Jazz On The Square at Pelican Square

Friday nights are always fun here. This pier-​side street is closed off for this weekly music fest. Enjoy dinner & cocktails at any of the spots surrounding the stage. Great scene and great crowd!

I heard about this event from Dan I. C., and felt like taking a roadtrip for a change of scenery from my usual Wynwood /​South Beach hangings out. Am I glad I drove 95 North!
First, find some of the nearby street metered parking or for a better deal park in a nearby flat rate lot ($ 10) When your windows are down, you can hear the music as you approach the end of Commercial Blvd. There’s a stage setup between a couple of the restaurants and the fishing pier, with some chairs set up. But why sit down, when you can jam to decent covers of everything from «Sweet Caroline» to Ceelo’s «F You»? The band (Groove Line, I believe) even gets into the act dancing with the crowd!

Always the BEST TIME EVER! The Village Grille and the Village Pump have the greatest parties and events. The food is so wonderful and the drinks at the martini bar are just the best. Great people. I highly recommend spending the day or evening there and then stay at their resort.

Having been informed of Jazz On The Square last spring, when in Fort Lauderdale for an early March 2008 visit I made sure to take a leisure stroll from the Hampton Beach Club Condos on S. Ocean Boulevard, which is where I was staying, at a friends apartment, to capture the Friday evening «Jazz On the Square» concert series at Pelican Square in Lauderdale By The Sea.
Since my first vists to the Lauderdale By The Sea area in October 2005 the Anglin Beach Pier Village at Lauderdale By The Sea which some refer to as «The Village» is one of my favorite beach villages.
As well as Deerfield and Hollywood beaches as opposed to the ‘Lauderdale Beach’ aliong Atlantic Boulevard.
Having frequented Muscle Beach in South Beach for the Winter Party Festival one two occasions if I had my choice of beaches I think it would be Hollywood, Deerfield and Lauderdale By The Sea. In that order.
As I entered Pelican Square which is just yards from the Anglin Pier /​Beach on Friday evening, 7 March 2008, I remembered that my friend who lives in the Hampton Beach Club had told me that the band that he saw last spring was a blues band and that he ‘throughly enjoyed watching the women dancing together’. While the band played on.
So, as I entered from Ocean Boulevard, along Commerical Boulevard, en route to Pelican Square at El Mar Drive, and as a soulful rendition of «Sittin On The Dock Of Day» reverberated through «The Village» I wondered if it was the same band.
As I spent the next 45 minutes to an hour photographing and videotaping folks dancing the streets the Rick Bauer Band played Bruce Springsteen’s «Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart», Johnny Cash’s «Love Is a Burnin’ Thing», Bob Seger and the Silver Bullets’ «Old Town Rock and Roll» and Stephen Still’s «Love The One You’re With» before the band took a break.
At which time I headed back to the apartment on South Ocean Boulevard to rejoin friends for dinner which our guests from NYC had prepared. When I showed images that I had taken of the band to my friend he said that it was a different band. Which I had suspected since the blues band that he spoke of consisted mostly of older afro-​american men.
May I suggest that if you are ever in the Lauderdale By The Sea area on a Friday evening that you check out Jazz On The Square at Pelican Square which, just yards from the Anglin Pier and Beach, takes place from 6 until 10 pm on the streets just outside of The Village Grille and Village Pump at El Mar Drive and Commercial Boulevard.
Here is the website at
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And should you ever get the opportunity to catch the Rick Bauer Band, by all means do so. To order cds or learn more about the Rick Bauer Band, visit their websites at
or /www.myspace.com/rickbauerband.
In addition to founder Rick Bauer, drummer Rich Pistocchi and bassist Rick Bauer (known to all as Pops), a power trio that has garnished local an international acclaim as one of the most ecclectic and capable three pieces anywhere, on this particularly evening, the Rick Bauer Band also featured Richard Malfitano or «Malfie» on sax.
A video clip #2/​5, from the event, of ‘folks dancing the streets’ as the Rick Bauer Band performed Bruce Springsteen’s «Everybody’s Got A Hungry Heart» may be found at
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Photos are at