Seasonal residents enjoy one more concert before heading north

NAPLES — A sea of lawn chairs stretched across Cambier Park on Sunday.

The ranks had thinned a bit from previous weekend afternoons, but those remaining bounced in their seats, tapped their feet and whistled to the same tunes that have beckoned them away from lazy days on the couch since November. As the season draws to a close in Naples, the last of the concerts in downtown Cambier Park are winding down; Sunday marked the last performance of the season by the Gulf Coast Big Band.

“It’s the setting, all of the wonderful people, the weather — everything’s perfect,” said Carmella Rath. “It’s another day in paradise.”

Rath and her husband of 50 years, Fritz Rath, couldn’t help but get out of their lawn chairs to dance as singer Frank Michota took the microphone to belt out a jazzy version of “All of Me,” a tune popularized by singers from Louis Armstrong to Frank Sinatra.

“We took lessons together and that didn’t work, so we taught ourselves,” said Carmella Rath. “It took me 35 years to get him dancing.”

The Raths will return to their other home in Syracuse, N.Y., in a few weeks, but wanted to soak up the last of what has turned out to be a very mild spring in Naples.

Eileen Smith, wife of trombone player Barry Smith, sat at a table beside the amphitheater Sunday selling the Gulf Coast Jazz Band’s compact discs. Proceeds from the CD’s help fund music scholarships for high school students, and from her seat, Smith has had a bird’s eye view of crowds in the park since the first concerts began in November. There were fewer people there Sunday than on previous weekends, Smith said, but she said more people seemed to be sticking around town later.

“I just think it’s so wonderful, and I’m so surprised because there are so many of them here — because many of our supporters are snowbirds,” said Smith. “I think they’ve had such an awful season up north. There’s been so much flooding and tornadoes. I think people are saying, ‘We’re not going back until we’re guaranteed some better weather.’”

Smith would know. She and her husband spend half the year in Manitoba, Canada, which is experiencing flooding now as the problems that plagued North Dakota several weeks ago move north down the Red River.

In Naples on Sunday, though, all of that seemed worlds away as the big band churned out a jazzy beat to match the sunny day and relaxed mood. Some people sprawled in lawn chairs to read a magazine while the music wove into the background, others napped on blankets in the shade and others moved a little closer to the action.

North Naples residents Clayton and Francis Brusca were one such couple. During a break in the music, they moved up to the very edge of the band shell, where the music pumped vibrations directly into their aluminum chairs.

“It’s just relaxing,” said Clayton Brusca. “Good bands, nice atmosphere and great hotdogs. It’s a pretty good show for the price.”

Those hotdogs came compliments of Regina’s Ice Cream, a Fifth Avenue South business that has sponsored the free Sunday concerts in Cambier Park for 20 years. Mary Aiello and her father, Frank Aiello, said it’s a great way to spend a work day.

“We get out of the store for a day every Sunday,” said Mary Aiello. “The bands are good. (People) love the weather. It beats being up north.”

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