By Bruce Klauber
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Bassist Andy Lalasis is known as a “first call player.” For those not in the music business, when any top-tier singer, band, orchestra or ensemble is in need of a bass player – whether the genre is pop, jazz, fusion, rock, funk, country music or symphonic music – Andy Lalasis is called first.
On May 28, 1978, Resorts International Hotel/Casino, the first legal gambling casino in New Jersey, opened. Musicians in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas flocked to the shore. Lalasis was one of them, moving to Smithville, where he still resides.
“I went down the shore around 1979, not long after Resorts was opening. I left Rowan (then Glassboro State College) early and I didn’t complete my degree because they were opening the casinos, and I knew that playing down there was my calling,” he recalls.
He got his start at All That Jazz, a place on Pacific Avenue, playing from 2 to 5 a.m. The band was led by an artist who would become a giant in Atlantic City and elsewhere; reedman Michael Pedicin, Jr. Bobby Young, who would become the contractor at Steve Wynn’s Golden Nugget, wandered in one night and was so blown away by Lalasis and the rhythm section that he offered him a job.
Lalasis admits that he didn’t even know who Bobby Young was, but he showed up on the appointed day. This was around 1983, and it marked the beginning of a long and stellar career.
The spot within the Golden Nugget was Elaine’s lounge where the rhythm section backed a different act each week including Buddy Greco, Keely Smith, Joanie Sommers, Billy Daniels, Frank D’Rone, and many others.
The rhythm section became known as the best in town. In addition to Lalasis on bass, Paul Jost played drums, and the trio used a number of pianists including a 20-year-old Dean Schneider, Demetrios Pappas, John DiMartino and Dave Hartl.
