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ent000310-007
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    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    Tropicana presents musical tribute tofjazzi greats tmc^nightly r\ The Tropicana Hotel's musical tribute to the great jazz musicians, "Let Me Off Uptown," is presented on stage at 10 p.m. and midnight nightly at the Tropicana's new Cabaret. There is a special 2 a.m. show on weekends. -! The musical salutes Duke Ellington, Errol Garner, Fats Waller, Dinah Washington, Nat Cole, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong and others. produced and directed by Lenny and Mickie Martin, "Uptown" is staged and choreographed by Folics Ber- gere master, Jerry Jackson, with music presented by Terry Ryan. .3 Doris Troy, probably best known for "Just One Look" that she wrote and recorded and was later utilized by Mazda, is a lead performer in the show. Troy is reputed as Mother Soul and as one of today's great American jazz singers. Troy pay homage to jazz with her pounded-out version of Dinah Washington's '"What A Difference A Day Makes" and Nat Cole's "Route 66." Featured in the other main spotlight of "Uptown" is Bobby Wade, best known for his 12 years of legendary performances as a member of the world-famous Little Anthony and the Imperials. After Little Anthony parted from the Imperials in 1975, Bobby Wade took over as the group's lead vocalist" and business manager. A show business of 18 years, Wade has now come full circle utilizing his experience to become a "solo artist once again. His rendition of the Fats Waller "Honeysuckle Rose" reveals the quality and expertise of an ac complished artist. Likewise, the hit "Midnight Sun" . takes on a new dimension and sound when Wade is featured in a solo performance of this Lionel Hampton piece. Valerie Jackson, who sang background for Isaac Hayes, Al Green, Betty Crutcher and Mac Rice for more than 10 years before she stepped onto Cleopatra's Barge at Caesars Palace in 1980 to become a performer in her own right is a surprise "Uptown" star. Jackson sings the rhythm and blues hit "Mean to Me." a Fats Waller composition that epitomizes yesteryear's finest jazz sound. ; .?╟≤ ; .' . "Let Me Off Uptown" slices a historical piece out of an important era in the music industry, and in its campy : and broad way-style presentation, becomes a musical revue that is sheer entertainment. ' r^