The Katz Meow | Al Jardine | Beach Boys | Riviera

It’s going to be fun, fun, fun ‘til Jardine takes his band away

Al Jardine may have left the The Beach Boys 13 years ago but he has handily maintained his place in the sun where the music of the legendary group is concerned.

A founding member of the band and a member of it for more than 35 years, Jardine has brought his “Endless Summer Beach Party” to the Riviera, where it is generating a staunch wave of audience enthusiasm in the hotel’s Starlite Room and will appear through August 14. These days, the group’s former rhythm guitarist and harmony vocalist is capturing The Beach Boys famous sound together with his two sons, Matthew and Adam, and original Beach Boys band members from the 60s, Eddie Carter on bass and Bobby Figueroa on drums, along with other musicians and musical director Billy Hinche, formerly of the group Dino, Desi and Billy.

Al Jardine

“The Beach Boys split up when Carl Wilson died in 1998,” Jardine recalls. “Carl used to call our music ‘the music of joy,’ saying that it elevated people’s spirits when they heard it. We were like a family.– we actually started out signing songs around the piano. And today, we have no hard feelings, really. All wounds have been mended and put behind us. Hopefully, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston, and myself are going to do a reunion next year. And John Stamos might join us as well as will possibly David Marks, who joined the Beach Boys early on, then left the group. I often work with John Stamos – he’s mean on bongos – and with Dean Torrance, formerly of Jan and Dean.

“I have a wonderful cast of characters on my new album, A Postcard from California, which will be released this month but which is available at my Riviera show,” he continues. “Brian Wilson, Glen Campbell, David Crosby, Steve Stills, Neil Young and America are all on the album singing with me and John Stamos plays bongos. I’m lucky to have these giants on the CD. I wrote about half the songs on it and the other half are cover tunes, mostly Beach Boys songs. It’s a harmony group album with great melodies, great songs and great artists. It’s truly a gem. And you never known when one of these guys will drop by to surprise me and join me on stage.”

Jardine, who sang lead on “Help Me Rhonda” and “And Then I Kissed Her” and wrote “A California Saga,” notes that he originally came up with the idea for The Beach Boys. Brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, David Marks, and Jardine had all gone to the same high school. When Jardine and Brian Wilson were both 19 and attending college, Jardine brought the idea home to all the guys. At that time, Carl and David were 13 and 14, respectively; Dennis was 16, and Mike was 21. Having been performing with folk groups, Jardine was a fan of the Kingston Trio and their striped shirts, which also became a mark of The Beach Boys at his suggestion. Ironically, in 1962, the group signed with Capitol Records, the same label the Kingston Trio was on.

“Dennis Wilson was a surfer,” Jardine explains. “He came home with The Beach Boys theme and the rest is history. One person that never gets credit is the Wilson Brothers’ mom, Audrey. Their father, Murry, was their manager and everyone thinks that it was men that backed The Beach Boys. But Audrey told her sons that there were all kinds of vibrations in the universe, good ones and bad ones. She said that she liked to think that we were spreading good vibrations. She’s actually the one that came up with the idea for that song, which Brian wrote. Audrey also had a beautiful voice with an amazing tone.”

According to Jardine, The Beach Boys were a “pretty democratic” group when it came to their music and the formation of the harmonies. While the makeup of the music was pretty much a dictatorship – Brian was the group’s musical director – he did listen to the others’ ideas.

“We all fit together very naturally and we all seemed to carry a part,” Jardine expresses. “We knew how to work together, communicate and express ourselves, not just musically but as people. We all came together to create something bigger than ourselves. The music is really powerful and vibrational. It really heals people.”

Jardine says that when it comes to his sons Matthew and Adam, who are in their late 30’s, they are extraordinarily dedicated to The Beach Boys music, just as Jardine was, and they want to get it right. He says that the best thing about working with his sons is watching them grow.

As it went with the original Beach Boys, Jardine’s show is very much a family affair. And thanks to his loyalty to the group’s original sound, he still “gets around” – and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

The Riviera Hotel & Casino has booked an unquestionable all-time music legend, with the signing of Al Jardine of The Beach Boys fame, and his “Endless Summer Beach Party,” for its Starlite Theater, performing Wednesday-Sunday, August 3-14 at 7:30 p.m.

Jardine is a founding member of The Beach Boys and was a member of the band for more than 35 years.  As the band's rhythm guitarist and harmony vocalist, Jardine sang lead on many of their hits, including the No 1, “Help Me, Rhonda,” as well as, “Then I Kissed Her,” “Christmas Day,” and “Cotton Fields” along with a slew of other memorable favorites.

Jardine left The Beach Boys after the passing of Carl Wilson in 1998, who, along with brothers Brian and Dennis (who passed away in 1983), and cousin Mike Love was also one of the founding members of the group . Al continued to tour with his own group, “Endless Summer,” which would often feature several members of the original Beach Boys touring band. Jardine released his first full-length solo studio album, “A Postcard from California,” in June 2010. The album contains contributions from fellow Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, David Marks and Mike Love, along with guest appearances from Neil Young, Steve Miller, Alec Baldwin, Flea and others.

Shows will run nightly Wednesday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in the Riviera’s Starlite Theatre

This article appears by courtesy of Vegas Insider Daily.com.