Concert on the Green: Adam Lomeo & Marcus McLaurine Closes La Grua’s Outdoor Season With Jazz in Stonington Borough
Concert on the Green: Adam Lomeo & Marcus McLaurine bring guitarist Adam Lomeo and veteran jazz bassist Marcus McLaurine together for their first performance as a duo Friday, September 18, on the Stonington Commons Green.
The free concert begins at 6 p.m. outside La Grua Center and closes La Grua’s five-concert outdoor season with an hour of jazz standards, covers and original music.
It is an unusually intimate setup for two musicians with careers that stretch far beyond Stonington.
Lomeo has performed at New York jazz clubs including the Blue Note and toured internationally. McLaurine spent three decades playing with legendary trumpeter Clark Terry and has shared bandstands with musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Burrell, James Moody and members of the Count Basie tradition.
There is another connection between them that makes Friday’s pairing particularly interesting.
Lomeo studied with McLaurine.
From Teacher and Student to Duo Partners
Lomeo studied jazz at William Paterson University, where guitarist Gene Bertoncini was among his teachers.
McLaurine has also spent decades teaching bass at William Paterson.
On McLaurine’s own website, Lomeo describes studying with him and learning jazz standards through an ear-training approach that eventually had teacher and student playing the music together and transposing songs through all 12 keys.
Now they’re taking that relationship onto the stage as a duo.
La Grua says Friday will mark their first performance together in that format.
Without drums, piano or a horn section filling the spaces between them, guitar and upright bass can create one of jazz’s most conversational combinations.
The bass doesn’t have to simply provide the bottom of the arrangement. It can answer the guitar, carry melodies and turn a familiar standard into something much more spontaneous.
That should be particularly interesting with these two musicians.
Adam Lomeo Has One Foot in Jazz and Another in a Much Wider Musical World
Lomeo is a professional jazz and classical guitarist whose playing reaches considerably beyond either description.
His repertoire and performance work encompass jazz, classical music, bossa nova and pop, and he plays nylon-string and seven-string guitar in addition to steel-string acoustic and hollow-body jazz guitar.
He has performed professionally around the country and in New York jazz clubs, including the Blue Note, and has toured in China.
Lomeo also founded Music Dept, an entertainment company that grew from his earlier Rum Runners Jazz operation.
That varied career makes the “covers” portion of Friday’s program particularly open-ended.
La Grua isn’t advertising a setlist.
What it is promising is a mixture of jazz standards, covers and original compositions, giving the duo considerable freedom to move outside a strictly traditional jazz program.
Marcus McLaurine Has Played With Some Serious Company
McLaurine’s résumé reaches deep into modern jazz history.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he initially played electric bass before an encounter with the sound of upright bassist Roland Haynes sent him searching for an acoustic instrument of his own.
His first upright bass cost $150 at a pawn shop.
The musical education that followed involved studying the work of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley while developing his own voice on the instrument.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force and performing with the 590th Air Force Band, McLaurine moved into the New York jazz world.
Then came the phone call that changed his career.
Thirty Years With Clark Terry
In 1981, trumpeter Clark Terry needed a bass player.
McLaurine was recommended for the job.
He initially thought the telephone call from Terry was a prank.
It wasn’t.
McLaurine joined him for engagements at the Blue Note and in Canada, beginning a musical relationship that would last approximately three decades.
Terry was no ordinary bandleader.
The trumpeter and flugelhorn player had worked with both Count Basie and Duke Ellington, performed with generations of major jazz musicians and became one of the music’s most influential educators.
Playing night after night with someone like Terry gave McLaurine an extraordinary vantage point on the jazz tradition.
His career eventually included performances with Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Burrell, James Moody, Lou Donaldson, Abbey Lincoln, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks and the Count Basie Orchestra under Thad Jones.
He also performed with Terry at venues including the Village Vanguard, where Oscar Peterson once joined the group.
McLaurine has spent years passing that experience to younger musicians through his work as an educator.
One of them was Adam Lomeo.
Jazz Doesn’t Need a Big Stage
There is a nice contrast between that history and Friday evening’s setting.
No major concert hall.
No complicated production.
Just guitar and bass on a lawn in Stonington Borough.
The Stonington Commons Green sits beside La Grua Center at 32 Water Street, giving the Concerts on the Green series the feeling of a neighborhood gathering rather than a formal jazz performance.
That has been the point of the series.
La Grua presented five outdoor concerts between May and September this year, moving through a deliberately varied lineup that included Ed Fast and Conga Bop Supertet, Amanda Pascali, the Sean Nelson Jazz Orchestra and Bergin & Sarah before Friday’s finale.
The entire series has been offered free to the community with major support from the Stonington Village Improvement Association.
Bring a Chair and Make an Evening of It
The practical side of attending is simple, but there are a few things worth knowing before heading into the Borough.
Seating opens at 5 p.m., one hour before the concert.
La Grua does not provide chairs, so bring a lawn chair or blanket.
Picnics are welcome.
Outside alcoholic beverages are not.
Dogs are also prohibited on the Stonington Commons Green.
Restrooms are available inside La Grua Center during the concert.
The performance is expected to run for approximately one hour without an intermission, making this a compact Friday-evening concert rather than an all-night event.
Parking Is the Part Worth Planning
Anyone familiar with Stonington Borough probably knows the bigger logistical issue.
Parking.
The North Lot at Stonington Commons will be available for concertgoers until it fills. Parking immediately around the green is reserved for Stonington Commons residents, so those spaces should not be used for the concert.
La Grua specifically encourages Borough residents to walk.
For everyone else, arriving well before the 6 p.m. start should make the evening considerably easier.
What Happens if It Rains?
Unlike some outdoor concert series that simply cancel when the weather turns bad, La Grua has an indoor backup plan for Friday.
If inclement weather threatens the outdoor performance, organizers plan to make a decision by noon Friday about moving the concert indoors.
The event page will be updated with that decision.
That means the season finale should have a considerably better chance of happening regardless of what September weather decides to do.
One Last Evening on the Green
There is something appropriate about ending an outdoor concert season this way.
Not with the largest band of the summer, but one of the smallest.
Two musicians.
A guitar.
A bass.
And enough shared musical language between a former teacher and student to see where the songs take them.
For a series designed around gathering the community on a lawn for an hour of music, it is a fitting way to close out summer in Stonington Borough.
Details
Event: Concert on the Green: Adam Lomeo & Marcus McLaurine
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 6–7 p.m.
Seating Opens: 5 p.m.
Location: La Grua Center Commons Green
Address: 32 Water Street, Stonington, CT 06378
Performers: Adam Lomeo, guitar; Marcus McLaurine, bass
Program: Jazz standards, covers and original music
Admission: Free and open to the public
Seating: Bring a lawn chair or blanket; seating is not provided
Food: Guests may bring their own food
Alcohol: Outside liquor is not permitted
Dogs: Dogs are not permitted on the green
Restrooms: Available inside La Grua Center
Parking: North Lot at Stonington Commons until full; spaces surrounding the green are reserved for residents
Running Time: Approximately one hour with no intermission
Weather: If inclement weather threatens, La Grua will decide by noon whether to move the concert indoors
Series Support: Stonington Village Improvement Association
Phone: 860-535-2300
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.