Vegas horn players share Toyota ride with Hudson, Clarkson

Call it the Supra Bowl.

We’re referring to the Toyota National Dealer Meeting from last week, which threw the spotlight on a quartet of Las Vegas horn specialists.

The show starred Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson. A good chunk of the high-performance Santa Fe & The Fat City horns backed Hudson during her closing set. The concert on Sept. 22 capped the annual Toyota sales convention.

Trumpet great Danny Falcone was the link to the band and the show. He brought in Nathan Tanouye, Phil Wigfall and Eric Tewalt to fill out the horn section. You might recognize these cats from Lady Gaga’s “Jazz + Piano” production, and before that Celine Dion’s “A New Day …” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Falcone had also previously worked a one-off with Aretha Franklin at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in July 2012. The music director that night, Fred Nelson III, was Franklin’s music director for the last seven years of her life ending in 2018.

Nelson was also the MD for the just-released Franklin biopic, “Respect,” starring Hudson. He remembered working with Falcone in Vegas, and asked him to perform for the folks who sell Tacomas, Camrys and Carollas.

Hudson sang such favorites as “Respect,” “Think,” and “One Night With the King.” Hudson and Clarkson (who had performed with just a rhythm section in her set) teamed for “You’re All I Need to Get By,” with the horns back onstage.

“It’s an honor to be onstage with such great singers, and hopefully it can lead to more work,” Falcone says. “These can be great gigs for exposure, but you need a lot more of them to make a living.”

Falcone recalls that 2012 show with the legendary Franklin as a high-water mark in his career. Falcone also remembers Franklin cashing in, for real, during that show.

The recording superstar, who never flew to shows, traveling only by bus, was escorted to the stage by an assistant. This deputy carried a large Louis Vuitton duffel bag to the drum set.

“This bag was sitting next to the drummer, all through the show,” Falcone said. “When we were done with the show, the guy picks up the bag and walks off with it.”

The bag was stuffed with that night’s payment, which was believed to be $250,000.

“She always required that she was paid in cash, in advance,” Falcone said. “She had been burned so much by club owners in the ’50s, being paid up-front was mandatory. She never took a check. I heard one story of a housekeeper finding $25,000 in a drawer after she checked out of her room, where she’d gotten distracted after counting up her payment.”

Falcone had a history with Clarkson, too. He played the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards show at MGM Grand Garden, where Clarkson had also performed. Falcone, the son of Frank Sinatra’s late legendary music director and pianist Vince Falcone, performed with Stevie Wonder at that show.

Falcone concedes he has a “musical crush” on Clarkson, and actually found Clarkson backstage at that event to introduce himself. His intro was, “I just played with Stevie Wonder,” to which Clarkson called out, “Shut the (expletive) up! I love Stevie Wonder!” and punched the musician in the arm.

“Eight years later, it finally comes to pass,” Falcone says. “I’m such a fan of Kelly Clarkson. She was super nice, really cool. It just shows what a small world it is when you work in Las Vegas.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.