Showers accompany Memphis In May finale, but Sunset Symphony still has Sunshine

Photo by Mark Weber // Buy this photo

Harry Wayne Casey, lead singer of KC and The Sunshine Band, performs for the crowd. It was the band's first time to perform with symphonic accompaniment.

The Sunset Symphony's groove is solid, but not stodgy.

Proof of that Saturday night came to the crowd via the bootylicious funk from KC and The Sunshine Band who, for the first time in its 37-year history, performed with a symphonic accompaniment.

That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, they liked it.

Photo by Mark Weber

Harry Wayne Casey, lead singer of KC and The Sunshine Band, performs for the crowd. It was the band's first time to perform with symphonic accompaniment.

Photo by Mark Weber

Heavy clouds hang over the crowd gathered during Memphis in May's Sunset Symphony Saturday afternoon.

For the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, it was the 34th year doing the riverside performance at Tom Lee Park that has become steeped in tradition.

For the crowd, it was about wearing boogie shoes, bringing a picnic and being prepared for rain.

And the people boogied, picnicked, and dealt with the rain, although the precipitation was more bluster than downpour, not enough to stop the music or slow down the annual air show by the Commemorative Air Force.

Memphis in May officials were pleased with the turnout, which picked up steam throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Diane M. Hampton, MIM executive vice president, said advance sales were healthy.

"Our closing event this year is similar to our opening," she said, referring to MIM's first day of the Beale Street Music Festival. "Strong crowds and a couple of clouds."

In the middle of that crowd was an impromptu game devised on the spot without benefit of moniker. Empty beer bottles were set atop a couple of 4-foot-tall poles and contestants -- two at each pole -- tried to knock off the beer bottles with the discs.

For a game with no name, it was complex -- three points if you knocked off the bottle with the Frisbee and both fell to the ground, but if the other team caught both, they got points instead.

The penalty for spilling your own beer was, of course, having spilled your own beer.

Kevin Bourquin and Kelsey Parham took a break from the sport and allowed that this was their first Sunset Symphony. "We've lived Downtown for years but have usually been out of town," Bourquin said. "This time we wanted to come and hear some good music."

The opening act was local married couple Ken and Robyn Greene, a charming duo with him singing and she fiddling an array of delightful numbers.

Then came the Memphis Knights, a big band group swinging with tunes from Basie, Goodman and Cannonball Adderley. The eclectic 18-member group includes a pharmacist, law student, professor and electrical engineer among others who all do it for the love of that large sound.

It was the first time in a few years that the fireworks were launched from a barge instead of behind the stage. But as tradition dictated, it followed Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

The Sunset Symphony was a spot-on perfect pre-wedding party for Kendall Arney and George Vincent. Some 200 friends from around the world came to celebrate in the VIP dining area in front of the stage.

"I'm ecstatic," said the bride whose nuptials are today.

As well she might be. KC's funky sunshine, the MSO's symphonic sunset, minimal rain, fireworks off of a barge — it's a romantic sweep.

© 2010 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.