Mass-Conn-Fusion at the CT Maritime Heritage Festival
Mass-Conn-Fusion at the CT Maritime Heritage Festival brings more than four decades of funk, soul, Motown, and dance music to the New London waterfront on Saturday, September 12, performing from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Custom House Pier.
The concert is free and lands in a prime spot on Saturday’s festival schedule. Mass-Conn-Fusion takes the waterfront stage as the daytime activities begin giving way to an evening that includes New London’s Burning of Benedict Arnold tradition and the festival’s 300-drone light show over the Thames River.
For a band built around horns, vocals and a rhythm section designed to get people moving, it’s a fitting assignment: turn the waterfront into a dance floor before Saturday night’s biggest spectacles begin.
More Than 40 Years of Mass-Conn-Fusion
Mass-Conn-Fusion’s story goes back to the University of Connecticut Music Department, where bassist James “Jim” Healy formed a group originally called Conn-Fusion.
The name changed as Healy began performing extensively in Massachusetts with musicians drawn from both states.
Massachusetts plus Connecticut plus fusion became Mass-Conn-Fusion.
The concept stuck.
Healy has now led the group for more than 45 years, making Mass-Conn-Fusion a remarkably durable part of Connecticut’s live-music landscape.
Over that time, the band has performed at festivals, town concert series, clubs, casinos, weddings and community events across New England. Rather than building its identity around one musical era, Mass-Conn-Fusion developed a repertoire capable of moving across several generations of dance music.
Motown, R&B, Funk, Disco and Pop
Mass-Conn-Fusion describes its musical territory simply: Motown, R&B, funk, disco and popular music stretching from the 1960s through current hits.
That’s a broad assignment, but the band’s instrumentation helps make it work.
The full Mass-Conn-Fusion ensemble has traditionally combined multiple vocalists with horns, guitar, bass and drums. That gives the group the tools to handle music where the rhythm section and horn arrangements matter as much as the melody.
This isn’t an acoustic cover act adapting everything to guitar.
It’s music built to move.
The band’s repertoire has included material associated with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, Prince and other soul, funk, disco and pop performers.
The common denominator is the groove.
Jim Healy Has Been at the Center From the Beginning
Healy remains the link between the band’s earliest UConn days and its current performances.
The bassist and bandleader has spent more than four decades keeping Mass-Conn-Fusion working while its lineup and repertoire evolved around him.
For a September 2026 performance at Connecticut’s Old State House, the ensemble was billed with Healy on bass, Trinity Warren on vocals, Gianni Gardner on guitar, Tim Urso on drums and Liz Roberts on saxophones.
The Maritime Heritage Festival’s promotional image depicts a larger configuration, consistent with the band’s ability to perform in different formats.
Mass-Conn-Fusion isn’t limited to one fixed arrangement. In addition to the full band, it performs in smaller duo and trio configurations for more intimate settings.
Custom House Pier gets the concert version.
A Band Designed for a Festival Crowd
Mass-Conn-Fusion makes particular sense on a festival bill because there’s no prerequisite for enjoying it.
The Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival will draw families, sailors, veterans, history enthusiasts, downtown visitors and people who simply want to spend a September weekend on the waterfront.
A dance band covering decades of recognizable soul, funk and pop can reach across those groups.
Someone who grew up with Motown can find something familiar. So can someone whose reference point is 1970s funk or disco. The repertoire continues through later R&B and contemporary pop.
That’s been a large part of Mass-Conn-Fusion’s longevity.
The songs change.
The purpose doesn’t.
Get people moving.
Custom House Pier Puts the Music Beside a Working Harbor
Saturday’s setting adds something a conventional stage can’t.
Custom House Pier sits directly on New London’s downtown waterfront, overlooking the Thames River and the working harbor.
The pier is adjacent to the historic Custom House Maritime Museum and close to Waterfront Park, putting the concert in the middle of the activity rather than separating it into a distant entertainment area.
From there, the harbor itself becomes part of the backdrop.
New London remains an active maritime city, with ferries, commercial vessels, recreational boats and Coast Guard traffic sharing the waters around the mouth of the Thames.
During Maritime Heritage Festival weekend, visiting military and private vessels add to that landscape.
Mass-Conn-Fusion will be playing in the middle of the maritime story the festival was created to celebrate.
Music Leads Into a Big Saturday Night
The 6 p.m. start also makes Mass-Conn-Fusion an easy bridge between the festival’s daytime and nighttime programming.
The Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival runs throughout Saturday with vessel tours, living-history encampments, children’s activities, demonstrations, vendors and other maritime programming at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park.
Mass-Conn-Fusion takes over Custom House Pier from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Then New London gets weird.
At 7:30 p.m., the city’s annual Burning of Benedict Arnold tradition begins, commemorating the September 1781 attack on New London and Groton led by the Connecticut-born Revolutionary War general who had defected to the British.
An effigy of Arnold is marched through downtown toward the waterfront before meeting its annual fate.
After that comes one of the festival’s biggest new attractions: a 300-drone light show above the Thames River, with synchronized drones creating illuminated maritime images over the waterfront.
That makes Mass-Conn-Fusion more than an isolated concert on the schedule.
It’s the opening act for an entire evening in downtown New London.
Part of a Two-Day Celebration of Connecticut’s Maritime Story
The Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival takes place September 12 and 13 at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park.
The two-day festival brings together active maritime services and centuries of regional history through vessel tours, Coast Guard demonstrations, Revolutionary War living history, children’s activities, music and maritime traditions.
Free water taxis and shuttle buses connect the festival locations, allowing visitors to move between downtown and Fort Trumbull without repeatedly relocating their cars.
Mass-Conn-Fusion is one piece of that larger weekend, but its Saturday evening time slot gives the band a particularly visible role.
After a day devoted to Connecticut’s maritime past and present, the festival turns toward music.
And for 90 minutes on Custom House Pier, the soundtrack is going to be funkier than anything heard aboard a 19th-century sailing ship.
Event Details
Event: Mass-Conn-Fusion at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival
Date: Saturday, September 12, 2026
Time: 6–7:30 p.m.
Location: Custom House Pier
City: New London, CT
Music: Motown, R&B, funk, soul, disco and pop
Admission: Free
Festival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival
Festival Dates: September 12–13, 2026
Saturday Evening: Mass-Conn-Fusion is followed by the Burning of Benedict Arnold and the festival’s 300-drone light show
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.