Our homegrown concert series is ready to rock your socks off
By Matt Cohn
If you listen carefully, you can hear some of the rich musical history of Long Beach echoing through our streets and alleyways: the stirring sounds of the 102-year-old Long Beach Municipal band, Johnny Cash singing and strumming at the Foothill Club or the Beach Boys harmonizing at The Cinnamon Cinder.
It is against the backdrop of this sonic history that the musicians of the third annual Summer and Music concert series will be performing. Summer and Music—or S.A.M. as it is affectionately known—is a collaboration between the city and some of its musical movers and shakers, created to show off the city’s huge and diverse music scene.
“What do I love about music?” asks Rand Foster, co-founder of S.A.M. “The way it makes me feel. It’s my best friend, and it’s been my sustenance for the last 20 years.”
Foster and S.A.M. partner Justin Hectus have turned their love of music into something more by assembling a team of music-loving activists who—together with the city’s business sector—have created a massively successful public arts festival, which this year is comprised of four distinct parts.
The Battle of the Tribute Bands, which took place June 18, was a competition between cover bands that are dedicated to capturing the essence of their chosen group. The Long Beach Funk Fest on Aug. 20 is a colossal celebration of all facets of funk music. BuskerFest on Aug. 27, another competition, gives local bands a chance to unplug and take it to the people, street-performer style. Sundays in the Park with S.A.M. concert series–or S.I.P.S.—is a weekly showcase for local acts and giving people a chance to hear music all summer long in Downtown’s sparkling new outdoor venue, Promenade Square park. All events are free and open to the public.
SCHOOLED IN SONG
Hectus, president of the Arts Council for Long Beach in 2009, met Foster, owner of local independent music store Fingerprints, when he reached out regarding “Schooled in Song,” a benefit concert at Cal State Long Beach’s Carpenter Center for after-school music programs. From that joint venture, a friendship was born.
Not long after “Schooled In Song” debuted, Hectus discovered an un-advertised program budgeted by the Downtown Long Beach Business Association, which provided funds to bring music to public spaces. Originally, the program was designed to place unannounced musicians in downtown doorways and street corners, but it was never fully implemented. Hectus and Foster went to the DLBA and asked to take over this program, then obtained matching funds from the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.
“Both of these agencies realize the role that arts can play in the overall feeling of downtown. They deserve credit for trying to enrich people’s lives,” says Foster.
In addition to showcasing local music, S.A.M. is an environmentally conscious festival. The festival and San Diego-based company Sustainable Waves are finalizing arrangements to provide solar-powered staging for the remaining S.A.M. events. The company has established a sterling reputation by providing a reliable alternative to traditional concert rigs.
“By using solar power rather than a diesel generator or grid power, events avoid emitting approximately 1,000 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere; the equivalent of not driving your car approximately 1,100 miles or the annual sequestration of 66 trees,” explains Sustainable Waves President Mark McLarry.
CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH
June 18’s Battle of the Tribute Bands was the brainchild of Ashley Hectus, Justin’s sister.
“Ashley is an amazing visual artist and she lives her life in a way that is artful in every respect,” says Justin. “I think that is why she connects so well with musicians and artists.”
Justin says that a winning act at the B.O.T.B. is genuine and committed in the portrayal of its chosen band.
France DiCarlo, who plays drummer Keith Moon with one of this year’s B.O.T.B. contestants The Who Show, expresses the enthusiasm of a true tribute musician.
“We’re all cut from the same cloth as the musician we’re portraying. After we play, people thank us and tell us it was like seeing The Who in 1970,” DiCarlo says.
S.I.P.S. runs through August, and has its home in the newly dedicated Promenade Square park at the intersection of 1st Street and the Downtown Promenade.
Wesley Chung, a promoter and a member of the Long Beach band Boris Smile, has booked all the S.I.P.S. acts this year. His line-ups feature a diverse assortment of performers, including singer/songwriter Jenny Stockdale. Other performers include Korey Dane, an adventurous young musician who won last year’s BuskerFest, and Brett Bixby, a Long Beach singer/songwriter who is currently branching out into electronic music. Bixby thinks that S.A.M. has been so successful because of the city’s rich musical community.
“The diversity of Long Beach cultivates the diversity of the music, and vice versa,” he says.
BuskerFest, held on the streets of the East Village Arts District, will provide an interesting challenge for over a dozen local bands. They must play busker (street performer) style—without electrical power—on the back of a stake-bed truck. Festival attendees will be given a roll of wooden nickels, and the band that collects the most nickels wins a concert spot on the main stage that night at the corner of 1st and Linden.
THE SWEETEST FRUIT
The crowning jewel of S.A.M. is the Long Beach Funk Fest, conceived of and booked by Bobby Easton. It gives concertgoers a chance to end their summer by boogying down, en masse, on Pine Avenue, to the sounds of old and new-school funk.
“Funk is the sweetest fruit from the tree that gave us soul, R&B, blues and jazz,” Easton says. “Funk is the seed that hip-hop grew from. Funk gives us a driving groove that you can’t sit still to. Funk brings people together.”
The first Funk Fest in 2009 drew over 12,000 people and featured local funksters like Delta Nove and 00 Soul, who set the tone for later performances by original funkmasters such as Mandrill, Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band as well as Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini—the horn section that provided the joyous punctuations on such Sly and the Family Stone anthems as “Dance To The Music.”
“It’s a street party,” says Foster about the Funk Fest. ”I just shake my head and think, ‘I can’t believe I’m a part of this.’”
S.A.M. gives you a chance to watch, free of charge, as Long Beach adds to its beautiful musical legacy and demonstrates its hospitality to musicians, artists in general and the people who appreciate them.
The effect of S.A.M. is summed up by Bixby, who says—with pun intended: “There is always something musical going on around town in Long Beach—you just have to keep active and sip it with your ears.”
Summer and Music 2011 in Downtown Long Beach, every Sunday through Aug. 27; www.summerandmusic.com.
NOTEWORTHY
Still hungry for music? Swing by Que Sera on July 14 for a night that will “resuscitate the female music vibe in Long Beach.” Revival will feature Kristi Jo, Sister Speak and Jill Warren, plus they’ll be cranking out dance music until 2 a.m. This 21+ cash-only event is from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. and costs $7 at the door. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Beagle Freedom Project, an effort that rescues beagles from animal experimentation.
