By Bruce Klauber
Bassist Andy Lalasis is known as a “first call player.” For those not in the music business, when any top-tier singer, band, orchestra or ensemble is in need of a bass player – whether the genre is pop, jazz, fusion, rock, funk, country music or symphonic music – Andy Lalasis is called first.
On May 28, 1978, Resorts International Hotel/Casino, the first legal gambling casino in New Jersey, opened. Musicians in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas flocked to the shore. Lalasis was one of them, moving to Smithville, where he still resides.
“I went down the shore around 1979, not long after Resorts was opening. I left Rowan (then Glassboro State College) early and I didn’t complete my degree because they were opening the casinos, and I knew that playing down there was my calling,” he recalls.
He got his start at All That Jazz, a place on Pacific Avenue, playing from 2 to 5 a.m. The band was led by an artist who would become a giant in Atlantic City and elsewhere; reedman Michael Pedicin, Jr. Bobby Young, who would become the contractor at Steve Wynn’s Golden Nugget, wandered in one night and was so blown away by Lalasis and the rhythm section that he offered him a job.
Lalasis admits that he didn’t even know who Bobby Young was, but he showed up on the appointed day. This was around 1983, and it marked the beginning of a long and stellar career.
The spot within the Golden Nugget was Elaine’s lounge where the rhythm section backed a different act each week including Buddy Greco, Keely Smith, Joanie Sommers, Billy Daniels, Frank D’Rone, and many others.
The rhythm section became known as the best in town. In addition to Lalasis on bass, Paul Jost played drums, and the trio used a number of pianists including a 20-year-old Dean Schneider, Demetrios Pappas, John DiMartino and Dave Hartl.
Steve Wynn sold the Golden Nugget to the Bally’s in 1987, and for a while the music policy in the lounge continued unchanged. Eventually Lalasis realized that his time there was coming to an end. There was talk of Bally’s selling the property, and live music was being cut to one and two nights a week.
Then, as now, the always-in-demand Lalasis got the call. This time it was from Joe Seidman, then contracting for Resorts International. The year was 1988 and Resorts was just purchased by Merv Griffin.
The Resorts musical policy was similar to the one used by the Golden Nugget. Lalasis recalls playing “noon to 6 every day with different acts. Then we would stop for dinner at 6, rehearse with the headliner who was starring in the main room, and then play again. We worked from noon to midnight six nights a week.
“Soon after I went over to Resorts, Merv Griffin bought it and I ended up being his bass player. Merv loved the music. He was very involved in it. He was nice and he was kind. I played for everyone, from Davy Jones to Robert Goulet and Don Rickles. There wasn’t anybody we didn’t play with.
“When we got into the later 1990s, I saw things start to change in the lounges. But it was still an amazing time for me. I cut my teeth in Atlantic City and it was an experience I never dreamed I would have.”
Because he is not a musical snob, and because he listens to and appreciates all kinds of music, he became experienced in virtually every genre on both electric and upright basses. That’s one reason his phone continues to ring.
These days he’s hard at work in the recording studio with Grammy Award-winning record producer and South Jersey Jazz Society Artistic Director/Vice President Joe Donofrio. The project, which will feature some of the region’s finest players, will be a jazz-focused take on songs made famous by TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia).
In the live performance arena, Lalasis has found a fabulous musical situation that’s a throwback to the Golden Nugget/Resorts days. Bordentown’s Ristorante LUCCA & Piano Lounge is a world-class Italian restaurant and likely the only real, elegant supper club anywhere. Leading the house trio at LUCCA is none other than Lalasis’ partner from his time at the Golden Nugget, Dean Schneider.
Schneider, drummer Lew Leabman, and Lalasis back up different singers each week.
When asked to sum up his still-in-progress musical career, Lalasis replied, “I learned what it was like to be around greatness all the time. I was in some magical Oz or something where I got to play with all of them all the time. It was an incredible time.”
Note to Andy Lalasis: It still is.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
