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Clint Holmes: Between The Lines is a musical journey of contemporary hits, traditional standards, and Holmes' own songs that connects with the audience. Featuring pianist Christian Tamburr, guitarist Pablo Gadda, saxophonist Rocco Barbato, precussionist Jakubu Griffin, bassist Dave Ostrem, singer Noybel Gorgoy, and keyboardist/vocalist Jamie Hosmer, Between the Lines promises a show as touching as it is lively. This sonic tour de force illustrates the intricate ties between artist, song, and inspiration for Holmes and the band.
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Meet the Band | Between the Lines
Dave OstremBassist
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Rocco BarbottoSaxophonist
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Jakubu GriffinPercussionist
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Pablo GaddaGuitarist
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Las Vegas Sun | Clint Holmes Looking to Uncork an Ace with "Between The Lines"
John Katsilometes
Clint Holmes is a very good tennis player, one reason he is so fit at age 70. Naturally, the way to win at that game is to find the lines and fire shots at those boundaries.
Holmes’ new show hints to that strategy but carries a musical meaning, too: “Clint Holmes: Between the Lines” is the title, indicating Holmes’ penchant for digging for a deeper meaning into every song he performs.
“I wanted people to think of reading between the lines, for showing how lyrics strike me and what they really say,” Holmes said earlier today. “I was looking for a way to express that as we decided on what type of show I was going to do.”
A partnership between Palazzo and Best Agency (chiefly that company’s CEO Ken Henderson),“Between the Lines” opens at Palazzo Theater on July 16 in the 10 p.m. time slot after “Baz: Star Crossed Love” in the same renovated theater. The show is to run Tuesdays through Saturdays; tickets start at $42.65 (with tax and fees included) and are available at any box office at the Venetian or Palazzo, at Palazzo.com and by calling (702) 414-9000 and (866) 641-7469.
The new show is a blend of contemporary classics with Holmes’ own well-placed originals. Envision a medley of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” "7 Years" by Lukas Graham, Holmes’ own “Playground in My Mind,” all of which is encompassed in a musical storytelling format that reveals Holmes’ musical underpinnings.
The autobiographical arc is a familiar theme for Holmes, who spent six years at Harrah’s singing and telling his story from 2000-2006 and more recently from March 2012 through this month at Cabaret Jazz. His last scheduled monthly headlining appearance at the “little room” is Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in “Nat Meets Mel,” a tribute to Nat King Cole and Mel Torme with Billy Stritch.
In his shows at Cab Jazz, Holmes has embraced Burt Bacharach and The Beatles, Paul Simon and Cole Porter, Wonder, Ray Charles and Bobby Short among many other stars spanning the generations.
“I have never had just one genre, which in some ways can hurt an artist because you are not that one ‘thing,’ ” Holmes says. “Johnny Mathis has a certain style, and he owns it, but for me, I have learned through the Cabaret Jazz shows that I can continue to grow and express myself in many different styles.”
One of the original titles under consideration for the show was “Inspired,” and that name is not going to waste. It’s the name of Holmes’ upcoming CD, which is now targeted for a fall release.
That release, and Holmes’ run at Cab Jazz, have inspired a creatively inventive period in Holmes’ career. Critical to his approach to the wide-ranging “Between the Lines” stage show was recruiting musicians of vast versatility and experience.
Holmes’ music director is the expert multi-instrumentalist Christian Tamburr, who alternates among piano, vibes, marimba and guitar (he also plays drums if the need arises). The remainder of the lineup in Holmes’ show was a lively topic of discussion in the city’s entertainment scene for several weeks, as Holmes nabbed guitarist John Wedemeyer (currently in The Righteous Brothers band at Harrah’s and a member of Holmes’ band at the Smith Center), sax great Rocco Barbato (Donny & Marie at Flamingo), drummer Jakubu Griffin (late of “Zarkana” at Aria), bassist Dave Ostrem (from the original “Baz” at Light in Mandalay Bay) and keyboardist Jamie Hosmer of Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns.
Hosmer was a member of Holmes’ lineup at Harrah’s when Santa Fe served as the backing band. As Holmes says, “We want people to come in and be as much into the band as they are into what I’m doing. That’s what we were able to achieve when we were at Harrah’s and why we felt finding the right mix of versatile musicians was so important.”
A similarly extensive, and inherently difficult, decision was which singer to select. Again, the city is a veritable treasure trove of great female singers, and Holmes auditioned many of the very best. But he had caught Noybel Gorgoy at Tuscany Suites’ Piazza Lounge a couple of weeks ago as she performed with Kenny Davidsen’s band.
“Wow, who is this?” was Holmes’ startled response to the performance by Gorgoy, who hails from Cuba and is the fiery vocalist for the gypsy jazz band The Hot Club of Las Vegas (most recently that band floored Cab Jazz during the Composers’ Showcase of Las Vegas). Not as well-known as many of the singers who tried out for the role, Gorgoy showed up to audition for Holmes and Henderson and was asked to sing a song in Spanish.
“She turns to Christian at the piano and asks if he knows some title in Spanish that I hadn’t heard of,” Holmes recalled, laughing. “Christian hadn’t heard of it, either, so she says, ‘I’ll do it,’ and moves him off the piano and plays it herself. So, she’s got that capability, too.”
The show is set in the original home of “Jersey Boys,” and most recently Bob Anderson’s’ “Frank: The Man, the Music,” which closed in November. The balcony has been taken out of play and the seating reduced to about 550. A lengthy runway extends from the middle of the stage to the back of the room, and two additional runways extend from stage left and right.
“The theater itself is a star,” Holmes said. “There’s nothing in the city like it.”
Holmes has performed in a pretty special venue over the past four-plus years, a time that has afforded him a chance to gain professional stability and play important road dates at such venues as Cafe Carlyle in New York and a one-off at Hollywood Bowl in 2014.
“I have grown as an artist through this whole process,” Holmes said. “I have been finding ways to reinvent myself month after month, and all of that is because of my time at the Smith Center.”
That evolution has led to “Between the Lines.” What will be the measure of success for this show? Holmes considers the question, then says, “The bottom line is, if the audience finds the show,” Holmes says. “We have to grow our core audience and prove to people that what we’re doing is unique and exciting to come back again.
“It’s a risk, what we’re doing, and I’ve canceled everything I’ve had on my schedule for a year to do it, but, you know, it’s time to go big or go home.” And if you have an ace in that bag, now’s the time to serve it.
Holmes’ new show hints to that strategy but carries a musical meaning, too: “Clint Holmes: Between the Lines” is the title, indicating Holmes’ penchant for digging for a deeper meaning into every song he performs.
“I wanted people to think of reading between the lines, for showing how lyrics strike me and what they really say,” Holmes said earlier today. “I was looking for a way to express that as we decided on what type of show I was going to do.”
A partnership between Palazzo and Best Agency (chiefly that company’s CEO Ken Henderson),“Between the Lines” opens at Palazzo Theater on July 16 in the 10 p.m. time slot after “Baz: Star Crossed Love” in the same renovated theater. The show is to run Tuesdays through Saturdays; tickets start at $42.65 (with tax and fees included) and are available at any box office at the Venetian or Palazzo, at Palazzo.com and by calling (702) 414-9000 and (866) 641-7469.
The new show is a blend of contemporary classics with Holmes’ own well-placed originals. Envision a medley of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” "7 Years" by Lukas Graham, Holmes’ own “Playground in My Mind,” all of which is encompassed in a musical storytelling format that reveals Holmes’ musical underpinnings.
The autobiographical arc is a familiar theme for Holmes, who spent six years at Harrah’s singing and telling his story from 2000-2006 and more recently from March 2012 through this month at Cabaret Jazz. His last scheduled monthly headlining appearance at the “little room” is Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in “Nat Meets Mel,” a tribute to Nat King Cole and Mel Torme with Billy Stritch.
In his shows at Cab Jazz, Holmes has embraced Burt Bacharach and The Beatles, Paul Simon and Cole Porter, Wonder, Ray Charles and Bobby Short among many other stars spanning the generations.
“I have never had just one genre, which in some ways can hurt an artist because you are not that one ‘thing,’ ” Holmes says. “Johnny Mathis has a certain style, and he owns it, but for me, I have learned through the Cabaret Jazz shows that I can continue to grow and express myself in many different styles.”
One of the original titles under consideration for the show was “Inspired,” and that name is not going to waste. It’s the name of Holmes’ upcoming CD, which is now targeted for a fall release.
That release, and Holmes’ run at Cab Jazz, have inspired a creatively inventive period in Holmes’ career. Critical to his approach to the wide-ranging “Between the Lines” stage show was recruiting musicians of vast versatility and experience.
Holmes’ music director is the expert multi-instrumentalist Christian Tamburr, who alternates among piano, vibes, marimba and guitar (he also plays drums if the need arises). The remainder of the lineup in Holmes’ show was a lively topic of discussion in the city’s entertainment scene for several weeks, as Holmes nabbed guitarist John Wedemeyer (currently in The Righteous Brothers band at Harrah’s and a member of Holmes’ band at the Smith Center), sax great Rocco Barbato (Donny & Marie at Flamingo), drummer Jakubu Griffin (late of “Zarkana” at Aria), bassist Dave Ostrem (from the original “Baz” at Light in Mandalay Bay) and keyboardist Jamie Hosmer of Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns.
Hosmer was a member of Holmes’ lineup at Harrah’s when Santa Fe served as the backing band. As Holmes says, “We want people to come in and be as much into the band as they are into what I’m doing. That’s what we were able to achieve when we were at Harrah’s and why we felt finding the right mix of versatile musicians was so important.”
A similarly extensive, and inherently difficult, decision was which singer to select. Again, the city is a veritable treasure trove of great female singers, and Holmes auditioned many of the very best. But he had caught Noybel Gorgoy at Tuscany Suites’ Piazza Lounge a couple of weeks ago as she performed with Kenny Davidsen’s band.
“Wow, who is this?” was Holmes’ startled response to the performance by Gorgoy, who hails from Cuba and is the fiery vocalist for the gypsy jazz band The Hot Club of Las Vegas (most recently that band floored Cab Jazz during the Composers’ Showcase of Las Vegas). Not as well-known as many of the singers who tried out for the role, Gorgoy showed up to audition for Holmes and Henderson and was asked to sing a song in Spanish.
“She turns to Christian at the piano and asks if he knows some title in Spanish that I hadn’t heard of,” Holmes recalled, laughing. “Christian hadn’t heard of it, either, so she says, ‘I’ll do it,’ and moves him off the piano and plays it herself. So, she’s got that capability, too.”
The show is set in the original home of “Jersey Boys,” and most recently Bob Anderson’s’ “Frank: The Man, the Music,” which closed in November. The balcony has been taken out of play and the seating reduced to about 550. A lengthy runway extends from the middle of the stage to the back of the room, and two additional runways extend from stage left and right.
“The theater itself is a star,” Holmes said. “There’s nothing in the city like it.”
Holmes has performed in a pretty special venue over the past four-plus years, a time that has afforded him a chance to gain professional stability and play important road dates at such venues as Cafe Carlyle in New York and a one-off at Hollywood Bowl in 2014.
“I have grown as an artist through this whole process,” Holmes said. “I have been finding ways to reinvent myself month after month, and all of that is because of my time at the Smith Center.”
That evolution has led to “Between the Lines.” What will be the measure of success for this show? Holmes considers the question, then says, “The bottom line is, if the audience finds the show,” Holmes says. “We have to grow our core audience and prove to people that what we’re doing is unique and exciting to come back again.
“It’s a risk, what we’re doing, and I’ve canceled everything I’ve had on my schedule for a year to do it, but, you know, it’s time to go big or go home.” And if you have an ace in that bag, now’s the time to serve it.
Las Vegas Sun | Q & A Clint Holmes Discusses His Show at the Palazzo Opening July 16th | Robin Leach |
Las Vegas Sun | Q & A Clint Holmes & Co-Producer, Ken Henderson Open Palazzo Show July 16th | Robin Leach |
By Robin Leach Friday, June 17, 2016 | 1:59 a.m.
It’s not that Clint has never performed on the Strip before. He had a seven-year run at Harrah’s before his four-year stint at Cabaret Jazz in the Smith Center. Add the acclaim he received performing for a year at Carlyle Cafe in New York filling the shoes of the late Bobby Short, and this is a well-seasoned performer.Ask Clint Holmes to ponder his new residency at Palazzo starting July 16, and he describes it as “exciting, frightening and fulfilling — all at once.” Is returning to the Strip with a brand new, transformed showroom at Palazzo a daunting task? The room is amazing. It’s a one-of-a-kind design. We want to take advantage of that, so there’s a lot going through my mind right now as we get ready for this. Entertainment-wise, we have to separate ourselves from the other musical shows in town, so we’re pouring through material of shows I’ve done on the Strip. This will be the most contemporary, and by that it means material from James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel right up to the present. I’m not going further back than them. Those people are the classic contemporary people. And today we have greats like John Legend, Adele, wonderful contemporary artists. That’s going to be a big difference in the show. At Cabaret Jazz, I had the opportunity to explore so many singers from yesterday, so many different kinds of music. Smith Center President Myron Martin and I decided when I started there was because we were doing shows so often, and people would be hopefully coming back to see them often, we’d have to change the show all the time. It was a challenge; it was also a great thing because I went through a lot and found some great material. That will be the flow of this new show, but Palazzo doesn’t expect me to do the traditional standards of Sammy Davis Jr. or Frank Sinatra. There’s a possibility that I would. You know, Robin, I have great respect for the artists who came before me that I learned from, so there’s a possibility of something of a bit of a tribute, but it would just be a moment in the show. It’s certainly not what the show is, what the show is about. Whenever I do a show, I try to build a — if not a specific story, certainly a flow and a reason for every song in the show. So when the audience leaves, they go with not just a series of songs, so, if in the flow I can find a way to tribute one of my heroes, I will do it. But certainly the show is not about Sinatra. It’s not about the Great American Songbook. The good news is there are still great songs being written. People tend to say they don’t write them like they used to, and my response is they’re not supposed to, and if you really listen, there are a lot of songs, very contemporary songs that I don’t like, that I just don’t relate to. But there are some great artists in music now, and that’s where we’re going to be, plus some of my original music in it. When I started the seven-year residency at Harrah’s, one of my favorite stories is when I got the deal and we had a few months before we opened, and I loved to see Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns perform, and my manager said, “That’s your band.” And I said, “That’s 12 pieces, I can’t afford 12 pieces.” And he said, “You can’t afford not to have 12 pieces because if you want to make a mark in this town, it’s going to have to be about more than the way you sing. It’s going to have to be the total package, the energy, the musicality, the excitement.” I hired Santa Fe, and turns out he was right. A huge part of my success there was the fact that people love that band, the music was so powerful and energized that it became that thing that people went out and talked about it. It was a great lesson to learn in a town like this. You really do have to find ways to separate yourself from all the people on the Strip doing amazing shows. Some of them are superstars like Lionel Richie and Celine Dion, so you literally have to find your way. For me it’s always going to be about the music. I leaned that at Harrah’s. It was the same at Cabaret Jazz and performing in New York, a slightly different animal. They look for different things in the shows, but I learned that people do get it when they’re really listening to the lyrics of the songs you sing. That’s why we’re calling the show “Between The Lines.” It’s like having a conversation with somebody and reading their eyes. It may tell you something that their words are not saying. You get the body language, too. A song is like that, too. A song can have meaning, sometimes they’re just fun, but there’s always something in there to find, and I learned that performing in New York. You have to go a little bit deeper, you have to be a bit more theatrical, you have to find the balance between the two. So having the opportunity to take those two lessons and do four years here at Cabaret Jazz, I had the freedom to explore all of it. Myron and the people there gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted. All those lessons learned bring me to this point and the new Palazzo show. Are you now ready for the new Strip again? I believe so, absolutely, and entertainment has changed since I was last on the Strip. I think that the huge production shows will always have a place, but I got the feeling that we got a little bit saturated with the huge productions, and people will always want personality entertainment. That’s how the town was built. With the advent of some of the artists, and include in that J.Lo, Celine, Britney Spears and Lionel Richie, that’s what I do. A one-performance production. I have a feeling it’s turning back around a bit. The way that we used to spend with Sinatra or Robert Goulet or Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme where you walked out really entertained by somebody special. I think there’s an appetite for that. The audience wants intimacy. And with this theater having 550, 560 seats, it’s very similar to what Harrah’s had. It’s the right room for what I do because it is intimate, and it needs to be. It’s also big enough for the band to play, and for it to be exciting, for the music to be hot, it’s all that, all the things I’ve learned. I played the big rooms like Carnegie Hall. I’ve played symphonies, and I’ve played Carlyle, which is just 90 seats. You really do learn what it is that you do that works for all of those rooms, and for me my show is personal. I don’t talk about myself, but this will be personal, intimate. You’re well along in the preparation and production in the show, you’ve hired your band, you’ve hired your backup singer, you’ve got the package together, you’re ready to rock? We’re certainly well on our way. We have identified much of the material where the musical director is doing the arrangements. We work every day. I give him my thoughts, my ideas, and we’ll go over it and massage it and get it to the place that we think it’s going to work. This week we should have the show completed so that we can sit down with the rest of the team, with the choreographer, the lighting people, and make sure that we’re all on the same page and feel good about the material before we go into rehearsals. |
By Robin Leach Tuesday, June 21, 2016 | 2 a.m.
We chatted with beloved Las Vegas singer-songwriter Clint Holmes, in a Q+A posted Friday morning, about his new show making its debut July 16 at Palazzo. Here is Part 2 of that talk that also includes co-producer Ken Henderson. Do you look at this as a challenge, as a new departure? How do you look at it? I just actually wrote a response to my co-producer, Ken Henderson, and put up a beautiful thing on Facebook. Ken wrote: “I am very excited about this project with Clint Holmes. It is not often in my business that you are friends before you work together. I have known Clint for many years and even collaborated and performed with him on a song we wrote for our Juvenile Diabetes Research charity gala where we both sat on the board. “Like all of you, I have been blown away by Clint’s performances through the years and have always wanted to find him the home he deserves where he can show the world what he does. Clint and I have always been in alignment on the fact that music creates the most powerful feelings, and it always seems to speak to what is happening in our lives. “We have spent many months creating this show that is exactly what is in both our souls, a show where the music will speak to you. You not only will think deeper about the feelings they evoke, but also have a clearer understanding of what the song says to us. “Clint is as humble and gracious as he is talented. He has given back to our community so many times, as well as given so many talented musicians work through the years. Most of our locals have had the chance to see him at the beautiful Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center where thanks to another amazing human being, Myron Martin, Clint was given the opportunity to perform the first week of every month. “Myron, who is also a good friend of mine, was very supportive of Clint’s opportunity and was eager to help in any way he could. I am certain that we will all work together again in the future. “I call this opportunity the perfect storm! Great friends who have created an amazing show, and thanks to another amazing friend, George Markantonis, president of the Venetian, Palazzo and Sands Expo, we have found a home. “I promise you this: We have the most powerful entertainer Clint Holmes, coupled with the most talented musicians, led by a musical prodigy, Christian Tamburr, in the most beautiful showroom in the most amazing resort hotel, Venetian-Palazzo, partnered with the most respected entertainment company. Hence the perfect storm. You won’t be disappointed!” So I wrote back to Ken saying, “I am still gathering my thoughts and feelings, but the one I’m sure of is gratitude. To you and the team we’ve put together, to Myron and the team at Cabaret Jazz who have given me the opportunity to continue to grow artistically, and to so many fans and friends who have been unbelievably supportive during my journey here. This next adventure is going to be exciting , fulfilling and frightening, everything that life should be about. “I know people have so many choices when they come to Las Vegas. Again, how do you make them find you? And that’s where the hotel comes in. The most important thing is the hotel supports it and gets you proper promotion. My job is to give them the show that they want, that people will enjoy. It’s the most exciting thing that I do in my life. Other than be with my wife, of course.” Ken, who is the president of Best Agency, told me: “We’re getting people to focus on what the music really is with the meaning of the song, how the music makes you feel, how it inspires, how it relates to love. There’s going to be a John Mayer tune, a John Legend tune. “This is going to be all about the musicians, every musician is going to be a key piece of the show, they’re going to have solos, they play multiple instruments. We can have five acoustic guitars playing at one point onstage. Our Cuban singer is stunning. She was better than anyone we’d ever seen. She played pianos backup to her own songs, so she gets a solo piano spot in the show, too, with the musicians. “Our show runs about 80 to 90 minutes with a 10 p.m., maybe 9:30 p.m. start. This lets our audience go to a restaurant comfortably, enjoy a great meal without racing through it, then come nearby to us where the seats have bar tables for late-night drinks. “About half of the songs are songs that you hear currently on the radio, and they’ll always stay current. The furthest we’ll go back is maybe Stevie Wonder, or Billy Joel, then evolve into Bruno Mars because Billy inspired Bruno. It’s all contemporary, upbeat music, nothing heavy in the show at all. “Clint has been very open about this. He loves it, its new challenges, a lot of energy. It’s getting a bit away from what he knows. We’ll have songs that everyone recognizes in a wonderfully large acoustic room. We’re looking at 16 songs in the show, and each member of the band will play in addition to the 16 songs. It’ll all move fast. This will be a big, national-looking show. “I’d been working on getting Clint for some time. One day, I was just talking to him, and all of a sudden he said that he was … it just kind of happened. He does this because he needs to do it and wants to share the music with his audiences. It’s who he is. “When Clint performs, he brings chills to people and tears because he gets so involved in the music. I actually kidnapped George and took him to Clint. I invited his wife and him to dinner, and I said we’re going to go somewhere afterward. I took him to the Smith Center. His jaw dropped as Clint did James Taylor songs. “No one compares Clint to anybody. They’re not saying, ‘He sounds like Frank Sinatra.’ He has his own sound. Sometimes with a song, you have to read between the lines to fully experience its meaning, and Clint is going to do that for you every night.” |