Bearcats Concert, August 5

The 2005 free concert series presented by C.H. Booth Library will conclude on Friday, August 5, with a return performance by a perennial favorite. The Bearcats will perform jazz of many styles at the soccer fields at Fairfield Hills, off Wasserman Way.

The concerts will begin at 7 pm and is open to all ages.

The concert is being sponsored by The Tercentennial Committee, and is serving as a kick-off event to the day of birthday events being held on Saturday, August 6, on the campus of Fairfield Hills.

Attendees should bring their own blankets or chairs for seating. Picnics are welcome, and attendees are asked to carry out their own trash.

In the event of rain, the concert will be moved into the lower meeting room of the library, at 25 Main Street. Call the library for additional information or if the weather is questionable, at 426-4533.

One of the Northeast’s favorite jazz and swing bands, The Bearcats was formed in 1977 by Joe Hanlon of Sandy Hook for the purpose of preserving and promulgating one of America’s national treasures – traditional jazz – and to enjoy doing it. The band has since performed at venues and for jazz societies across the country.

Members are devoted and skilled musicians with a style firmly rooted in the New Orleans tradition and a flair also for the variations known as Chicago and West Coast.

The band can appeal to a wide variety of audiences by easily migrating from a strict 1920s Louis Armstrong style with clarinet, tuba and banjo, to a driving Eddie Condonesque, four-beat rouser with guitar and string bass.