Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] at (702) 259-4058.
Las Vegas lounges don't suffer from a lack of impersonators, tribute artists who focus on legends from the pages of musical history.
However, Spectrum, at the Boardwalk's Lighthouse Lounge, focuses on the musical history itself.
The quartet brings back the sounds of early Motown, performing hits by such legends as the Commodores ("Nightshift"), the Temptations ("My Girl"), the Four Tops ("Reach out, I'll be There"), the Isley Brothers ("It's Your Thing") and the Drifters ("Up on the Roof").
This hard-working group performs three shows nightly (except Mondays) -- at 6 p.m., 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
It doesn't take long for word to spread through the casino that Spectrum is onstage. As soon as their close harmonies are heard drifting through the room, the lounge begins to fill.
There have been several members of Spectrum since the group was created by Cushney Roberts as a Four Tops tribute group.
Spectrum was among the first groups to perform at the Stratosphere, which opened in April 1996. After a few months there, the group joined "Legends in Concert" at Imperial Palace, leaving in 2000 for a tour of Germany before going to work at the Boardwalk on Jan. 1, 2002.
Current Spectrum members are Roberts, Darryl Grant, Freddie House and David L. Prescott.
Grant, a native of Oakland, Calif., began singing with the San Francisco Boys Choir when he was a child. For several years he was lead singer for the Magic of the Blue (A former backup band for Blue Magic, which later became Fat Larry's Band).
House has a deep baritone-bass voice reminiscent of Lou Rawls. The Chicago native has recorded on the RCA label with Merge and has toured with The Gap Band and Dazz and the Dells, among others.
Prescott performed with the Sounds of Motions, which opened for Chubby Checker and Donny Osmond. The group moved to Vegas in the late '90s and landed a gig at New York-New York's Motown Cafe until the venue closed in 2000.
The 48-year-old Roberts has been the one constant with Spectrum.
It has become his passion.
"This is the music I grew up to," Roberts said.
So did a lot of others, which is why Spectrum has become a hot commodity at the Boardwalk.
Surprisingly, Roberts got a relatively late start as a professional musician.
Initially, he was going to be a civil engineer, which is what he got his degree in from Princeton in '76.
"My parents encouraged me to get a good education, a good job and that type of thing," Roberts said.
He chose engineering because he was good at math and science and didn't want to be a doctor because it would take too long.
"I could get an undergraduate degree in engineering in four years," Roberts said.
Singing had always been part of his life, beginning with a church choir when he was growing up in East Orange, N.J.
"When the Beatles came along, me and my friends formed a band," Roberts said. "But no one was thinking about it professionally. It was just something we did for fun."
After college graduation he was an engineer by day, but he usually found himself moonlighting at night as a performer, whether in Philadelphia (where he worked for General Electric), Chicago (when he was with Baxter Laboratories) or Dallas.
"In Chicago I did a major Las Vegas-style production show for two and a half years," Roberts said. "We did seven shows a week at the Sabre Room."
He said working as an engineer during the day and an entertainer at night was grueling, but he loved it.
Roberts moved to Dallas in the early '80s to work for Frito Lay. After a few years he was laid off and decided to take a more serious look at what once had been more of a hobby than anything else.
"The biggest thing I landed in Dallas was an acting and singing role in a Broadway equity play called 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' " Roberts said.
When the play closed he worked at a few nightclubs around town, but eventually moved to Las Vegas in '87.
"There didn't seem to be much opportunity in Dallas," he said.
Roberts found work fairly quickly in Vegas, thanks to a connection with the legendary Treniers.
"I had some good breaks early on," Roberts said.
It wasn't always easy finding gigs, however. There were a few rough spots in the road, but Roberts smoothed them out.
Hey, he's an engineer.
Lounging around
Local comedian Cork Proctor will be the auctioneer for the fifth Annual New Horizons Academy Art Show & Auction to be held Saturday at the school's campus, 6701 W. Charleston Blvd. New Horizons is a private school that specializes in students with learning disabilities. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served at 5:30 p.m., a silent auction and drawing will be held at 6 p.m. and the live auction begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
The Tim Pratt Trio appears from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays at the Ventano Restaurant, 191 Arroyo Grande Blvd., in Henderson. The trio includes Pratt on drums, bassist Chris Gordan and tenor saxophonist Wayne DeSilva. They play straight-ahead jazz in the tradition of Miles Davis, Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington. For more information, call Ventano at 944-4848.
Chris and Dan Brubeck, sons of renowned pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, will perform with their Brubeck Brothers Quartet in a free concert at 7 p.m. May 29 at City Park, across from City Hall at Fourth Street and Stewart Avenue. Call 229-6704 for information.
Elvis impersonators from around the world will congregate at the Lady Luck May 30 through June 1 for the second annual Professional Elvis Impersonators Association's convention. Showcase tickets are $20. VIP Passes for the entire weekend (which includes a number of parties) are $80. For information, call (702) 860-8566.
Monti Rock III's annual 60th birthday party will be held at 7 p.m. May 31 at Chameleon Studios, 6340 Hinson St. Admission is $13, a donation to be used to fight AIDS. The Desert Diva, a Las Vegas columnist, says he will have several surprise announcements during the spectacular event.
Jive DeLuxe, a swing band from Nashville, performed at the Cannery last week. It was an incredible evening of music, if you're into swing. A group of young adults, members of a local Lindy Hop dance club, were almost as much a part of the entertainment as the musicians. Watching dancers in their early 20s making moves that were created almost 80 years ago was a delight. Hopefully Jive Deluxe will make it back to Vegas soon.
Art Vargas, formally with "Legends in Concert" as a Bobby Darin impersonator, performs at Bally's Indigo Lounge from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays (Dark Mondays and Tuesdays). Vargas, filled with boundless energy, is a throwback to old Las Vegas, when lounge entertainers put on shows that involved more than one person singing a song to recorded music.
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