With the Sounds of Summer concert series celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, it prompts some reflection on just how the popular outdoor concerts started in downtown Arlington Heights.
Former Arlington Heights trustee Steve Daday marching in a July 4th parade
Perhaps little known, it was the jazz band from Saint Viator High School that was the first to perform in what eventually would be called Harmony Park, at the corner of Campbell Street and Vail Avenue, in the heart of the downtown business district.
In the spring of 2000, a jazz combo from Saint Viator had been playing a series of private gigs, with the last one taking place at the Cuneo Estate in Vernon Hills. As the band was packing up, parents talked about wanting to find another gig, to keep the concerts going.
One of the parents, Steve Daday, said he knew of a potential spot where they could play. At the time, he was an Arlington Heights trustee and he knew the lot at Campbell and Vail still stood empty after the historic Vail Lounge had burned down, in 1988.
Village officials agreed and the Saint Viator jazz band performed at the south end of the lot, setting up their seats and big band music on a makeshift stage. They played to a few hundred people and drew downtown patrons to wonder over to hear the music.
Daday was a musician himself, at the time playing with an Irish band called The Blarney Stones. That first summer, he estimates only a few concerts took place, including one that featured another Irish group he knew of, Arranmore, as well as another by the Arlington Heights Community Concert Band.
The Saint Viator jazz band was the first to perform in the Sounds of Summer concerts, seen here in 2011.
By the next summer, invitations were extended to other area high school bands and jazz bands, as well as local cover bands, among others.
There was no budget to pay the groups, but bands eagerly agreed to play because of the growing crowd size the weekly concerts were drawing.
With the cooperation of Mayor Arlene Mulder, Village Manager Bill Dixon and Communications Director Nancy Kluz, the concert series grew, eventually growing to provide live music on Thursday and Friday nights, from the beginning of June until the beginning of August. Daday designated Thursday nights as “unplugged” performances, or those such as community bands and high school ensembles that did not use a sound system, while Friday nights featured folk and rock bands.
Beatles’ cover band, Brit Beat, was a popular concert each year.
Daday recruited sponsors to support the bands and the village provided staff members from its Public Works Department to set up the stage and take it down. Collaboration continued to flourish, between the village of Arlington Heights and local businesses who stepped up as sponsors.
The numbers of bands wanting to perform in the park grew as well, with groups submitting audition tapes to Daday with the hopes of landing the gig. For his part, Daday continued to book all of the concerts for 20 years, or from 2000 to 2020, before village staff members took it over.
The Village of Arlington Heights made improvements to the park, including a fountain, and named it Harmony Park, reflecting the popular concert series.
“I always felt that music was the universal language of love, unity, kindness and goodness,” Daday says. “Music is intrinsically good, from rap to the classics. Whether you are a fan of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the great rock band, Chicago, the Sounds of Summer brings the community together in a way that is unparalleled.”
In more recent years, village officials have narrowed the series to just Thursday nights, while extending its run through August. However, it still retains its original community feel, now enhanced by Arlington Alfresco — with the intersection of Campbell and Vail closed to traffic, and surrounded by outdoor diners — the series continues to draw big crowds, now in the thousands.
“It is always great to see multiple generations enjoying the concerts,” Daday says. “Starting with the Saint Viator jazz band and Arranmore in 2000, to today, it’s been a great part of the summer scene in Arlington Heights.
He adds: “We’ve come a long way.”
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