Summer is upon and it's time to party with Mother Nature. Over the course of the next 9-11 weeks, there will be a slew of outdoors concerts in the Middletown area and one knows how fickle the Goddess of Weather can be.
Nevertheless, the
Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, Wadsworth Street in Middletown, will presents its annual July Concert series aka
Music at the Mansion. And, this year, the Music Committee (note: I am a member of that august group) has chosen to present 5 concerts, one on each Wednesday of the month. In case of rain, there will be 1 make-up concert on August 7. As has been the tradition over the years, the concerts are free, the grounds are open for picnics 60 minutes before each 6:30 show, and the line-up is a creative blend of styles and sounds.
The fun starts of Wednesday July 3 when the
Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Donn Trenner, Music Director, makes a return visit. The HJO has been in existence since 1965 when Bill Stanley (at that time, band director at Hall High School in West Hartford) convened the musicians for its first of its Monday night rehearsals. The ensemble went through a number of music directors and venues until Chic Chicetti took over in the early 1980s and settled the HJO into the famous but now defunct 880 Club in Hartford. Over the years, the ensemble built quite a following for its Monday night shows plus the occasional gigs away from the venue, often with vocalist Bobbi Rogers as a guest (then becoming a permanent member.) Saxophonist/flutist
Seb Giacco, a fixture on the local music and former co-owner of National Paint & Wallpaper, has been in the group since its inception. On the night of this concert, Mr. Giacco will be honored by the Wadsworth Mansion, not only for his long career as a great musician but also as the "father" of the Music at the Mansion series.
The following week (7/10) marks the Mansion debut of guitarist
Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood. Pitchell, a fixture on the Connecticut and New England blues scene, has been playing guitar since he was 15 and is considered one of the best blues players around. Joining his 5-piece band will be the
Jeffettes, 4 singers with a background in gospel music. Should be a rocking night on the back lawn.
On July 17,
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem returns to the Mansion playing their joyful program of "agnostic gospel music", folk, swing, and blues. Ms. Arbo, who sings and plays fiddle, lives in Middletown with her husband and percussionist
Scott Kessel (who plays the home-made "Drumship Enterprise). Guitarist/vocalist
Anand Nayak and bassist/vocalist
Andrew Kinsey (who also plays a "mean" ukulele and banjo) round out the quartet.
The Quartet has released 3 CDs, including 2012's "
Some Bright Morning" and 2010's "
Ranky Tanky", the latter a rollicking collection of songs for the younger set (but everyone can sing along.)
Their live shows are certainly fun for the whole family and this show, like the others, will draw quite a crowd of fans from all over the region.
On July 24, the series continues in the "folk" mode when
Gail Wade & Turning Point makes its Mansion debut. Singer/songwriter/ guitarist/banjo picker Wade has been making music for 3 decades throughout the Northeast. Turning Point is 4 fine musicians -
Peggy Ann Harvey (fiddle, saxophone, harmonica, vocals),
Dan Manzone (banjo),
Rob Rainwater (acoustic bass) and
Tim St. Jean (mandolin) - all of whom pour their hearts and souls into this music.
The concerts come to a close on July 31 when
Quartetto Vivo becomes the first string quartet to play in the series. Based in the Hartford area, the chamber ensemble plays a repertoire that spans centuries, from Bach to The Beatles and beyond.
As stated above, all concerts start at 6:30 p.m. Limited parking is available on the Estate's grounds, at Wilbur Snow School, 299 Wadsworth Street and at Mercy High School, 1740 Randolph Road. Concerts will go on even in light rain but, if there is more electricity in the sky than on the bandstand, the show will be cancelled. If there is a threat of bad weather, check the Mansion's website -
www.wadsworthmansion.com - or call
860-347-1064. You can check the EYE as well.
Michiel Wackers, Deputy Director of Middletown's Planning, Conservation and Developement department led the Planning and Zoning Commissions, Citizen's Advisory Committee on a tour of the available space in the former Remington Rand building, 180 Johnson St., which is owned by the city.
Currently, the building houses an eel breeding and export company, a coffee roaster (Zen Roasters), two breweries (Stubborn Beauty, which begins retail sales this week and Forest City, a nano-brewery), a gym, a body shop, and a landscape company. Wackers said that with new tenants just signed, and several who are seriously interested, he predicted the entire first-floor space would be occupied by the end of the year.
After a sale of the building fell through a few years ago, the Planning office took the lead in pursuing clean-up of ground waste by former owners, and building renovations which make the space realistically usable. The renovations have been funded by grants from the city.
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