HISTORY:
1975 | 1977 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 to present

1982

For LVJS, the year 1982 started out with as busy a jazz agenda as any of its previous six years, but before the year was out, the Society would suffer a devastating blow.

The momentum of the Las Vegas Jazz Society had started at an intense level in 1975 and built steadily through1981, with upbeat, optimistic, goal-oriented Monk Montgomery the driving force behind it.

An inspirational, charismatic leader, Monk brought the star power of big-name jazz musicians to a town which otherwise might have gone "Vegas style." Jazz was playing in the big rooms on the strip, on regular jazz nights in the lounges and on more than one radio station. Musicians were finding work worthy of their training, interests and expertise.Various entities--the Jazz Society, the Musicians' Local #369, the UNLV Jazz Studies program--shared a comraderie, helping each other toward common goals.

Monk had lit a beacon of jazz in Southern Nevada which attracted national attention from audiences, musicians and from funding sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts.

1982 began with Monk reporting in his column in the January issue of Think Jazz that an expansion of the Paradise Road headquarters would provide space for Gus Mancuso's Woodshed Education Program. Advanced classes in improvisation, ear training, jazz theory, big band and small group arranging and jazz workshops were to be led by Gus, Carl Fontana, Keith Nelson, Eddie Morgan, Gary Hypes, Joe Romano, Bob Badgley, Rudy Aikels, Ron Feuer, Don Menza and others. Ever forward-looking, Monk wrote, "If you look back you can see that we've come a long ways, but when we look ahead, we've still got a long way to go."

January's newsletter also announced the first annual Valentine Ball and Concert at the Americana Room of the Frontier Hotel, February 12, with the Louis Bellson Big Band and Ernie Andrews.

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Vegas Jazz
PO Box 60396, Las Vegas, NV 89160
Message Line: 702.313.6778