From the ’70s to the early ’80s, any guitarist or trumpet player with a few well-rehearsed licks could get a gig in and around Atlantic City. Within a few years, the ascendance of synthesized tracks during the mid-1980s made purists fear that living, breathing musicians were an endangered species, at least in the casinos.

Today, as Atlantic City positions itself as an entertainment capital to rival Vegas and New York, the pendulum is swinging back. At the casinos, live music is again in vogue. Especially now, with the summer beach bars at full throttle, great live performance is available most nights of the week.

The bar scene’s thriving too. From Sandy Hook to Cape May, almost every shore town has a bar or club jumping with live jazz, blues, rock and roll, or alternative music (a broad label that encompasses punk, rock, hardcore, metal, the remnants of grunge, and anything loud enough to induce hearing loss by the age of 30).

“I think it goes in cycles, honestly,” says singer Gina Roché, whose Brazilian sound and samba beat have made her band, the Gina Roché Quartet, a popular attraction around town. “I’ve gotten more gigs this summer than I normally do, and the beach bars are everywhere, with rock and roll or pop groups all playing live instead of playing a track. It’s a great thing.”

Roché has been around long enough to recall the rise of live music in the early heyday of casinos, and its fall.

“Back in the ’80s, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a fabulous band,” she says. “From morning till night, every casino had different rooms playing live music. That changed drastically for a while. They started to close down all the lounges, and a lot of people stopped working. Now we’re on an upswing.”

“It’s really great for bands right now,” agrees guitarist Fran Vuotto of the band Eddie’s Garage. “There was a time when the bars only wanted DJs and karaoke, but live music is coming around again.”

Singer-songwriter Patty Blee gives credit to Borgata for helping to reignite live music at Atlantic City’s casinos.

“Borgata created a big shift in the way casinos looked at their (entertainment) venues,” Blee says. “The Gypsy Bar became a big showcase for full-size bands. Then everybody decided to compete at that level.”

Blee and her occasional partner, Patty Balbo (as a duo, they’re Patty and Patty) have played just about every casino in town—Showboat, the Hilton, Resorts—and appear regularly at the Forum Lounge at Caesars. With a laid-back mix of covers (Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow) as well as original music, the self-described “country-folk-rock” artists prove there’s more to casino music than hip hop, thumping house music, straight-ahead rock or the much-parodied “lounge lizard” soft pop genre.

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

Working musicians who spoke for this article agree that live music is back. That doesn’t mean that those interested in bill-paying can rule out the occasional day job.

“I’ve worked the front desk at Borgata to keep it all together,” Blee says. “You’ve gotta find ways to do what you love.”

That sentiment is echoed by Danny Eyer, who started working the casinos shortly after Resorts International opened in 1978. The multi-intrumentalist once sold instruments at a Nashville music store, works behind the scenes as a sound engineer, composes jingles, and plays a number of styles. That diversity, he says, keeps him busy almost non-stop.

“As versatile as you are (determines) how easy it is for you to work,” Eyer says. “I’m an old soul guy. I love classic rock, standard jazz things—that’s kind of where I’m at. But if a musician wants to be a full-timer, you do what it takes. If the phone rings and it’s Ed calling from the polka band, or Steve calling with a wedding, you pick up the phone and say, ‘Yes.’ Then you put on the tuxedo and go to the gala ball.”

Opportunities that were once plentiful for larger ensembles have largely gone by the wayside, he adds. “When I first came into the casinos, you could have five, six pieces or more and they wouldn’t blink an eye, whereas now if you have more than three people in most places, forget it.” As a result, Eyer coaxes a big, bluesy sound from a trio, and plays plenty of local venues (the Deck at Trump Marina, the Ocean City Boardwalk, restaurants like Mangia and the Tuckahoe Inn). Along the way, he’s accompanied superstar performers like Johnny Winter at Trump Marina, ZZ Top at Trump Taj Mahal, and B.B. King at the House of Blues. He thinks talented musicians can always find a stage in the Atlantic City area.

“It’s a great place to play,” Eyer says. “If you are any kind of musician, there’s lots of opportunity here.”

REMEMBER WHEN

The resurgence of live music didn’t come soon enough to save some of the shore’s legendary clubs. Take Tony Mart’s, for decades one of the East Coast’s hottest nightclubs. With its landmark blazing neon arrow, the Somers Point trolley stop-turned-rathskeller-turned-swingin’-hot-spot once had six bars, more than 30 bartenders and bouncers, and two stages for live music.

In the 1960s, Levon and the Hawks (later The Band) played there. And in 1982, the rock-and-roll coming-of-age movie Eddie and the Cruisers was filmed at Tony Mart’s, which closed shortly thereafter.

Gone too are Crilley’s Circle Tavern in Brigantine, which hosted scores of young rock bands until the mid-1990s, and the Bubba Mac Shack, which lasted about seven years in Somers Point (and later, in Ocean City) before owner Herb “Bubba” Birch closed the doors.

Birch knows well the vagaries of the music business. He created the Mid-Atlantic Blues and Music Festival, held at Bernie Robbins Stadium in September 2007, with an eye toward making it an annual event. Unfortunately, the first festival, with a lineup that included New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Johnny Lee Hooker Jr. and the Legends of Chicago Blues, coincided with an occurrence as rare as the aurora borealis in the lower 48.

“It was the only time the Phillies ever made the playoffs,” says Birch ruefully. “The show was great, everybody loved it, but it just didn’t draw enough.” He now calls music “my favorite hobby,” and, like so many others, prefers to simply play the circuit with his ensemble, the Bubba Mac Blues Band.

“We’re at Trump Marina’s Deck every Monday—a great spot with a serious sound system; we opened for Three Dog Night in front of the Hilton (in July). That was fun too. We play on the boardwalk in Ocean City every week. Everyone knows Bubba.”

COVER ME

Another rabidly popular party band in South Jersey is Don’t Call Me Francis, which plays regularly at the Marina Deck. With its goofy name, manic front man Frank Orsini, lots of brass and a repertoire of crowd-rousing covers (“Let’s Groove Tonight,” “Smooth,” “Brick House”), the nine-piece ensemble, around since 1991, has succeeded by recreating, with absolute fidelity, the best Top 40 dance, funk and rock tunes of the past three decades.

“We rock with the best, we dance with the best, we cha-cha with the best,” says Orsini. “We are a straight-ahead, high-energy, smash-mouth non-stop dance party band, and knock wood, we seem to have captured the essence of Atlantic City. We get an extraordinary turnout.”

Though music snobs sometimes sneer at cover bands, Orsini’s level of musicianship and showmanship is high; former band members have gone on to work with the likes of Gloria Estefan, Jay Z and Chicago.

“Presentation is the whole thing,” says the trumpeter, who grew up listening to Maynard Ferguson and Harry James. “I’ve seen bands with loose arrangements who are not executing well, who are just going through the motions. That’s not the way. When I’m onstage, I don’t sing, I holler. I don’t dance, I stomp. I don’t play, I blow.”

To anyone who discounts cover bands as also-rans, Trump Marina’s director of entertainment Bill Schmal has a reminder: “The Beatles were a cover band before they were the Beatles. They played cover tunes when they were teenagers” and later recorded many songs written and recorded by others (the Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout,” Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love,” Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t,” and even the ballad “Till There Was You” from The Music Man).

“That’s how you work,” says Schmal. “That’s how you find your legs when you’re figuring out the music business.”

For musicians here, Schmal is an important man to know. He presides over entertainment at the Deck, which may be the most popular place in the city for live cover bands delivering “party, rock, and old-school dance tunes.

“The environment, with its backdrop of million-dollar yachts, is more appropriate to Miami’s South Beach,” Schmal says. “It’s spectacular.”

To the great view, add a friendly party atmosphere that attracts up to 1,000 patrons a night for popular, been-around-forever bands including Francis, Louie Louie, Bubba Mac, John Eddie, the Usual Suspects and LeCompt. Tuesday is Country Night, Wednesday, Island Night. Cover bands all. All in huge demand.

“All the casinos want cover bands,” says Bill Borenstein, regional director of entertainment for the Harrah’s properties. “So do the beach bars. So do the bars in Point Pleasant and Bellmawr. To play, you have to be willing to do covers. Then you try to sneak in one or two originals.”

PLAYING AROUND

Some artists, like vocalist Terri Showers, prefer a more intimate setting, and Dante Hall Theater of the Arts—capacity about 250—fills that bill.

“It’s beautiful,” says Showers. “When I look at those stained glass windows, I get an old-time feeling.”

And no wonder. Showers, whose grandmother, Rozelia Cobb, was choirmaster at Macedonia United Methodist Church in Ocean City, started singing on Sunday mornings in church. She later won several competitions at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, and has backed up name performers like Patti LaBelle and James Ingram.

Fronting the Terri Showers Blues Band, she will bring her own brand of blues, R&B, funk and jazz to Dante Hall August 9, and thanks the venue for providing a stage for a broad range of acts—from opera to comedy to big band music, as well as many local artists who might not have what she calls “the look” of a casino act.

“Image is very important when it comes to show business, but I think Atlantic City, especially Dante Hall, is kind of breaking the trend of being pencil thin, and being more about the art of singing,” Showers says. “If the norm is thin and absolutely gorgeous, I’m not what they are necessarily looking for. I just do what I do from the heart.”

Her band plays original compositions along with some “pure blues, like ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ and ‘Who’s Making Love’ by Johnny Taylor, some Chaka Khan, some Aretha Franklin—even Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time.’ I do a nice jazz acoustic version of that.”

Michele Giampaolo, who performs with the Doug Murdock Meistersingers, agrees that Dante Hall is a vital resource for area performers, and a boon for lovers of the performing arts.

“There is such a lot of local talent that’s just tremendous, and it’s really important to find the venues and opportunities to perform. For us, Dante Hall is perfect. We sold out there.”

MAKING IT

Many bands today sell themselves and their music through free social websites like youtube and myspace, but nothing takes the place being onstage to develop an act and build a fan base.

In an age of instant celebrity via TV shows like American Idol, “some people forget that Bruce Springsteen began at local bars in the middle of nowhere,” says Borenstein. “You can be on youtube, but you still have to pay your dues and build a fan base. The one thing (casinos) look for is bands that have a following.”

Some young musicians in town gripe that the casinos do little to get local talent onstage. On occasion, the House of Blues at Showboat enlists unknown talent to open for incoming name bands; the eager prospects—groups from Jersey and elsewhere—are winnowed out by Borenstein and his staff, who receive countless CDs from unknowns.

“We review everything,” Borenstein says. “Everyone will get at least a response that says, ‘Hey, we got it and we will call you.’ But it’s tough. The toughest part is that there’s only a limited amount of (opportunities) for local openers. But we try to accommodate them, and sometimes I will say to my guys, ‘Go out and see (a certain band).’”

If a band gets that gig—the chance to open for a star, that toehold in the business—it also gets an opportunity to play some original material.

“They won’t get paid a lot of money,” warns Borentein. “They get the opportunity to perform in front of a national act in a professional venue.”

And the rest is up to them.

THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE

A jam-packed hang for alternative bands and their followers is Le Grand Fromage (The Big Cheese) in Gordon’s Alley. Three local bands that regularly appear there—Just In Case, CircleDown and JumpShip—are unanimous in their praise of the club’s edgy vibe and unstinting support of young talent.

We asked each of these groups for their opinions, experiences, aspirations—even their marketing strategies.

JUST IN CASE

Describe your music in 15 words or less: Real. High. Energy. Rock and roll.

Where do you play locally? We love playing the Fromage. We also have a very cool gig monthly at Stumpo's in Somers Point. Any venue that supports original local music is good in our book.

How do you find the music scene in Atlantic City? It basically consists of Le Grand Fromage at this point. Other than a few shows at the House Of Blues a few years ago, the scene here is predominantly cover bands.

How do you market your band? The main and obvious answer is myspace. It's the easiest, fastest, and simplest way to promote the band. We also promote local shows heavily by word of mouth.

Is there an audience for your music here? We have loyal fans that have stuck by our side through the whole thing, and see newer fans with every show. So we have a nice audience locally, but we’re eager to venture away for a while to see what else we can achieve.

CIRCLEDOWN

Describe your music in 15 words or less: Blending hardcore, metal and alternative genres into a heavy, groove-driven, melodic sound.

Where do you play locally? The only place we play in AC is the LGF.

How do you find the music scene in Atlantic City? It’s not as good as it could be, considering that Atlantic City caters mostly to the 21-plus crowd. The major demographic for original bands is 16-to-25, but that seems to be changing due to venues like LGF, which caters to local and unsigned acts and has special 18-plus nights.

How do you market your band? Through social networking sites and word of mouth. Using sites like myspace and Facebook gives bands the opportunity to let the world hear their music rather than relying on labels or investors to market them. The competition is higher, because of the sheer volume of musicians the listener has access to. That weeds out fly-by-night and overall bad bands as a whole, but at the same time forces others to innovate or “tighten” their sound so they stand out. Which in the end only benefits the listener with new sounds/styles and prevents a potentially stagnant marketplace.

Is there an audience for your music here? We have a fan base here (more so online), but we’re in an area that caters to cover bands so the likelihood of being passed up for them is quite high.

JUMPSHIP

Describe your music in 15 words or less: An older-sounding punk rock sound, influenced by great punk rock and hardcore bands from the mid 1970s to 1989.

Where do you play locally? Le Grand Fromage is really the only consistent club supporting local original music

How do you find the music scene in Atlantic City? The local music scene is currently in a slump, though some new bands are emerging. If it wasn’t for Le Grand Fromage, it might be dead.

How do you market your band? We market Jumpship through myspace, Championship Records and the Local Commotion radio show.

Is there an audience for your music here? We have a very supportive following and remain grateful that Le Grand Fromage supports not only Jumpship but all original music.

SING, SING, SING

When you sing in the shower, do you sound just like Mariah Carey? When you warble on the way to work, could you be mistaken for Jon Bon Jovi? You’re no pro, but hey, you sound pretty good. Why not wow a live audience by singing karaoke?

Planet Rose, at the Quarter at Tropicana, is the place to go, seven nights a week, all year long, to test your pipes in a real nightclub setting.

The atmosphere is a bit over-the-top, admits founder David Pena: “There’s the hot pink neon bar, zebra-striped furniture, red walls—the idea is to make customers feel it’s not a bar but a surreal lounge. It brings out the animal qualities, makes people feel a little sexy.”

And uninhibited. It takes a brave (or very confident, or slightly inebriated) soul to stand in for Aretha or Elvis on the greatest pop hits of all time. But a night at Planet Rose is guaranteed good fun, which makes the place a big draw for birthday parties and bachelorette outings.

On Mondays through Labor Day, anyone can sing karaoke for free, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., on the Boardwalk. Most popular are “the anthems,” Pena says—“Livin On A Prayer,” “Welcome to the Jungle”—and singalongs like “Sweet Caroline.’”

Part of the fun of karaoke (“empty orchestra” in Japanese), is the possibility of discovering a genuine talent.

“You never know when somebody’s going to grab the mic and be really good,” says Pena (who also gave us Boogie Nights at Resorts). “When it happens, it’s a thrill.”

CLASSICAL GAS

On Thursday, September 18, the Bay Atlantic Symphony will celebrate its 25th year with an extraordinary blend of classical music and airborne choreography at Borgata’s Music Box Theater.

The symphony, with up to 80 gifted classical musicians from South Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and beyond, will play a repertoire of classical music’s “greatest hits.” They will be accompanied by Cirque de la Symphonie, an acrobatic Russian dance troupe that specializes in exquisite high-flying aerial moves like the colorful “ribbon dance.”

It’s not the Bay Atlantic’s local debut. Conductor Jed Gaylin recalls a spectacular concert in July 2003, when the symphony performed Tchaikovsky’s stirring 1812 Overture at Kennedy Plaza, synchronized with offshore fireworks.

“That kind of took Atlantic City by storm,” he says. The maestro promises an evening of “very recognizable, beloved works” at Borgata, including Ravel’s Bolero and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and selections from Bizet, Katchachurian and others.

“The people at Borgata have been wonderful, facilitating and creative,” he says. “This is a partnership we deeply hope and expect will continue,” bringing many more nights of glorious music to Atlantic City. For information, visit www.bayatlanticsymphony.org or www.theborgata.com.

BELIEVE IN ‘YESTERDAY’

To the last detail, everything’s right: left-handed Hofner bass, Rickenbacker rhythm guitar, Ludwig drums, and four men with shaggy hair, drainpipe trousers and Cuban heels. As for the music—“Twist and Shout,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Help!”—well, it’s faithful down to the last guitar riff and drum flourish.

If you never saw the Beatles (who quit touring two years after becoming a worldwide phenomenon), the tribute show Yesterday is as close as you’ll get to the real thing.

Founded by producers Barbara McKeown and Don Bellezzo (who also plays John Lennon), Yesterday is the largest Beatles tribute show in the world, with two club shows (here and in Lake Tahoe) and one road show.

Now in its second year at the Quarter, the show reproduces not just the Beatles’ music, but the Cavern Club, where four Liverpool lads got their first taste of fame.

Bobby Potter (Ringo) is gratified by the response to the show and the diversity of the audience, which ranges from old-timers to baby boomers to children and teens. “Even the 10, 11, 12-year-olds sitting there know every word to every song,” he says. “The music is timeless.”

For cast members, capturing the music, mannerisms and Liverpudlian accents of the band is a must. Bellezzo spent hours watching films and concert footage to pick up Lennon’s bow-legged stance and onstage spirit. Adam Aroeste, with Paul McCartney’s big eyes and baby face, does a remarkably credible version of “Yesterday,” and as George Harrison, Jon Perry rivals the original for lightning guitar licks, especially on tunes like Carl Perkins’ “Everybody Wants to Be My Baby.”

Potter, a drummer since age 5, found he was a “backbeat drummer” like Ringo, but changed some things—“buttering the hi-hat, playing back and forth across the cymbals instead of hitting them straight on”—to mimic Ringo’s style. A small thing, but indicative of how true Yesterday is to the Beatles’ performance. The show covers the early years, from the Ed Sullivan Show to concerts at the Washington Coliseum and Shea Stadium.

And as John Lennon once observed, “A splendid time is guaranteed for all.”

For tickets, go to the Tropicana box office or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

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