Entering Pogo's Tavern Friday night, I expected to bump into a few ghosts around the smoky bar on Decatur Boulevard and wasn't disappointed.

Maybe it was the whiskey talking, but I'd have sworn I heard some familiar voices and sounds.

Jazz drummer Irv Kluger, who was energy personified for all his 83 years, is the latest Pogo's player to join the dearly departed. Surely Irv wouldn't have missed a Friday night even if he was unable to lead the band.

The bar's unofficial hall of fame includes trumpet player Chico Alvarez, trombonists Tommy Turk and Carl Fontana, and a thousand other jazz veterans. Turk was such a part of bar owner Jim Holcombe's place that his song "My Buddy" stayed on the jukebox decades after he was killed during a saloon robbery up the street. And Carl Fontana made regular stops at Pogo's when he wasn't touring as one of the world's great trombone men.

The syncopated apparitions were there, to be sure, for the spirit of the place hasn't changed despite the death of Holcombe and the Friday night band's new direction under piano veteran Dick Fazio.

At a darkened table, Fazio gazed out from under his black hat and exhaled a stream of cigarette smoke. With his gray goatee, he could have made a passable devil.

Until he smiled.

Dick Fazio is one happy man. He's elated to pick up where Kluger left off. It may sound strange, but his musical ship has come in at the smoky bar on Decatur Boulevard.

As if to remind strangers of where his heart is at when it comes to music, his sweatshirt read: "We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."

With his journeyman's piano portfolio that includes everything from professional gigs to teaching school kids scales and "Clare deLune," he might be the ideal player to make the transition and keep one of Southern Nevada's few interesting jazz spots alive.

"I feel privileged to be able to carry on something that's had such a good reputation," Fazio, 66, said. "Hopefully, we'll get to the point again where you won't be able to get in the door on Friday nights."

Five years ago, Fazio "fell in love with the joint" and became a regular member of the band, which played a lengthy array of standards with varying degrees of expertise.

"It's always been a place where musicians came on Friday to jam," Fazio said. "To carry on a tradition that's been here for 40 years, I'm very privileged to do that."

But some weeks were better than others. For more than a decade, the quality of the music from week to week all depended on who gathered around Kluger's jamming drum set.

"Irv was a character," Fazio said respectfully. "I thoroughly enjoyed him. He was great and made me wonder what the SOB sounded like 50 years ago."

Even late in his life, Kluger's chops were never in doubt.

But the deaths of Holcombe and Kluger changed Pogo's and gave the place a somber shadow. Kluger in his heyday was known as a master of late big band and early bop styles and made a living for decades as a Strip musician. (For a great tribute to his remarkable life, check out Irvkluger.com.)

Regulars noticed a new energy as they listened to the band jam through two sets Friday night. There was a lightheartedness that was missing in recent months.

Fazio spends his days teaching music at Challenger School, and you might think a jazzman would consider such work a comedown. Far from it. In fact, from the way Fazio describes his students' effort and willingness to learn, it's clear he shares their enthusiasm.

"I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be amongst kids of this caliber," he said.

At Pogo's, the grown-up kids get giddy, too.

Change is inevitable and can be painful when you lose lighthearted souls the caliber of Kluger and Holcombe.

It's clear Dick Fazio appreciates the local jazz history that swirls around him.

"It really does have a spirit," he said, smiling again.

The beat goes on at Pogo's Tavern.

Don't take my word for it.

Ask them the next time you're in the neighborhood.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.