster across the generations. Just say yes to jazz.