Does anybody know of some good jazz venues in Vegas? Of course there's David van Such, the greatest saxophone player, still at the Tuscany I think, but I'd like to see some others if there are any in town when I'm there in a couple of weeks.

Not really. This town does not embrace live music as it once did. The musicians here have a hard time finding jobs and when they do, the job doesn't pay well. I'm sure it's a contributing factor to Lena moving to New Orleans in November. Lena's band Gumbo Ya Ya has been playing at the Rhythm Kitchen on Sunday nights, but when I saw them a few days ago, they weren't thinking they would be back. You might check and see who is playing there.

Your best bet is to grab one of those free magazines and hope for the best.

That's quite sad to hear that Vegas isn't supporting the live music scene like it used to. That was my favorite part of going there -- seeing such high quality musicians in a lounge for the price of a glass of wine. Why is this happening?

It started when Wall St took over the casino business and started looking at efficiency, such as "what is this space used for and how much money does it generate?". That was the beginning of the end of the lounge acts. They did not account for the intangibles that they generated. They also began 4-walling the shows, leaving it up the show itself to generate it's own revenue.

When the economy turned bad, the shows took a big hit. Many shows turned to lesser venues to reduce costs. Further action was to record music and play the recording every night instead of paying musicians.

I know a lot of musicians in town. Some are working their tails off and not getting paid much. I know one guy that is the musical director for two different shows and is still not doing well financially. If you see a musician in a show, he is not a happy camper.

There is still good music. It is so spotty that you can't just name a venue to go enjoy great jazz, or classic rock, or whatever. And you can find good stuff here and there but it will probably be gone next time.

Instead of the freebie magazines like What's On and Showtime, look for Seven or City Life or Las Vegas Weekly. If there's good stuff in town, they will have it. The downside of those mags is that you have to sort through the cult crap and political agendas to find the good stuff.

Thanks for the update, JMT. I've been checking The Tuscany to make sure David van Such is still there. In May he told me he felt very fortunate to have been at the same place for over a year, 6 nights a week. Before that he'd been taking gigs in Tahoe among other places, just to have a place to play. I feel sorry for the musicians who are taking such a hit. I like to go to Bellagio to the Baccarat Lounge to listen to Bruce Zarka, former pianist for Louis Prima. I noticed today that they've moved him to another lounge closer to the lobby (that may only be certain days) and they have a jazz singer/pianist, Shelly Taylor in the Baccarat Lounge a couple of evenings. I'll go to hear her when I'm in Las Vegas. I also noticed that B.B. King has declared bankruptcy. Some of those places still stayed open through their bankruptcy but I don't know if B.B.'s did or not.

I looked for Bruce Zarka and couldn't find him on the night I saw O. I think that was a Friday night.

If you're here on a weekend, you might want to see if they have a band at Rhythm Kitchen. I've had a lot of good meals there too.

The info on Bruce that I found said that he was in The Petroissan, close to the entrance (and the Chihuly glass flowers) in the daytime. I know he played there before and then some evenings he would go to the Baccarat Lounge. He had a gal who played great bass.
Thanks for the tip on the Rhythm Kitchen. I'll check it out. I plan on spending about a week in my timeshare, (Worldmark)