Meet Mr. Showbiz

When Ol' Blue Eyes made a suggestion to a musician, that musician listened.

Nick Thorpe knows this firsthand from his 17 years playing trumpet in live Las Vegas shows. He worked with Frank Sinatra many times, putting on top-tier productions in the swanky Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.

"The only person we ever did two days of rehearsals for was Frank Sinatra," Thorpe said, sitting cozy in his home office overlooking Coeur d'Alene.

“The thing that amazed me about him is how good of a musician he was. He would listen to the band. He’d tell a trombone player, ‘That’s great, but you might try this.’ He was talking in musician terms, the only singer — except for Sammy Davis — I have ever worked with that did that.”

Thorpe is a Silver Valley kid who pursued the dream of professional trumpet playing. He grew up in Kingston and graduated from Kellogg High School, then went out to capture and live that dream.

"The first time I heard (jazz trumpeter) Al Hirt, literally, I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I was pretty single-minded that way," Thorpe said. "I pretty much left when I was 18 years old. Literally two weeks after I graduated from high school I was on a bus to Boston to the Berklee College of Music."

Thorpe's career as a performer, producer, director, composer and arranger spans at least 30 years, but he had an ear for music starting at a very young age.

"I have no idea why," he said. "I've always been passionate about it."

Since the beginning, Thorpe's adventures in music have been accompanied by hard work, luck and passion.

After Berklee, he returned to the Gem State to continue his education at University of Idaho when he auditioned for and was accepted into the Disney World All-American College Band. He then transferred to the No. 1 music school in the country at that time, Indiana University, and earned his bachelor's degree in trumpet performance and his master's in jazz studies and composition. After graduation, he landed a job teaching trumpet at U of I.

But then, the Buddy Rich Band came a'calling.

"That was one of the last remaining ‘big times,’” Thorpe said, describing how he adored the Buddy Rich Band as a kid.

"I loved it, loved it, loved it," he said. "I wore out the records."

Thorpe traveled the world, made countless friends and expanded his network while touring with the Buddy Rich Band, which he said was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. He had established himself as a musician; Buddy Rich heard of him through friends of friends, and the golden opportunities didn't stop there.

The young trumpet player soon found himself among the bright lights and excitement of Las Vegas, where his own star power began to bubble.

"When I start thinking of it, it's pretty amazing," he said. "We worked with people like Sarah Vaughan, Juliet Prowse, Suzanne Somers, Charo, Jim Nabors. The list is very long."

As well as performing, Thorpe also became versed in writing music, especially horn parts for shows. A comedian requested he help with music for a show in Tahoe, which led to his first experience recording in a studio.

"I walked into the studio in Reno, Nev., into the control room of that studio, and I felt like I was home," he said. "I’ll always remember that feeling the first time I walked into a professional recording studio ... this was a real professional studio, and I was hooked.”

While still performing in the live Vegas shows, Thorpe dabbled with four-track recording — “I bought the first synthesizer split with a sequencer in it, the Sonic ESQ-1. I still got it” — and entered a new era of his music career that continues today. He made jingles and produced music and soon another unexpected call came in.

“I think I was getting a reputation for delivering a good product,” he said. “I ended up meeting with Carnival Cruises. They had just started an in-house production company."

Thorpe has been a part of the Carnival Cruises creative team since 1992. He is the musical director and music producer for all of the ships, which means his work goes into 100 shows a week that are enjoyed by thousands of Carnival guests, if not more.

Throughout his Vegas work and transition to Carnival, Thorpe also produced music for theme parks, magician Lance Burton, the Ice Capades, independent films, animated films and many others.

And somewhere along the way he met Liz, a world-class dancer who quite fittingly leapt into the musician's heart.

"I asked him out," Liz said. "He was a shy musician."

The two were soon married and now have a daughter, Dennie, who is a high school junior and a dancer like her mom.

"She’s got the goods, I tell ya," the proud dad said. "She’s going to be a professional.”

Looking back at her husband's resume, Liz says she "married one of the smart ones" who got into the technical side of entertainment at an early stage, which allowed him to master production and digital recording as it evolved.

"He went, 'Huh, I should learn how to do this,'" Liz said. "You don't see that many people with that kind of motivation and foresight."

She said she thinks it's pretty cool that a Silver Valley boy was able to get out of Idaho and build a lucrative career doing something he enjoys.

"What a gift that is to love what you do so much that that is your idea of fun," she said.

Nick is about to go to Miami for more work with Carnival, but in the meantime he is sharing his talents and experiences locally as the musical director of  Aspire Community Theatre's "Catch Me If You Can," which opened last Thursday and runs through this Saturday at the Kroc Center. Liz and Dennie are also working on the show, making it a fun family activity.

"That's been the most fun for me, watching him in action and showing our kid, 'This is what your dad does,'" Liz said. "He's been super hands-on working with the singers ... the kids are loving it, they're eating it up with a spoon.

"So many of the cast have walked up to me and said, 'We're growing so much from this.'"

There's no end in sight for Nick, who is almost finished with a jazz project he's been working on the last two years.

While many would look at his life and be impressed by his accomplishments, Nick jokes that "all I see is all that work!"

For all the sleepless nights, deadlines and endless work weeks, he wouldn't change a thing.

"I can't imagine doing anything else," he said.