Oakland Stroke kicks off the concert series on July 9 at 6 p.m.
Photo credit: Oakland Stroke
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow’s “Concerts on the Green” is back for the summer, bringing live music to residents with triple the bands performing across July and August nights.
Oakland Stroke kicks off the concert series on July 9, with a July 16 rain date. Bad News Jazz & Blues Orchestra continues on Aug. 13 and the Oompa Meisters Brass Band closes out the summer on Aug. 20. Each event begins at 6 p.m., free of charge on the Town Green.
Oakland Stroke is a 1970s San Francisco Bay Area funk-styled tribute band, featuring vocalist Donna-Lee De Prille and the Bump City Horns. The 13-member group brings to town the repertoires of Tower of Power, Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly Stone and many more.
Bad News Jazz & Blues Orchestra is known as the “busiest swing band in Western Massachusetts,” according to its website. The 19-piece performs contemporary music for the whole family, with Cindy Reed on vocals and musicians on saxophones, trumpets, trombones, guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard and clarinet.
The Oompa Meisters are a veteran-owned band that blends New Orleans and Bavarian sounds. The group performs as a four to eight piece brass band and “delivers high-energy performances for parades, Oktoberfests, festivals, weddings and corporate events through New England,” according to its website.
The concerts are a partnership between Longmeadow Parks and Recreation and the Longmeadow Cultural Council. The Cultural Council provides funding through grants and Parks and Recreation provides the venue.
Parks and Recreation Director Bari Jarvis said the department used to seek sponsorships from local banks and fully orchestrate the concerts each year until noticing a shortage in attendance compared to other communities.
“We took a really long pause,” Jarvis said. “It was just after the [COVID-19 pandemic] that everyone remembered, kind of, the longing for the community. These individual bands began to seek out their own Longmeadow Cultural Council grants, and they would approach the department for us to sponsor them and house them.”
Jarvis said the concerts have grown in popularity over the past six years, and that the department is “very excited” to have three bands instead of one.
“It brings our community together,” Jarvis said. “People enjoy music and enjoy congregating. We have a beautiful green space that is a perfect showcase for these performances, which is really nice.”
She said that each band performs separate genres that appeal to all different audiences, families and individuals, adding that she hopes Oakland Stroke plays some Journey.
“If you look at different towns and what they do, there’s a lot of rock, a lot of country,” Jarvis said. “The bands we seem to attract are different in nature. We have a jazz band, a rock band and a Bavarian band concluding the series in late August.”
More information on each concert can be found at longmeadowma.myrec.com under the “programs” section.
