Drummer assembling bands for blues club

A night in the new B.B. King's Blues Club won't always include a potential jam session with Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Willie Nelson, though it could happen at the club's grand opening Friday.

On a normal night, house bands bring the Memphis sound to the new club at The Mirage. And it's Tony Coleman's job to oversee them.

Coleman has been King's drummer off and on since 1979, and he now assembles the bands that play the five U.S. locations of the blues club franchise (not counting New York, which is run by other people).

"It has to be the roots, not the fruits of the tree," Coleman says of the bands that play mostly blues and its Memphis offshoots, such as Stax Records-flavored R&B.

This should come as good news to locals, who just saw the Sand Dollar Blues club close on the other side of Interstate 15. (The club's Web site promises it will reopen "across the street soon.") Unlike the House of Blues or the new Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip, B.B. King's is "all in one" with restaurant and live bands in the same room.

The new nightspot may be a long mile from the Sand Dollar when it comes to drink prices, but Coleman says the house bands of 10 to 12 players and singers will include local players hired individually.

Coleman likens it to assembling a football team. "I know what the owner (president Tommy Peters) wants and I'm the coach to implement it." Much of his job, he says, is "breaking it down to basics." A musician may be technically trained, "but the feeling may not necessarily be there."

Having spent so many years drumming for the 84-year-old guitar great, Coleman assures me King "tells you exactly how he wants it. He puts his foot in my ass after every gig." ...

This weekend's debut of Garth Brooks at Wynn Las Vegas comes right on top of a CD/DVD release of Beyoncé's summer shows in the 1,500-seat Encore Theater.

Last week's column noted the Paris Las Vegas plan to book other performers around Barry Manilow's 78 dates per year. Steve Wynn doesn't feel the same need, based on his comments when I listened again to the October news conference announcing Brooks' deal to play 15 weekends each year.

"It doesn't need to be used all the time," said Wynn, who has "Le Reve" running full time in an adjacent venue. Beyoncé and Brooks "establish a level I don't want to change. ... This room is about special moments of entertainment."

"Beyoncé wants to come back," he said in October, adding there is "no need to talk about deals we haven't made."

The Brooks news conference also supported the notion of Bette Midler playing Wynn Las Vegas after she wraps her contract at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in January. "Bette Midler was screaming," Wynn said, as one of the 1,100 people attending a private show in June, when Brooks tested the waters for a residency.

Midler was part of a superstar lineup Wynn originally attempted to assemble for Wynn Las Vegas. But the deal went south during negotiations at management levels beyond their personal relationship. ...

M Resort's Anthony Marnell designed his casino around an outdoor entertainment/pool area, which left him unsure of what would happen in the winter months. On Sunday, the resort will find out how patrons respond to a Grand Ballroom concert by Bowfire, which brings together fiddlers from all musical genres for a "Holiday Heartstrings" concert. ...

Bill Engvall, who does stand-up today and Friday at Treasure Island, floats an interesting idea.

He recalls the legends of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin pushing blackjack dealers out of the way at the Sands, dealing cards to high rollers with helpful shakes or nods of the head.

Corporate-run casinos, not to mention gaming controllers, would be apoplectic now. "But I thought, what a great marketing thing," Engvall says. "What if you did a thing where all the winnings would go to charity?"

Well, why not?

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.