Aztec Club

When you bring in Oscar D'Leon to perform, don't expect the guy to leave the stage for a while. The Venezuelan salsa superstar believes in giving audiences his all - for as long as three hours a set. And so D'Leon did Tuesday night at the Aztec Club. He is a bassist- bandleader with heavy roots in Cuban music, chiefly that of Beny More's, which he has honed to razor-sharpness. Bursting onto the stage over a mixture of the Cuban comparsa and the Hammer, his teenage son in tow, D'Leon proved to be a rare performer - a great entertainer with no gimmicks.

Luis Enrique, the Nicaraguan-born, Puerto Rico/Miami-based salsa cantante, is used to playing before thousands in large arenas, but his hourlong first set at the Aztec Club Tuesday night was performed in front of fewer than 300. This changed the musical and interpersonal dynamics of Luis Enrique's show. The singer has a rare achievement in salsa - the ability to combine slickness and substance - but he wisely chose to abandon most of the former Tuesday. Up close, especially with his new wild-haired look and his simple beige suit, Luis Enrique is a physically unimpressive performer.

All's quiet at the Kokomo - and it's not because they are playing unplugged. One of Delaware Avenue's noisy nightspots, the Aztec Club and its subclub Kokomo Bay, was shut down yesterday because the site had enough electrical- code violations to qualify as a "potential firetrap," according to the city Department of Licenses and Inspections. Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph D. O'Keefe ruled late yesterday that the order to close would stay in effect until repairs are done to L&I's satisfaction.

Last night was a bad night to party for revelers who went to the wrong clubs. Teams from the city's Licenses and Inspections Department crashed the parties at three Center City nightclubs and shut them down for multiple business license and fire safety violations. The three - Khyber Pass, the Grape Vine and the Aztec Club - will be allowed to reopen when they correct the violations and L&I approves the changes, said Frank Antico, chief of L&I's business compliance section.

His eyes rival Mel Gibson's - pale, opalescent green with dark brows and thick lashes. His hair is curly brown. His body, compact at 5 feet 9 inches, has muscles and ripples usually found in the beefcake magazines. And when he smiles, his perfect white teeth have the power to make females weak in the knees. His name is Eddie Jackson, and at 22, he's a former heartthrob at Haverford High School and now a hunk at West Chester University. By next month, he'll be seen by thousands on STUDS, the '90s meat-market show on the Fox Network (WPHL, Channel 17)

If there was ever a musician deserving of a tribute, it's Miles Davis. Tony Williams, who played with Davis in his '60s fusion-rock era, comes to Philadelphia drumming the praises of one of the century's greatest, and most controversial, musical geniuses. Williams' quintet, which in its current edition brings in Mulgrew Miller on piano and Philadelphia-born Wallace Roney on trumpet, will play a set of Davis compositions Monday night at the Aztec Club near Penn's Landing. The concert will also begin a series of Monday jazz nights there.

Where there's a war, there's a way. While the allied forces were in battle with Iraqis on the other side of the world, many Philadelphians - whether hawks or doves, jazz fans or dancing fools - found the time to hit the clubs and replace the newscasts with saxophones solos and Depeche Mode records. At the Aztec Club near Penn's Landing, about 200 nattily dressed, pleasantly scented professionals danced with ample abandon to moody British pop music. Merrill Feld, a 28-year-old middle-school gym teacher from Cherry Hill, was out for the simple reason that she didn't want to stay home and dwell on the happenings in the Gulf.

Longtime restaurateur, club owner and mob associate Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa died Sunday of a heart attack in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County. He was 58. Clean-shaven, short, "built like a fireplug," LaRussa wore his receding black hair longish in the back. He had an eye for the trendy nightclub scene, opening clubs at 13th and Locust streets in the 1960s, on South Street in the '70s and along the Delaware River waterfront in the '90s - including Club Vegas, South Beach Club and the Aztec Club, which he built, operated and later sold.

Forget the big guys with billion-dollar schemes for Penn's Landing. Marvin Venable spins his wheel and Foxtrot churns around, cutting a circle in its own length and giving you a look at his vision of the river. He slaps you on the shoulder and gestures to the blue-on-blue sky and shouts over the rumble of the diesel engine: "Would you pay two dollars for this?" Yes, this is the way to spend your workday, all right. Doing doughnuts on the Delaware. The sky is blue, the air is crisp, the Camden Aquarium beckons in the distance, and the Philly skyline is sharp and impressive - just over there to the left of the Spring Garden Street trash incinerator.

It was a typical Friday night last month at the Aztec Club. High-voltage music blared throughout the cavern-like Delaware Avenue nightclub - one of the city's most popular - as about 1,000 well-heeled adults bounced and gyrated, schmoozed and cruised. Then, the music abruptly down-shifted to a slow tune and the lights gradually came up. Club personnel ushered the bewildered patrons out the door, nearly two hours ahead of the normal 2 a.m. closing. Forget the traditional "last call.

Longtime restaurateur, club owner and mob associate Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa died Sunday of a heart attack in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County. He was 58. Clean-shaven, short, "built like a fireplug," LaRussa wore his receding black hair longish in the back. He had an eye for the trendy nightclub scene, opening clubs at 13th and Locust streets in the 1960s, on South Street in the '70s and along the Delaware River waterfront in the '90s - including Club Vegas, South Beach Club and the Aztec Club, which he built, operated and later sold.

All's quiet at the Kokomo - and it's not because they are playing unplugged. One of Delaware Avenue's noisy nightspots, the Aztec Club and its subclub Kokomo Bay, was shut down yesterday because the site had enough electrical- code violations to qualify as a "potential firetrap," according to the city Department of Licenses and Inspections. Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph D. O'Keefe ruled late yesterday that the order to close would stay in effect until repairs are done to L&I's satisfaction.

Luis Enrique, the Nicaraguan-born, Puerto Rico/Miami-based salsa cantante, is used to playing before thousands in large arenas, but his hourlong first set at the Aztec Club Tuesday night was performed in front of fewer than 300. This changed the musical and interpersonal dynamics of Luis Enrique's show. The singer has a rare achievement in salsa - the ability to combine slickness and substance - but he wisely chose to abandon most of the former Tuesday. Up close, especially with his new wild-haired look and his simple beige suit, Luis Enrique is a physically unimpressive performer.

The state Attorney General's Office yesterday said the Aztec Club on Delaware Avenue may resume selling tickets at $150 each to a New Year's Eve party being promoted as a benefit for AIDS research. The club had been barred from selling tickets since last Tuesday after questions were raised by local AIDS groups about how much money would be left for charity after a total of $137,000 in expenses were paid. Yesterday, the club officially registered its nonprofit foundation, the New Year's AIDS Foundation, with the state's Bureau of Charitable Organizations, stating its intention to raise money for AIDS research, AIDS patient care and children with AIDS.

When you bring in Oscar D'Leon to perform, don't expect the guy to leave the stage for a while. The Venezuelan salsa superstar believes in giving audiences his all - for as long as three hours a set. And so D'Leon did Tuesday night at the Aztec Club. He is a bassist- bandleader with heavy roots in Cuban music, chiefly that of Beny More's, which he has honed to razor-sharpness. Bursting onto the stage over a mixture of the Cuban comparsa and the Hammer, his teenage son in tow, D'Leon proved to be a rare performer - a great entertainer with no gimmicks.

It was a typical Friday night last month at the Aztec Club. High-voltage music blared throughout the cavern-like Delaware Avenue nightclub - one of the city's most popular - as about 1,000 well-heeled adults bounced and gyrated, schmoozed and cruised. Then, the music abruptly down-shifted to a slow tune and the lights gradually came up. Club personnel ushered the bewildered patrons out the door, nearly two hours ahead of the normal 2 a.m. closing. Forget the traditional "last call.

First there was Sansom Street. Then there was South Street. And this summer, at long last, one and a half miles of Philadelphia's Delaware Avenue has evolved into a substantial entertainment corridor, boasting five outdoor clubs (including the brand-new Eli's Pier 34, Rock Lobster and Kokomo Bay Cafe), a few old showplace standbys (Riverfront Dinner Theater, the Barbary and the Aztec) and all manner of dining pleasures. Throw in the 11-screen UA Riverview Theater, Penn's Landing and its music fetes and the ferry that travels to the N.J. State Aquarium in Camden, and faster than you can say Baltimore's Inner Harbor, you have the makings of a major waterfront entertainment wave.

Last night was a bad night to party for revelers who went to the wrong clubs. Teams from the city's Licenses and Inspections Department crashed the parties at three Center City nightclubs and shut them down for multiple business license and fire safety violations. The three - Khyber Pass, the Grape Vine and the Aztec Club - will be allowed to reopen when they correct the violations and L&I approves the changes, said Frank Antico, chief of L&I's business compliance section.

If there was ever a musician deserving of a tribute, it's Miles Davis. Tony Williams, who played with Davis in his '60s fusion-rock era, comes to Philadelphia drumming the praises of one of the century's greatest, and most controversial, musical geniuses. Williams' quintet, which in its current edition brings in Mulgrew Miller on piano and Philadelphia-born Wallace Roney on trumpet, will play a set of Davis compositions Monday night at the Aztec Club near Penn's Landing. The concert will also begin a series of Monday jazz nights there.

His eyes rival Mel Gibson's - pale, opalescent green with dark brows and thick lashes. His hair is curly brown. His body, compact at 5 feet 9 inches, has muscles and ripples usually found in the beefcake magazines. And when he smiles, his perfect white teeth have the power to make females weak in the knees. His name is Eddie Jackson, and at 22, he's a former heartthrob at Haverford High School and now a hunk at West Chester University. By next month, he'll be seen by thousands on STUDS, the '90s meat-market show on the Fox Network (WPHL, Channel 17)