Chandler Travis Philharmonic entertains crowd in Shepard Park

This is not your father’s philharmonic. The nine-piece band (and the pieces are varied – trumpet, trombone, saxophone, clarinet, mandolin, accordion, harmonica, et al.) performed in Shepard Park Wednesday night, July 11, as part of the Lake George Arts Project free summer concert series.

The Chandler Travis Philharmonic, a Boston-based group formed in 1970, romped across the stage playing a combination of jazz, Dixieland, pop and novelty songs while dressed in mismatched costumes of the pajama and silk bathrobe variety. Travis introduced each song with humor, apologizing, at one point, for “all the songs we’ve played so far and the ones we are about to play.”

The Lake George Arts Project sponsors the summer-long free concert series that brings an eclectic mix of bands to Shepard Park every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Next week, July 18,

C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band is scheduled to perform. Chenier is the son of Clifton Chenier, who is credited with bringing Zydeco music to the American Mainstream. Zydeco is form of American folk music with roots in the Cajun culture of Southern Louisiana.