ATLANTIC CITY — Some of the best entertainment at Resorts Casino Hotel isn’t on the stage of their Superstar Theater. No tickets are necessary, and the only thing it will cost is what listeners choose to leave in the tip jars.
Colin Matthews — who survived an oil-refinery explosion in his native Trinidad — was playing his violin on the streets
Matthews, 48, said he studied violin in his native Trinidad, and played in several orchestras. At age 18, he trained in oil technology with Texaco and got a job at a refinery.
One day in 1986, something exploded.
“Everyone ran away,” Matthews said. “Panic is a strange thing. They don’t think about what’s going to happen, and they run.”
But Matthews said he ran back to shut off the oil valve, saving his own life as well as those of his co-workers. He suffered serious burns over much of his body, but his hands were spared because he was wearing gloves.
Two years later, Matthews came to the United States and found himself in Boston. He lived in an attic room, slept on the floor and ate frozen dinners “in order to pay for my violin lessons with the change and dollar bills I earned from playing in the subway,” he said.
He did a stint in San Francisco, and noted violinist John Creighton Murray passed by and liked what he heard, Matthews said.
“He gave me lessons on his 1736 Stradivarius for free,” Matthews said.
Matthews said he was playing at the Boston tourist attraction Faneuil Hall in 2003, when Gomes was visiting with his family and stopped to buy his CD. Gomes asked Matthews whether he wanted to play in Atlantic City.
“I said, ‘Hook me up, brother,’” never believing Gomes was for real, Matthews said.
But the entertainment director of the Tropicana Casino and Resort, which Gomes ran at the time, called Matthews and in 2004, the musician found himself playing at the opening of The Quarter.
Gomes told the same story, saying he was attending a soccer game at Faneuil Hall and wanted to hire Matthews to play in The Quarter, which was about to open. When Gomes left the Tropicana, Matthews followed him to a Midwestern casino, and came back to Resorts when he took over a couple of months ago.
Matthews is now on the Resorts payroll, paid at the same scale as other entertainers, Gomes said. The violinist can also sell his CDs and put out a tip jar, Gomes said.
Stop and listen
The disco hit “I Will Survive” was played on Matthews’ violin on a recent afternoon, hours before the Boogie Nights club upstairs was scheduled to open.
A man and two women danced to the beat, and called for another disco song as the number ended. Matthews obliged, and flashed a wide smile as one of the women boogied up to the rack displaying his CDs and dropped a couple of dollars into the tip box.
About a dozen people stood and listened, while others stopped for a brief look before they went about their business.
“I think he’s great. It’s beautiful,” said Carol Macko, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., as she and her friend Jan Habey waited for their hotel rooms to be ready. “The sound is real good.”
Listening to Matthews was a better alternative than stewing over the wait “or losing on the machines,” Macko said.
Matthews stopped his own playing to let Maria Vero, 13, of Palisades, N.Y. show what she could do with the violin.
Vero, who studies the instrument and plays mostly Irish and classical music, said her grandfather heard Matthews play and thought “maybe I could take some notes,” she said.
The family heard Matthews the day before and was impressed by his talent, said her grandmother, Evelyn Tighe, also of Palisades.
“I hope he’ll always be here,” Tighe said. “It gives the place a lift.”
Piano men
On the second level of Resorts, outside the entrance to the Capriccio Italian restaurant, sits a grand piano. It is often in use, as several men take turns entertaining diners.
Gomes said he had just taken over ownership of Resorts when he saw a man playing that piano. The man was “fantastic,” he said.
A security guard watched the man and started to approach him. Gomes said he walked over to the guard, who told him he was going to toss the piano player from the property, as it was against policy to play that piano.
Gomes said he told the guard he had talked to the man the previous day and told him he was welcome to play any time he wished.
“I also told him he can put a glass on the piano so people can give him tips,” and started the collection off with a $5 bill from his own pocket.
“He’s been there ever since playing, and his music is beautiful,” Gomes said.
A different man, Ralph “Chico” Hawthorne, of Trenton, was playing old standards on the piano on a recent afternoon, his hands using every note on the keyboard.
He, too, plays every weekend with Gomes’ blessing, and the casino gives him a room to stay in, Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne, 80, said he has been coming to Resorts since 1987, and played the piano that sat upstairs.
“Sometimes I look up, and the people are clapping and I get nervous,” he said. Some women say his playing brings tears to their eyes, he said.
Hawthorne said he never took piano lessons and plays entirely by ear.
“It’s a gift from God,” he said. “I don’t need (to read) music.”
He has no tip jar, but sometimes people slip him money, Hawthorne said. Two high-rollers frequently come to Capriccio for dinner, and one of them shakes his hand, leaving $100 or a black casino chip in his palm.
“I don’t come for the money. I just love to play,” Hawthorne said.
Gomes said he likes having the entertainers on the property, and has no problem with them putting out tip jars as they entertain his customers.
“I want these people to make as much money as they can,” Gomes said.
Contact Elaine Rose:
609-272-7217
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