My family and I went to the Thursday night performance of the Long Beach Municipal Band.
Marine Stadium and Marina Vista Park looked like a scene from a plein-air painting.
Families sat on blankets and beach chairs. Picnic baskets and blankets were spread out on to the lawn.
Bulldogs and huskies solicited pats.
Children ran on the grass, some kicking around soccer balls. No one complained when the kids obstructed the view.
Boats crowded the edge of Alamitos Bay, passengers taking in the tunes from the water.
The sun took forever to set.
And then there was the reason people came: music. Defining American music from 1924 to 1937. Ragtime, Dixieland. Swing.
The Long Beach Municipal Band is celebrating 100 years -- and a century of music this summer.
I am no music critic, but I found a stringless rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue" stirring. It brought me back to childhood, when my mom would play the tune on the piano.
Conductor Larry Curtis, now in his 16th season, told stories behind the songs and gave a little history about the century-old band.
I liked the background, particularly for those of us raised in the era of synthesizers and drum machines.
One tidbit: In its heydey, when Long Beach was a fast-growing city, the band played hundreds of performances a year.
The stage was draped in a banner. I could see Curtis conducting but not much more from my vantage point.
But I could hear.
When the band played, my daughter, a 3-year-old, danced in circles.
Other children could be seen dancing near the speaker stands.
I spent the intermission chasing my daughter around the path and rocks lining the bay.
Someone left a few pieces of pastel chalk on the path. Little ones, including mine, stopped to draw on the path.
Intermission ended. John O'Campo and the Studio Band, a smaller group, played a few jazz standards.
Then it was swing -- the early kind as well as a selection from the 1990s revival.
We didn't stay until the end. My daughter needed to get to bed.
But we left the free event feeling rich.
