Chicago drummer Walfredo Reyes beat his path in Las Vegas
During Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns’ performances at Bootlegger Bistro’s Copa Room, Jerry Lopez often peers through the lights to take note of all the musicians in the crowd.
“The audience can actually play this gig,” he says, accurately.
That was true again Monday night when Lopez brought to the stage a pair of music stalwarts seated in the crowd: keyboard master Tom Schulman of Spyro Gyra and percussionist/drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. of Chicago.
I mean, come on.
The visiting musicians joined the band for a prolonged cover of “System of Survival” by Earth Wind & Fire. It was a return to an adolescence of sorts for Lopez and Reyes, who have been friends for more than 40 years.
As Lopez was establishing Santa Fe in Las Vegas, Reyes was burning through the city’s entertainment scene as a teenage prodigy who backed Debbie Reynolds while he was still in high school.
Soon, Reyes was toggling that gig and his frequent lounge and club shows with his studies at the UNLV School of Music.
“I used to sneak in to watch him play and just go, ‘Wooooow!’ ” Lopez says. “He had a huge, huge influence on me.”
Reyes is in town to close out Chicago’s run at The Venetian Theater on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. His family’s music heritage runs deep, especially in Las Vegas.
Walfredo Sr. is a veritable percussion legend, moving to the U.S. from Puerto Rico in 1970 for the Thunderbird hotel-casino production “Latin Fire.” He then worked as the house drummer at Desert Inn, followed by a similar stint at the Copa Room at the Sands. The elder Reyes spent 17 years in Wayne Newton’s band, on the Strip and on tour. Other artists he backed in those days include Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Goulet, Rich Little, Bernadette Peters, Rita Moreno, Juliet Prowse, Ben Vereen and Dionne Warwick.
The family reach stretches to the Zac Brown Band, too. Walfredo’s brother Danny is a percussionist in that top country outfit. “We play it all,” says Reyes, who has also backed Carlos Santana, Boz Scaggs, Jackson Browne and Lindsay Buckingham.
Reyes has been tracking Santa Fe since the band’s earliest gigs at such haunts as Scarlet Wagon in North Las Vegas, which Lopez still calls “the biggest dive on the planet,” and Bogie’s on the south end of the Strip.
“I have seen bands all over, and Santa Fe is as good as you’ll find — they are every bit as good as Tower of Power or any horn band in the country,” says Reyes, who has frequently sat in with the band and even performed on early recordings. “When they start playing, that first five minutes is just incredible.”
Reyes remembers the days when he and Lopez represented the “hippy element” in Las Vegas. “All these guys in tuxedos who were in bands in the showrooms were saying, ‘You hippies are going to ruin Las Vegas!’ ” he says, laughing. “Now we’re the old guys, saying that same thing to the nightclub DJs. What goes around, comes around, right?”
Cellar dwellers
The Comedy Cellar has set its opening date and initial lineup at the Rio. The Vegas outpost of the famous Manhattan comedy haunt opens April 5 in the former King’s Room space, just off the casino floor and across from Royal India Bistro. Mo Amer (who opens for Dave Chappelle), Kyle Dunnigan (known for his appearances on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show), Jessica Kirson (from 2016’s “The Comedian”), and Nathan Macintosh (who has appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” among many national TV shows) are the club’s starting lineup.
The Cellar in New York has a rep for being a tough ticket. Such then-budding comics as Chappelle, Ray Romano, Jon Stewart, Dave Attell, Amy Schumer, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock used the club as a stepping stone to stardom.
“It will be just like coming to the New York Comedy Cellar — only in Vegas,” club owner Noam Dworman said in a statement. “The Comedy Cellar at Rio will feature the same best-in-the-world comics and the same iconic feel in New York. The only difference is that in Vegas, you’ll be able to get in.”
Current comic headliner Eddie Griffin will continue to work The King’s Room, which has been moved into the former Martorano’s restaurant spot on the resort’s second level. But I would anticipate him moving his shows into the Cellar, swapping nights with the comedy lineup. Just a hunch, that. If not … that’s a lotta comedy in one hotel.
So this happened …
David Perrico’s Pop Strings Orchestra has extended its residency at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace through the end of the year. There have been murmurs about turning the room into an entirely ticketed venue. Maybe that will happen — with a charge attached to Perrico’s show, even — but not just yet. He continues to tee up his no-cover-charge showcase at 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Bono’s demarcation
Las Vegas’s crooner for the ages, Dennis Bono, celebrates the 18th anniversary of his eponymous variety show at 2 p.m. Thursday from South Point Showroom. Bono debuted at Sunset Station in 2000, moved to Sam’s Town in 2000 and to South Point in 2010.
The show reaches about 11 million homes on its various broadcast platforms, and routinely fills the 450-seat showroom. A sampling of guests over the years includes Tony Orlando, Steve Lawrence, Gladys Knight, and virtually every Vegas entertainer who has performed a proper show on or off the Strip.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
