Sounds like summer

All of a sudden you’re aware. It’s everywhere.

Straight-ahead jazz suddenly becomes the moody soundtrack for your stroll through Old Town Pasadena; spiky zydeco somehow slides right in step as you press through humid beach crowds. Emerging from the office drama of the day, you hear live samba wafting along on an evening breeze, beckoning you back to some semblance-of-human mode. Or after the Sunday morning papers, a tasteful string quartet arrives just in time to settle the soul.

While some Southlanders might take their nod from the wild, violet spray of jacaranda in full bloom, and others look to the lengthening daylight, for many what officially signals the summer’s arrival is not the equinox but the first strains of music out-of-doors, as free and plentiful as summer’s star jasmine.

It can be found in the most obvious, and not so obvious, places -- parks and piers, terraces or roofs. The old-fashioned band shell or the multipurpose cul-de-sac. There are all manner of seductive oases to be stumbled upon -- dancehall reggae or Texas two-step or Cuban son or just some rootsy bluegrass -- all flung out across the region. The melding of music with slow nightfall on a blanket of grass -- and, if we’re lucky, a dusting of stars -- for many is a season in and of itself.

Music outdoors absent the borders of walls and ceilings seems perfectly suited to the Southland. It’s a region that plays laid-back, serve-yourself host to a broad mix of cultures and ethnicities, attracts a range of people from across the globe and offers boundless possibilities in year-round mild weather beneath just a canopy of sky.

Outside the club, the concert hall, music somehow feels different. It makes its way between the spaces. Caught on a breeze, susceptible to echo, it follows you as you follow it. Rather than a calendared-in and saved-up-for event, it can be something you simply happen upon, for grazing, an adventure in discovery.

With offerings from classical music to free jazz to indigenous music from all corners of the world, L.A. stages small and large, intimate and free-for-all, present an eclectic roster of free music for the sampling.

There are the stalwart venues -- known more in certain circles for “getting your party on” than for absorbing the finer points of the musicianship. The liveliest of revolving parties would be the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Friday Night Jazz series, the Santa Monica Pier’s venerable Twilight Dance Series (now in its 19th year) and Grand Performances (in its 17th season), the anchor summertime event at downtown L.A.’s California Plaza and one that has long provided not just an eclectic range of shows, but a different sort of nightlife.

These “stages” are both events and traditions.

Even long-standing, pricey events sometimes offer a free-sample version. Leading up to the Playboy Jazz Festival each June, organizers present a few rev-up shows in rotating spots around the Southland The free shows are a tradition of their own, allowing fans, and potential fans, to choose among styles or ensembles of their liking.

While local talent and garage bands are able to grab some of the summer spotlight, community venues also attract international names, offering competing lineups with paid venues. Last year, Grand Performances showcased jazz’s newest diva, Lizz Wright. This summer, the downtown stage offers an evening with singer Jimmy Scott, and the Santa Monica Pier will host Afro-pop star Salif Keita.

The tradition keys right into the Southern California, indoor-outdoor-living lifestyle, says Richard Rosenzweig, executive vice president of Playboy Enterprises and president of the Playboy Jazz Festival. “It’s as much about seeing old friends and the special camaraderie, people getting together and getting into the groove, as it is the music.”

Signs of the season

Taken together, all of these carefully programmed calendars attract both fans of the music and/or individual musicians, as well as those who are simply loyal to the ritual itself.

“For many people it is a defining thing for them: The first concert is the first day of summer, the last is the last,” says Katharine King, who has produced the Santa Monica Pier series since its inception. (The first event was a fund-raiser to help with reconstruction after the pier was damaged in 1983 during a particularly wicked storm.)

Known for its feel-good, up-tempo, mix-it-up fare, the pier series has built a two-pronged reputation. For many, she says, “it’s the social aspect as well as the musical aspect. [It is] sort of a community town-square concert.

“There are people who walk or skateboard to the concerts,” she says. “It’s a meeting place to decide what to do for the rest of the evening. It’s part of the fabric of the community. It’s a reinvention of what the town square can mean in whatever era we’re in.”

But there are pluses and minuses, King acknowledges.

“It’s not always the best place to hear music,” she says. “There are other venues that have better production qualities. But there is something about the fun, the play aspect. If you live nearby you don’t have to drive. And it’s summer!”

For three years, composer and baritone sax player Geoff “GG” Gallegos, who heads Dakah, a 60-piece hip-hop orchestra, has found the free-form experience of playing outdoors at Grand Performances invaluable on various levels.

Not only does the free admission expose them to a wider and often younger audience, the outdoor stage allows the players to push themselves to the next level musically.

“When we play, 50 to 60 of us at a time, acoustically there is a lot of sound generated,” says Gallegos, “and it takes the sphere of sound time to develop before it hits the ears. Indoors, the triangle of sound is immature, so for that reason really our best shows -- sonically -- have been outdoors. That’s what has helped people hear what we can do.”

To be sure, there are those who find it frustrating really trying to listen in a setting catering to competing desires.

LACMA has long had a reputation for a slightly more sophisticated turn on the Friday-night pickup ritual with, “Oh yeah, they’ve got really good music there too” as an added incentive; meanwhile the pier scene has a more “party on!” attitude that is definitely pointed more toward participation than the up-close deconstruction of a particular composition.

And the beauty of Grand Performances’ multitiered, multisectioned-off venue is that a little bit of everything could or should be going on. With 70,000 people attending each summer, there is a place to roll the fussy baby in the carriage, a place to launch into interpretive dance with new friends and a tucked-away place just to sit and take in the quietest notes.

“Part of why it works,” says Michael Alexander, the program’s executive director, “is the setting.” Not only is the program inclusive in its conception -- reflecting music, performance and ritual from across town and around the world -- the venue itself reflects that same populist viewpoint. “The space is so fortunately configured, it suits the needs of people with very different agendas for an evening.”

These landmark events notwithstanding, one doesn’t have to go far from home to sample the free-for-all bounty available on a summer night. There are plenty of “bring your blanket and lawn chair” events and neighborhood programs scattered throughout the region. While some are funded by private foundations, others are supported by various cities’ cultural or community affairs departments.

Warner Park in Woodland Hills programs a range of music on Sunday evenings from soft rock (Kim Carnes) to oldies (Tierra and the Drifters) to traditional jazz and classical (Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Steve Piazza and the L.A. Pierce Symphonic Winds). And in Whittier both Parnell and Central parks offer similar open-air programming. There is Music by the Sea at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro, offering a cliffside ocean view as a backdrop for a roster of acts that range from R&B; to techno to soca. And Huntington Beach hosts a summerlong series of rock, blues, jazz and other performances at that city’s bustling pier promenade.

There are the occasional street events and other affairs that alight for a day, transforming everyone and everything around them: That triangle of green that marks Leimert Park proper has been the site of drumming collectives, jazz concerts and African music for an afternoon. The venerable Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival offers extrapolations on the talking drums from points around the globe.

Mariachi Plaza, at the corner of 1st and Boyle streets in East L.A., has long been a designated spot for free, found music. Once a doughnut shop and de facto meeting place for local mariachis before they wandered off to formal gigs, the corner became a gathering spot for residents to soak up the music as they waited for the bus, for the light to change or simply to shed the day and forget.

Inspiration to invent

New possibilities and configurations pop up all the time. It may be that the combination of relaxed rules and vanished walls brings something at once retro and forward-thinking to our routines.

“We believe in the magic of evenings,” says Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch, whose Manhattan-based philanthropist father, Mortimer Levitt, has embarked on a project dedicated not simply to restoring once-grand band shells across the country but the ritual of an evening pause as well: the unhindered night out surrounded by family and friends.

The refurbished venues, dubbed the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts -- the first two in Westport, Conn., and Harrisburg, Penn. -- have become living museums to the ritual of music outside.

“Men and women work today, so we are trying to make going to these concerts easy and accessible for families and their children,” says Hirsch.

Adding to their collection, they are in the midst of putting the last touches on the band shell and a season of 34 summer concerts -- from jazz fusion and rock to world beat -- to be held in Pasadena at the old Memorial Park Bandshell on Walnut Street. It speaks to a tradition of community and assembly.

Yet even wizened urban warriors know they can stumble on surprises now and again.

So on a recent evening on the main court at LACMA, singles and couples, tourists and locals -- more than a hundred in all -- cluster around the makeshift stage as trumpeter Bobby Bradford and his Mo’tet takes them through a set of chord changes as moody as the pewter sky.

What makes this night stand apart from the usual dating-spree free-for-all, is that the crowd, clustered beneath awnings, ducking a brisk, unexpected May shower, is as quiet as a concert hall. The chatter that competes with, and often defeats, the music is now relegated to the fringes.

As the fine drizzle turns into a persistent rainfall, there is little mixing, save for a courting couple in a shy embrace: she in a tight rose-pink skirt and high heels, no hose; he, head-to-toe in goth black. Drenched by the shower. Oblivious to the elements. A movie and its soundtrack, both proceed apace.

You can’t keep them away.

And that’s what keeps us coming back.

*

A sampling of summer freebies in the great outdoors

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Autry Museum Swing, salsa and American roots bands in an open-air plaza. Performers include Flattop Tom and His Jump Cats, July 31; and Francisco Aguabella Latin Jazz Ensemble, Aug. 7. Thursdays, July 10-Aug. 28, 6 p.m. 4700 Western Heritage Way, L.A. (323) 667-2000.

California Plaza Jazz and music styles from around the world. Entertainment includes mariachi music from Nati Cano y Mariachi Los Camperos, July 11; and African rhythms and Delta blues from Ramata Diabate, Aug. 8. Concerts Fridays and Saturdays at noon and 8 p.m. Runs July 5-Oct. 3. 350 S. Grand Ave., L.A. (213) 687-2159.

Culver City Courtyard Summer Sunset Music Festival presents a mix from Russian and Celtic to western, swing, bluegrass, blues and Cajun soul. The 10-piece Afro-Cuban-salsa band Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca kicks off the series tonight. Other performers include country/rockabilly singer and guitarist Rosie Flores, June 26; and Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys, July 31. Thursdays, through Sept. 4, 7 p.m. 9770 Culver Blvd., Culver City. (310) 253-6643.

Fisherman’s Village Live blues, R&B;, jazz, Latin, pop and more. Saturdays and Sundays (weather permitting), 2 p.m. 13755 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey. (310) 823-5411.

Levitt Pavilion The amphitheater in Old Town Pasadena’s Memorial Park serves up concerts five nights a week, starting July 20. On Sundays, it’s jazz and fusion; Wednesdays, children’s music; Thursdays, folk and rock; Fridays, world beat; and Saturdays, anything goes. Runs through Sept. 14. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Raymond Avenue at Walnut Street, Pasadena. (626) 744-7062.

Los Angeles County Museum Drive time is jazz time Fridays at the museum, with the Dr. Art Davis Quartet, June 20; and Jon Mayer with Stephanie Haynes, July 11. Runs through December. 5:30 p.m. LACMA, Times Mirror Central Court, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. (323) 857-6010.

Skirball Cultural Center The center’s Cafe Z series features ensembles performing jazz and African, Caribbean, Eastern European and other world music. Films on music from around the world after the shows. Saturdays, through October. Noon. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. (310) 440-4500.

Santa Clarita Central Park Pop concerts featuring such performers as Latin jazz percussionist Pete Escovedo, July 19; rock-blues band Canned Heat, Aug. 9; and disco band Boogie Knights, Aug. 30. Saturdays, July 12-Aug. 30, 7 p.m. 27150 Bouquet Canyon Road, Santa Clarita. (661) 298-ARTS.

Warner Park The Valley Cultural Center presents pop and light classics in its Concerts in the Park series. Performers include Irish rock band Young Dubliners, Sunday; the Drifters and other ‘50s and ‘60s vocal groups, June 22; and the R&B-salsa; band Tierra, July 6. Sundays, through Aug. 24. 6 p.m. 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 704-1358.

Whittier Central and Parnell parks Highlights include: Sapadilla, steel drum reggae, July 10; Moonlight Express Big Band, July 21; Bonne Musique Zydeco, July 31; Aug. 4, country band Doo-Wah Riders, Aug. 4; R&B; band Ready Freddy & the Backseat Betties, Aug. 21; and Alma de mi Tierra, mariachi, Aug. 25. Monday concerts: Central Park, Bailey Street and Washington Avenue; Thursday concerts: Parnell Park, Scott Avenue and Lambert Road. July 7-Aug. 29, 7 p.m. (562) 464-3436.

UCLA Hammer Museum The museum offers experimental and electronic music by DJs in conjunction with the exhibit of art by avant-garde musician-DJ Christian Marclay in its courtyard on select Thursdays: Today, June 26, July 24 and 31. 7:30 p.m. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. (310) 443-7000.

Santa Monica Pier The city kicks off its summer season of music on the pier with a family festival featuring surf guitarist Dick Dale and the bands Quetzacoatl and Young Dubliners, June 21, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. After that, Thursday evenings are “Twilight Dance” time, with music for all kinds of steps. Entertainers include New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, June 26; Willie K & Amy Hanaiali’i and guests play rock and traditional Hawaiian music and hula dance, July 3; Afro Celts with Electric Skychurch, July 10; Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra, July 24; and Maraca’s Cuban Jazz band with the Susie Hansen Latin Jazz Band, Aug. 7. Runs through Aug. 28. 7:30 p.m. Colorado and Ocean avenues, Santa Monica. (310) 458-8900.

ORANGE COUNTY

Fairview Park Surf music, ‘50s pop, big band and salsa performers, among others. Tuesdays, July 8-Aug. 12. 6:15 p.m. 2501 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. (714) 754-5300.

Pearson Park Amphitheatre The summer season of concerts includes two free performances: Carl St.Clair conducting the Pacific Symphony, Aug. 17; and the Anaheim Ballet, in a program targeting kids that runs from classical to hip-hop, Aug. 22. 7 p.m. 401 N. Lemon St., Anaheim. (714) 755-5788 or (714) 490-6150.

Pier Plaza Amphitheatre Rock and surf tunes fill the air Sundays at the Huntington Beach Pier plaza. For Surfin’ Sundays, it’s Pollo del Mar and other bands, July 6; Surf Kings and the Chantays, Aug. 10, starting at noon. All other shows, including the Mexican-Cuban-Afro combo Conjunto Jardin, June 15; R&B; performers King Brothers, June 22; Mariachi Reyna de Angeles, July 20; start at 1 p.m. Runs through Aug. 31. Huntington Beach Pier, Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street. (714) 374-1657.