South Bay gets into swing of summer with free outdoor concerts

It has become a South Bay tradition.

Start with a pleasant afternoon or evening, add family or friends, mix in a picnic meal and top it off with music--be it jazz, country or big band nostalgia--and you have a free South Bay summer outdoor concert.

Most are in parks, but one city holds them at its City Hall and another on the community center lawn.

The talent ranges from local groups with lilting names like the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders, a Dixieland group; to big names like Glenn Miller band veteran Tex Beneke and his orchestra; to big groups like the 35-member 15th Air Force Band of the Golden West.

Pat Gray, a former stage comic and singer, produces the South Bay’s most extensive summer season at the Polliwog Park amphitheater in Manhattan Beach. “People say it’s like a miniature Hollywood Bowl,” he said.

In 10 years, the Manhattan Beach series has grown from an amateur affair into a 2 1/2-month-long run of professional entertainment that draws thousands to Polliwog at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays. The park is at 1600 Manhattan Beach Blvd.

Gray said family groups bring picnics and stretch out on the grass surrounding the amphitheater. Small children can play on the big model galleon nearby or enjoy organized games while their parents listen to the music.

Nightblooming Jazzmen, which Gray says is a spinoff of the legendary Dixieland group the Firehouse Five Plus Two, appears Sunday, and the season’s closer on Aug. 14 is the Air Force Golden West band.

Carson’s concert series last summer had such a good turnout that it is being repeated Saturdays this summer, said Virginia Morris, city fine arts coordinator.

Concerts, from 2 to 4 p.m. and featuring rock and soul bands, move from park to park in Carson. The next one will be Saturday when Night Moves, a rock-soul band, performs at Carson Park, 21411 S. Orrick St.

“We use local amateur bands that are not very well known,” Morris said, adding that the concerts draw between 200 and 400 people. Night Moves plays again July 30 at Del Amo Park, 703 E. Del Amo Blvd. Carson’s last scheduled concert this summer--Morris says others may be added--is Aug. 6 when the Solid Grove band plays at Calas Park, 1000 E. 220th St.

Like Carson, Hermosa Beach launched summer concerts last year, and their success led to a reprise on Sundays this August, when three Concerts on the Green will be given at 5 p.m. on the Community Center lawn, 710 Pier Ave. Cabaret-style singer Weslia Whitfield--who was left paraplegic after being shot by a youth on the street--will open the series Aug. 7.

The Spoolie Singers, a harmony vocal trio, appears Aug. 14, and the final event Aug. 21 will feature the 17-piece Esquires band from El Camino College. The audience will be invited to dance.

“We get top entertainers, but not living room names,” said Mary Rooney, concert coordinator.

The bandstand at Library Park, 111 W. Mariposa Ave., is the scene of El Segundo’s summer concerts at 2 p.m. Sundays, with the Lumberjazz Band playing big band and swing music this Sunday.

Concerts will run weekly until Aug. 14. They are attended by up to 400 people, usually older local residents who favor big band and swing sounds and concert bands, according to Gala Burkholder, city cultural arts supervisor.

Redondo Beach presents a mixture of local and imported talent for its Sunset Concert series Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the bandshell at Veterans Park, which is on the Esplanade just south of the Redondo Pier.

A chamber trio, Bach to Blues, plays classical and contemporary music Wednesday. The rest of the concerts will feature ‘50s nostalgia, a nine-piece pop group called General Happenings and New Age music, closing Aug. 31 with a Marine Corps band.

Rancho Palos Verdes is in its fifth year of giving Sunday afternoon concerts at City Hall, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd. There will be three this summer, starting Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. with the Authentics performing ‘50s and ‘60s music. The Long Beach Community Band plays Sousa marches Aug. 21, while General Happenings closes the series Aug. 28.