RICHARD JONES, bass, grew up in North Carolina and joined the band in eighth grade to be with a girl. He started by playing tuba, then clarinet and finally bass at age 16. He studied music at East Carolina University and then joined the USAF field band at Langley AFB in Virginia. The Diplomats (a band stationed in Washington, D.C.) came to Langley AFB and while jamming with them, they recommended he move to Washington, D.C. and audition for the USAF Top Hats where he ended up playing and touring with the Top Hats from 1962-64, then with the Airmen of Note from 1964-67. A fellow musician (tenor saxophonist Tony Osiecki) recommended he move to Las Vegas where there was LOTS of work! And this time, he wasn’t following a girl – he had met and married his wife in D.C. in 1965.

Dick came to Las Vegas in 1967 and his first year he played with the John Veith trio at Caesars’ lounge, five weeks at the Thunderbird Hotel with “Minsky’s Burlesque” and three weeks in the Blue Room at the Tropicana with Raoul Romero’s Orchestra. Maynard Sloate booked that room and he played behind Jane Russell, Berl Davis, Connie Haines and comedian Jackie Gayle. In 1968, he began playing with the Si Zentner Orchestra accompanying the “Follies Bergere” show at the Tropicana Hotel. He found it less than enjoyable since the orchestra was literally under the stage, the conductor’s head was sticking out a hole in the stage (which meant the singers could see his face but the musicians could only see him from the neck down) and the bass was in a tiny corner because the rest of the ceiling was too low for him to be anywhere else. In 1969, he joined forces with the Johnny Haig Orchestra where he stayed for over 25 years – beginning with the relief bands and then as the house band for Caesars Palace for over 10 years. As a relief band member, he would go to a different hotel every night and have to read the orchestral score while the house band had the night off. The casts from all the different hotels voted for the best relief band and Johnny Haig’s Orchestra won it for three years in a row. Johnny Haig took four years off during that time and Al Ramsey was the bandleader for the Caesars Orchestra during those four years.

Dick has accompanied multitudes of stars including Frank Sinatra, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Sammy Davis Jr., Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett, Elvis, Danny Thomas, and so many more! He performed in the MDA Telethon for Jerry Lewis for five years in Las Vegas, and while playing in the main showrooms of the Sands, Caesars, Stardust, Dunes, Aladdin, Tropicana and Sahara he figures he played for every major star who came to perform in Las Vegas from 1969-1996. He still plays regularly with such bands as Kent Foote’s Goodfellas Jazz Band, Jazzin’ Jeanne Brei’s Speakeasy Swingers and Ron Simone’s Jazz Quintet.