LaMarr Taylor makes it almost impossible not to get up and dance. Naiyanna White Photos.
LaMarr Taylor walked into the Pardee-Morris House’s backyard with a wide smile, buzzing with energy. Despite her casual outfit—a yellow maxi dress covered with white branches and flowers and a jean jacket—she meant business. As the setlist continued, it was clear that she intended to turn up the heat; the jacket that came off in between Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” and “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray.
This was the scene last Wednesday, as the band Old School 203 graced a crowd of over 50 people at the Pardee-Morris House’s annual Twilight Concert Series. Since its inception in 2012, the free summer concert series has taken place every year with the exception of 2020, and 2021 when the house was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Located at 325 Lighthouse Rd., the Pardee-Morris House is owned and operated by the New Haven Museum. Built in the mid 18th century by Amos Morris, the house also holds great historical significance. After being burned by the British during their 1779 New Haven raid, the building was rebuilt and expanded by the family. William S. Pardee, a descendant of the Morris family, willed the house to the New Haven Museum in 1918.
New Haven Museum Director of Programs and Planning Cynthia Riccio said the Twilight Concert Series is a “good way to bring people to the property that may have not have come to a historical house otherwise.”
And last Wednesday, it was. Just short of 5:30 p.m., a woman with a stroller and her two children walked in from Morris Avenue, settling underneath a tree towards the fence. As the night went on, the number of attendees grew to more than 50, almost all of them coming from somewhere within walking distance.
The museum staff provided hard chairs to those who needed them, but most attendees sat on blankets or lawn chairs they brought into the yard. Despite the number of concertgoers, the yard was still spacious enough for children to play away from the band's equipment.
This year was Old School 203’s first time performing at the Morris House. The band was founded 15 years ago by drummer Brian Ruther and bassist Dave Durrell, and has since welcomed vocalist Taylor, guitarist Jimmy Ero, and keyboardist Ralph Valenszi (also a vocalist, as the audience learned during the night).
Together, musicians made the evening their own, with a particularly magic moment that came during the second verse of the band's cover of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by The Righteous Brothers. As they got into a groove, Valenszi and Taylor went back and forth through the verse and pre-chorus, joining the chorus.
The song, originally pop, was given a rock and funk shift like the cover by Hall and Oates. Despite the genre shift, Valenszi and Taylor’s voices still conveyed the pain and longing of the original song. Valenszi’s church organ-like keyboard gave the cover a distinctive sound and a psychedelic feel.
Taylor’s slightly raspy vibrato, and Valenszi’s low, clear tone complemented each other well throughout the night, especially during the band's cover of “California Dreaming” by the Mamas and the Papas. It was there again during Taylor's rendition of “Band of Gold” by Frida Payne, a 1970 R&B/Soul song written from the point of view of a young woman abandoned on her wedding night.
As she sang—Taylor remembers "Band of Gold" being one of the first songs she performed with the band—she asked if someone in the audience would help her play the tambourine. A woman in the front accepted the challenge, dancing along to the song as she played. After the song, Taylor gifted the woman a t-shirt with the band's name printed on the back, jokingly inviting her to join Old School 203.
Maybe unsurprisingly for a band with “Old School” in the title, the King of Rock and Roll was the most covered musician of the night. At one point, Ero hopped on a medley of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and “Burning Love.” From the moment the first song transitioned into the latter, the crowd grew excited, some audience members dancing in their seats, others singing along.
Taylor also sang an Elvis song, despite Ruther's gentle teasing that she was too young to know his work. She sang Presley's 1961 hit, “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” The song was perfectly placed in the setlist, accompanied by a setting sun and a gentle breeze made cooler by the coast two blocks away.
Riccio, who lives in Weathersfield, said that the New Haven Museum primarily invites Connecticut-based musicians and bands.
“I usually look at bands that play in the New Haven area. I take recommendations from people who live around here … that may have heard different bands,” she said.
For Pardee-Morris House Coordinator Kimberly Carew, who for years worked in classrooms as a teacher, educating New Haveners on local history is something she hopes the house will accomplish.
“I can’t tell you how many people are surprised when they come into the house and are so stunned to finally learn why it’s called Morris Cove. Like, so many of them don’t even know why their neighborhood is called Morris Cove,” Carew said. “The only house that stood in the area at the time of the British’s raid on New Haven, was the Pardee-Morris house.”
Originally in a neighborhood called “Solitary Cove,” the house was later named after the Morris family, members of which owned the entire area at the time. Inside the home, visitors won’t find artifacts lying behind glass cases, but reconstructions of what the home could have looked like when the Morris family lived there.
In addition to the kitchen, stocked with period-accurate food items, and Captain Amos Morris’ office, is a sewing room. Riccio said women would gather during the Revolutionary War to sew socks, gloves, and mittens to send to troops. Outside the house’s door, there’s also a sobering reminder that the Morris family did not live there or complete any of their work alone: Amos Morris enslaved people, now memorialized in two Witness Stones dedicated to Pink and Stepna Primus.
Carew and Riccio said the Museum tries to have a diverse lineup of musicians, often changing genres from year to year. Not all concerts are built the same; for most shows, concert attendance numbers cap at 100 attendees.
“If I really had to guess, I’d say those Motown concerts really brought in the biggest audience,” she said.
In 2024 alone, the Twilight stage was visited by the Caribbean Vibe Steel Drum Band, bluegrass duo Audrey Mae, and the classic R&B group The Bernadette’s. In 2025, Waterbury’s Timmy Maia graced the stage, bringing out a crowd of almost 300 people.
“Our most well loved concerts from the audience's perspective is when they can get up and dance.”
Riccio emphasized the importance of accessibility with the Twilight Concert Series and overall programming at the Pardee-Morris House, which continues all summer and into the early fall. The concerts are free and typically frequented by people in the neighborhood. Riccio added that every time attendees leave a concert they say, “that was the best one yet,” until the concert they attend.
Carew said her joy comes from “telling the stories of old and sharing the history, especially with the future generations.”
“Those who don’t learn from history," she added, "Are doomed to repeat it.”
Additional performances at the Twilight Concert Series include Avenue Groove on July 22, Doug Jones Jazz on August 5, and Amy Gallatin and the Stillwater’s on August 19. The house will also have lectures and talks every Sunday until the House closes again on August 23. The Pardee-Morris House is open on Sundays from 12 to 4pm, free of charge, from June 7 to August 23.
This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Naiyanna White is a rising senior at the New Haven Adult & Continuing Education Center.