Views of the Blue Note club signs on the Las Vegas Strip. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet.
Site address: 3663 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Blue Note International: Father & Son team of Danny and Steven Bensusan
Sign details: The Blue Note is located a short distance east, down Harmon Ave., on the north side of the street, facing south. It is part of the Aladdin Hotel Casino. A vacant lot resides on the corner, and is the only thing that separates the Blue Note from the Strip. Signage for the property includes two logo wall signs on the west wall of the building, a vertical blade sign and an entrance sign over the main port to the establishment.
Sign condition: Structure 5 Surface 5 Lighting 5
Sign form: Fascia
Sign-specific description: Just east off of Las Vegas Blvd, down Harmon Ave, lies the entrance to the "Blue Note: Jazz Capital of the World." The Blue Note is actually part of the Aladdin property, residing in the eastern most wing of the building, on the south side of Harmon. The majority of the signage hangs on the front of the building, which faces south toward Harmon Ave., with additional signage on the west face of the structure that extends from the Aladdin property. A vacant lot on the north east corner separates the Blue Note from the rest of the strip. The structure of the building and the design of the signage are juxtaposed with the building still being finished in a Persian Palace theme. While the signs are reminiscent of roaring twenties style font and theatre front design. Several different types of signs adorn the Blue Note. Two wall /logo signs hang on the west side of the building, while a sculpted entrance marquee, a hanging logo sign, and a vertical blade sign hung on the south side of the building. The west wall logo sign is composed of blue channel letters spelling the text " Blue Note," separated by a circular cabinet with a tube of neon bent to emulate the shape of a musical note placed in the middle. Five steel bars just out from either side of the cabinet. Below the text, a white steel cabinet with rounded ends, support a thin set of blue channel letters reading, "Jazz capital of the world." Further to the right a set of pink channel letters rest upon the upper portion of the corner of the structure. The letters are filled with pink neon. Along the South face of the building the first sign, hung in close proximity to the southwest corner, a vertical blade sign sits on a radius base of shaped molding jutting out of the wall. The actual body of the sign is a double backed cabinet finished in polished aluminum, with blue pin striping along the edges as well as along the rounded edge of the top. Near the top of the sign, the same rounded cabinet seen on the west wall of the structure, is integrated into the blade facing east/west. The cabinet is thicker in width to compensate for the width of the actual sign. The edges of the steel structure are painted in the same blue tone. The afore mentioned blue neon tubing fashioned into the shape of the note resides in this cabinet also. Along the east/west sides of the sign the text "The Blue Note," runs vertically from top to bottom, in blue channel letters only interrupted by the circular cabinet. The panel, which the text resides is painted white. Along the edge of the blade, which faces south, the text "Blue Note" is spelled vertically in blue channel letters. Sitting along the edge of the base, which the sign sits on, thin red channel letters stand almost independently, wrapping around the radius of the base. Starting on the west side of the sign and finishing on the east side, the text reads "Club & Cafe." These letters are filled with tubes of red neon. The letters are attached to a backing radius band of metal appearing to be gold. Further down the face of the building the main entrance to the building plays host to an overhead marquee/logo sign incorporating sculptural elements as well. Directly in the center of the composition, a long horizontal cabinet plays host to the red channel letters filed with red neon, reading, "World's Finest Jazz Club." Sitting on the top edge of the cabinet the same configuration of the Blue Note logo sign along with the circular cabinet, rests in front a sculpted piece of black steel. This piece of black painted steel is cut to appear as if it is the open top to a piano. Along the interior edge of the lid tubes of blue neon form a blue border. Between the piano top and the Blue Note logo, a horizontal steel grate serves as a divider as well as support for the blue channel letters. This entire section sits on a long horizontal ledge composed of a long polished steel section with a long LED message center just below that. Slightly recessed below the message center another width of overhang constructed of steel is painted to appear as if it is made of piano keys. Along the wall, just above the door, the pink channel letters read "Insomnia" with pink neon on the interior.
Sign - type of display: Neon
Sign - media: Steel; Fiberglass
Sign - non-neon treatments: Paint
Sign environment: Situated just east off the strip, down Harmon Avenue, the Blue Note is the only attraction in its immediate area. Even though it is part of the Aladdin complex, the closest property is the Harley Davidson Cafe on the south east corner of Harmon and Las Vegas Blvd At night, the property loses its Arabian Nights architecture emitting a sultry glow of neon. It is hard to miss, if a pedestrian peers down the street while traveling north or south, on the east side of the strip. During the day, the architecture helps to blend in the property to appear as it is, part of the Aladdin.
Sign manufacturer: YESCO
Sign - date of installation: 2000
Sign - thematic influences: The building itself is part of the actual Aladdin property, so the faced of the structure is themed in the manner of an ancient Persian city. It is an interesting juxtaposition for the sleek, modern finish and colors of the signage, with the organic facade of domed towers and stone facade. The Blue note signage is themed around the subject of music, specifically Jazz and Blues music. The blue hue of the neon, and the cabinet containing the crafted musical note are all evidence of this. The blade sign is thematically influenced by marquee building signs for theaters and music clubs from the first part of the century, specifically the forties and fifties. Such examples that utilized a similar designed blade sign were properties from the 1930's 40's and 50's such as The Boulder Club, The Pioneer Club, and the Las Vegas Club.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Fascia; Neon; Steel; Fiberglass; Paint

Thomas Nartker was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and most of his family, including three brothers and a sister, still live there. He attended grade school and high school there, and then attended the University of Dayton. He majored in chemical engineering, following the example of his father, who had a degree in electrical engineering. By the time he was a sophomore in college, he was six-foot nine and had spent some time on the basketball court, but when asked to play his senior year at U. of D., he declined. He had already been accepted for graduate study at the University of Tennessee. Thomas finished all course work and research on his master's in one year, everything but the thesis. He interviewed over 30 companies before he graduated, but an interview with DuPont in Delaware made him think about the value of a PhD in his line of work. He applied and was accepted at Texas A&M. He worked with Dave Billingsley, who was the resident computer expert, and Dave showed him how to process all the data he had collected for his master's thesis on the IBM 650. Tom had found a new passion. Within a year, Tom was working as an assistant in the data processing center at Texas A&M, and was also the teaching assistant for the computer programming class. After completing his PhD, which took 6 years, Thomas began interviewing again. He accepted a position at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMIMT) as assistant professor of mathematics and director of the computing center. He left NMIMT in 1981 and took a job with Shell Oil Company, which included 5 years as a visiting staff member at Los Alamos. In 1985 he met John Werth, who ultimately offered Tom a job at UNLV. Tom made the move to Las Vegas in July of 1985. Dr. Nartket and Dr. Taghva started the UNLV Information Science Research Institute and did experimental research on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for the Department of Energy (DOE). They invented many metrics never seen before, including a metric called Nonstop Word Accuracy. Today UNLV is known worldwide for being the premier center for doing research in OCR technology. Thomas is in his seventies today and continues with his research and teaching because he loves it. He has enjoyed over two decades at UNLV and finds it a rewarding and intellectual place to be. He considers this university to be one of the most exciting in the country as it grows in research and service.