The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 84

ETT211 1 lie km Till CQOE1 Pi 2 BY RALPH J. GLEASON 'Home Aivay From Home9 The Hacienda Hotel is like a "home away from home" for folks from Hawaii who visit Las Vegas. It's easy to understand why, after visiting most of the cold, matter-of-fact, assembly-line type hotels and casinos on "The Strip." The Hacienda, if it's possible to describe a hotel in as such, is a "family" hotel. The casino and nightclub provide entertainment for mom and dad, naturally but, since many visitors to Las Vegas bring their children, the Hacienda took this into consideration and includes in its facilities lots of diversions for the kids. There's miniature golf, shuffle-board, ping-pong, a go-cart track, and even baby sitting arrangements and cribs.

1 1 have excellent soloists (H Lips Page, Ben Webster, et aL) but the band has to fight like tigers to survive the heavy oompah-oompah tfc-e two-beat rhythm section of the 20s, a vestigial remnant of early fox trot music. The soloists blow mightily, the sections are voiced in swing band style and sometimes even manage to set up a solid, swing. Jimmy Rushing sings magnificently on a couple of tracks and there is plenty of the Basie piano style. Needs Freedom The whole thing smacks of Paul WThite-man and it is obvious that the music can't really swing until the rhythm section is freed. The Leonard album shows how, when this happens, and the two-four a h-oompah sound is' made over onto a straight four-four beat with shifting accents, a band can swing like the wind.

The Leonard band is a good band but, at its best, second to the Basie band of the late '40s. Still, the Basie pattern is so well designed that giv 'J, When the true history of music in this country is written, it will be seen that the swing band style was perfected in Kansas City by Count Basie and that dance band struc-t has served ever since. Mainly, of course, the big Kansas City swing bands played in Negro cafes and on the Negro dancehall circuit and escaped notice from radio and record companies. Baching Basie Behind Basie there w-ere excellent bands Harlan Leonard and his Rockets, Andy Kirk and the Twelve Clouds of Joy and, in other Western cit-i down into Texas, Troy Floyd, Boots and his Buddies, Jetter-Pil-lars, Thamon Hayes. These bands grew out of McK inney 's Cotton Pickers and the great Bennie Moten band in Kansas City which evolved into the Basie Band.

There were others, of course, some of which have not survived even as names in the reminiscences of the players. Slowly, as the vaults are examined, the few recordings of these bands are being put back together for the jazz historian. Vintage Series RCA Victor has a Vintage series, under the wing of Brad McCuen, which has already produced a number of historically valuable albums while consistently treating the music to some mysterious process that makes the LP have duller sound than the origi-. nal 78 rpm discs. A recent release by the Pianist Basie RCA Victor Vintage series includes two fascinating albums, "Harlan Leonard and his (RCA Victor LPV 531) and Dizzy Gillespie (RCA Victor LPV 530).

If you play them in sequence beginning with a previous reissue, "Count Basie in Kansas City" (RCA Victor LPV 514) you have a revealing historical evolution. Cut in '30s The Basie album con- sists of 16 tracks cut in the early '30s by the Moten band in which Basie was pianist. The Leonard LP has 16 tracks cut in 1940, defining the post-Basie Kansas City swing era band. And the Gillespie LP has 16 tracks of performances by the trumpet player ranging from 1937 recordings with Teddy Hill's big New York band through 1947 tracks cut with Gillespie's own big band. The Basie-Moten sides Album of Week en some good soloists, such as tenor Hank Briggs and trombonist Fred Beckett, the band sounds like a real winner.

Then pass on. to the Gillespie recordings. With the Hill band of the late '30s, Gillespie was a Roy Eldridge soloist supreme, sounding almost like his idol. Wild Rhythms Then with his own band, Gillespie tried to utilize the wild rhythms of the modern jazz era in which even the steady four-four was sometimes implied rather than explicitly stated and cross and counter rhythms were utilized constantly. The result was difficult music, especially for the average dancer.

When the sections played complicated riffs scored out of phrases from the Gillespie trumpet solos, it became even, more difficult to dance to. But the music itself was amazingly vigorous and implied a very great deal of what has happened in jazz since, including the 1965 hit. "Soul Sauce," which was recorded here as "Gua-chi Guaro." ground. The solos are good but it is the over-all fitting together of the various sounds in the arrangement that make it most pleasant. The tunes include several originals as well as some entries from the Top 40 field, such as "Nature Boy," "The Word" and "Norwegian Wood." The most unusual of all is "Cool Cool Water," the old Western hit R.J.G.

For reservation phone 931-733 or four travel agent TV ALOHA 5 Judy and her late husband "Doc." The Woman's Touch Undoubtedly one of the reasons for all this thought-fulness is Judy Bayley, the gracious and lovely woman who is the Hacienda's chairman of the board, and president of casino operations. Known in Vegas as "The First Lady of Gambling," the "lady" part can be taken literally, for she is just that. The "gambling" applies since she is the only woman in the top echelon of Vegas personnel. The woman's touch is certainly there at the Hacienda, where they have the friendliest dealers, entertainers and over-all help, in town. Clem Bernier, general manager, adds to the Hacienda's reputation for winging personnel, too.

Formerly with the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (home of the famous Cocoa-nut Grove where Don Ho played last year), it's quite obvious after talking with Clem that he's going to put the Hacienda on the Vegas map. What is already a successful operation will undoubtedly blossom into "the" hotel in which to stay, under his supervision. When you get to the Hacienda, look him up. He's got more Aloha in his greeting than most Hawaiians. Right now you have a standing invitation to be his guest at a champagne party held every night from 5 to 6.

SIMPATICO, Gary Mc-Farland Gabor a (Impulse A 9122). This is a lovely album, the kind of thing that defies classification and which reaches out beyond the boundaries of hard core jazz to engage the attention of other people. The instrumentation of vibes, guitars and Latin rhythms lends itself to listening or just to having it on in the back- I i J. 1 9 SUNDAY now enjoy a fun-filled HOLIDAY III LAS VEGAS SQKOO 3 SUN-PACKED DAYS 2 STAR-FILLED NIGHTS Liner Notes Arranger-composer Billy Strayhorn, who has been seriously ill for the past year, is now back on the road with the Duke Ellington band and was with them on their recent tour of the West Coast. New accompanist for singer Joe Williams is pianist Harold Mabern.

Lead alto in the Buddy Rich band in now Gene Quill. Charlie Barnett is reforming a big band for a series of dates beginning in Los Angeles later this month. Ray Charles goes out on concert tour again in December with dates in Seattle (Dec. 31) and San Francisco (Dec. 27).

Pianist Randy Weston is conducting a' series of lecture-demonstrations on the history of jazz at the University of California. Drummer Max Roach is ill and has cancelled his engagements. R.J.G. Excitement abounds at the magnificent Riviera Carlo Broadway world's greatest accommodations. cuisine YOUR RIVIERA HOLIDAY INCLUDES: Luxurious sir-conditioned room Spectacular stage show, gourmet dinner in Versailles Room 2 full-course club breakfasts in Cafe Noir Exciting stage show, 2 cocktails, in Starlite Theatre; deluxe International buffet dinner in Cafe Noir Comic team, Hank Henry and Sparky Kaye.

Good for Laughs There's a show in the Jewel Box at the Hacienda that you shouldn't miss. Reminiscent of the old vaudeville shows, it stars Hank Henry, who does a wonderful job of making you laugh but Sparky Kaye and Jay Nemeth give him a run for his money when it comes to upstaging. In fact, the whole entertainment package in the Jewel Box is the greatest. The action starts at 10 p.m. JANE CAREY.

lJ Page IS STAR EULLETIN ADVERTISER Honolulu, October 16, 1965.