At age of 87, ROGER HALL, saxophonist, still loves to play the music of his youth, that larger-than-life big band sound that he says no longer commands respect among the casino bosses in this town.

In an earlier life, he played in bands backing Nat King Cole, and Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of the original Rat Pack. Yet, with the city’s backbeat overtaken by a new generation of bejeweled rappers and DJs, he has found fewer places to blow his alto sax in a big band. One by one, restaurants such as Peppers and the Italian American Club, which used to host bands, all closed. The Italian American Club has recently reopened.

But Roger still plays his alto sax alongside the “Super 80s Jazz Saxes,” who are all older than 80 years old, while performing with The Thursday Night Band in The Garage in Henderson.  The Garage is a Quonset-hut-shaped space big enough to hold a dozen cars, built by a local music lover to house the impromptu jam sessions of players dedicated to the old swing-band sounds of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.