Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns
Last night I was at the lounge at the center of the Palms having my mind blown by Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns. Actually, I was only there because of Clint Holmes. The Harrah's headliner had asked me to come personally and repeatedly. And while I have all the respect in the world for Holmes, the truth is that these are not the days of Louis Prima.
The lounge isn't exactly dead. For example, there is a small retro scene going at the Sahara's Casbar lounge. But mostly going to a lounge in Vegas now means having to listen to hacks knock out "My Sharona" with verve. I've seen countless versions of the song, and have put no thought into who does it best. (I also admit I arrived a bit jealous because photographer Sarah Gerke pointed out that this lounge act — unlike a certain blogger — has a Wikipedia entry.) But I left with their new CD/DVD in hand and will be back next Monday to see Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns at the Palms Lounge.
There are really only two ways to get started in Las Vegas. You can either try to create your best guess of what the town will buy or you can do what you love and then try to sell it. This can be infinitely frustrating because on many levels, Las Vegas tourists are not discriminating. Why should they be? The lounge is not meant for the musical connoisseur.
Nonetheless, there is a very sophisticated and musically discriminating scene here in Las Vegas if you are lucky enough to tap into it, locals. Las Vegas employs hundreds of professional musicians and, beyond that, especially in local's nightlife, you meet a lot of people with show business in their background. (Let's just say karaoke in Las Vegas can get ridiculously competitive.) It was on one such night, out on the town, checking out music, that Clint Holmes discovered Santa Fe.
"My manager said, 'This is your band!'" Holmes remembers. At the time he was just getting started as a headliner at Harrah's. "I said to him, 'I can't afford to hire them.' And, he said, 'You can't afford to not hire them.'"
So, the core of Santa Fe, a band that with horns swells to more than a dozen members, has doubled for years now as the red hot center of Holmes' show every night. The band members go right from Harrah's to the Palms to play again. That is how a living is forged in Vegas as a working musician. Other Santa Fe members work in other shows. But unlike other bands working a second job, these guys form an amazingly real group. And, despite the full house (rough guess about 200 to 250 people), they aren't getting rich here. As Holmes pointed out, you can't put that many people on a stage in Vegas for any other reason than love. To even get this choice gig at Palms, Santa Fe had to have a core audience already built-in.
The group has clearly done the near impossible in Las Vegas by finding a large following for witty arrangements, a ridiculous range of originals and covers that find them effortlessly mingling Latin jazz, pop, soul, R&B, funk and fusion. This is a band of musician's musicians who could flawlessly execute Frank Zappa's work or play background on a Steely Dan song.
But musicians were not the only ones digging the music. With more than a dozen guys on stage who know Bill Withers' songs, let's just say the group has a large and rapid following among local women of a certain age. Did I just write that ridiculous locution? Sorry. Old chicks in large numbers really dig Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns.
OK. So final mystery is why is this all taking place in the Palms Lounge when the casino is known so completely for its hipster youth focused marketing? Short answer: The Palms never forgets it is a local's casino first and the marketing is only to make you forget it. Monday night is a good night to count on the people of Las Vegas to fill the room, and the Palms is happy to host dancing and drinking locals enjoying Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns. It may not be Paris Hilton but my guess is every guy on that stage sings better.
(Photo: Sarah Gerke / For The Times)
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Thanks for the kind words about my favorite band. I blog about them ongoing at:
http://santafeandthefatcityhorns.blogspot.com/
I will link your into ours.
They really are wonderful. And, most important, the nicest bunch of guys I've ever met. Total gentlemen.
Posted by: BobbyG | July 19, 2006 at 04:19 PM
I, too, am a Santa Fe & TFCH junkie. I can't get enough of them either. On many Monday nights I have raced over to the Palms after my gig for a fix. Sadly, I've heard that this Monday (Aug. 7th) they are off, so I offer an alternative. The Steven Lee Group at the Red Rock Station, in the Rock's Lounge, from 8:00 - 10:30pm. Visit our website, and check with Bobby G. for a "reference".
Posted by: Joe Bergeron | August 03, 2006 at 03:38 PM
I discovered Santa Fe about 5 1/2 yrs ago and have been a HUGE fan every since. I thank Ricky Martin for being on hiatus and meeting Jerry Lopez at a meet & greet, then hearing HIS band and music! Every time I'm in Vegas, I am at their show, no matter where they perform. They bring something new to each show and I look forward to their healing jam session every Monday night I can make it to Vegas! Bobby Gladd's blog keeps me up to date the times I cannot be there! Thanks Bobby!
Posted by: Bette Burroughs | September 02, 2006 at 08:58 PM