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Exactly like you, Bob Parker

Exactly like you, Bob Parker

Jack Branfield

Alexander Wilburn

'Bob never got through a gig without having a good time and having a laugh,” said Wanda Houston at Music Mountain’s Gordon Hall on Saturday, June 29. She was there performing jazz classics in a tribute concert, and the “Bob” in question being honored was the late West Cornwall resident Robert Andrew Parker, who Houston described meeting at The Wake Robin Inn in the mid 1990s as she was still getting used to the music scene of rural Connecticut. Parker was a veteran of just that scene. Outside of his work as a prolific watercolor painter and illustrator whose work was featured in The New Yorker and the collection of The Museum of Modern Art alike, was also a drummer. In his free time, Parker, who died in 2024 at the age of 96, was a member of the jazz band Jive by Five along with members like pianist Scott Heth.

“Bob was a legend, both as an artist and a drummer,” Oskar Espina Ruiz, Music Mountain’s summer concert series’s artistic director, said of Parker in describing why the Falls Village concert hall had chosen to honor his legacy this summer. “His son Chris also is very famous, and so it’s a family of musicians. At Music Mountain, we build relationships with the artists. That’s what’s special about Music Mountain. We invite artists back year after year, after year, after year... Bob Parker performed at Music Mountain with Jive by Five, his band, for over 30 years.”

Wanda HoustonAlexander Wilburn

“I know that was very important to him, always having a gig,” said Parker’s son Nick who was in attendance for the evening. “That’s what musicians call it: ‘gigs.’ And his mother used to tease him about it. But he loved having a band, he loved having that camaraderie and musical expression with players who appreciate the same kind of music as him. I think if he could have, he would have just been happy as a successful musician and successful illustrator.”

The summer of 2022 was the last time Jive by Five performed at Music Mountain, a grand return after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the band’s live gigs for a few years. On Saturday night, Jive by Five made another return, this time sharing stories and memories of Parker instead of playing beside him. The jazz ensemble included Heth, as well as Bob’s son, drummer Christopher Parker, guitarist David Spinozza, Kris Jensen on saxophone, Peter McEachern on trombone, Joe Salamone on bass, and a new addition in young saxophone player Jack Brandfield. The live evening’s program was filled with jazz standards like Duke Ellington’s 1939 composition “In A Mellow Tone,” and his 1931 composition, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” as well as “Exactly Like You,” popularized by singers like Nina Simone.

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Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

BOND RESOLUTION DATED JUNE 15, 2026 OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WEBUTUCK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORIZING NOT TO EXCEED $429,327 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND/OR INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACTS TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SCHOOL BUSES AND VEHICLES AT AN AGGREGATE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF$429,327, LEVY OF TAX IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS IN PAYMENT THEREOF TAKING INTO ACCOUNT STATE-AID, THE EXPENDITURE OF SUCH SUM FOR SUCH PURPOSE, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THERE-WITH.

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Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

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The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

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Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

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An invitation to paint a community mural in Torrington

Community mural design by Macayla Muzzulin will be painted by volunteers on July 11 in Franklin Plaza in Torrington.

Provided

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.

“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”

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“Melting Ship”

“Melting Ship”
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Final viewing: Karen Marston’s “Melting Ship,” a site-specific mural painted directly onto the wall at The Re Institute at 1395 Boston Corners Road in Millerton, will disappear when the exhibition “Seven Women Chase Icebergs” closes Sunday, July 12. Created after a 2025 residency in Newfoundland’s “Iceberg Alley,” the work is open to the public during the show’s final weekend, Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12 from 1 to 4 p.m.

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