The weather is perfect for the last outdoor concert in the 2014 Cedar Park Summer Jazz series, which taking place tonight, from 6 – 8 p.m. Rich Tucker (Facebook page) and the Universal Koncept will entertain the crowd at 49th and Baltimore for the last time this year, as we’re saying goodbye to the series until the next summer. As usual, bring your blanket, or chair and a picnic, or enjoy a takeout from your favorite neighborhood restaurant.

There are a couple of things we wanted to mention as the weekend rolls in.

There are only three days left for University City Dining Days when you can enjoy dinner at 27 area restaurants for three fixed prices: $15, $25, and $35. The annual Dining Days will run through July 27. More info and the list of participating restaurants is available here.

The second concert in the 40th Street Summer Concerts series is scheduled for this Saturday, July 26. Bring your blanket or chairs to the lawn behind the Walnut Street West library at 40th and Walnut and enjoy live music by Avalon String Band and the fusion act – Raphael Xavier W.O.R.X. Meets Bobby Zankel & The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound. The show, which begins at 6 p.m., also features free treats from Ben & Jerry’s and face painting and balloon animals for kids.

The next 40th Street Summer series concert is on August 30, featuring Nation Beat. More details are available here.

El Caribefunk will kickoff the 2014 Summer Nights Concert Series (Photo courtesy Penn Museum)

This summer, the Penn Museum is bringing back international music concerts every Wednesday night, starting June 18. Titled “P.M. @ Penn Museum,” the series is geared to “after-work” crowd as a good way to wind down by listening to some beautiful tunes in Penn Museum’s outdoor courtyards (or inside the museum if it rains), and enjoying drinks and light fare from the museum’s Pepper Mill Cafe.

This year’s lineup features a colorful mix of performances – from Samba, Turkish fusion, and rhythmic Afro-Cuban jazz  to American-influenced music, including bluegrass, swing, and good, old-fashioned rock n’ roll. Colombian band El Caribefunk will kick off the 2014 Summer Nights series with their powerful rhythm. To see the full lineup, click here.

Concerts begin at 5 p.m. at the museum’s Stoner Courtyard. Admission to each concert is now $10 (no more $5 tickets!) but still includes general Museum admission (the galleries stay open until 8 p.m.!). The series will run through Sept. 3.

Photo courtesy UCD.

The Free at Noon concert series returns to The Porch at 30th Street station on Friday, May 16 with live performances by Hamilton Leithauser and Chet Faker. Leithauser, the lead singer of the recently broken-up indie rock band The Walkmen, will perform songs from his solo debut album titled Black Hours. Chet Faker is an electronica musician from Australia, who has also recently released his debut album, Built on Glass.

Sounds like something fun to do at lunchtime, plus there will be some awesome food trucks at The Porch on that day: Bonjour Creperie, Dadz Grilled Cheese, Innovative Catering, and Local 215. Smak Parlour, a mobile fashion boutique, will also be there.

Free at Noon concerts are presented by the University City District (UCD) and WXPN Radio. For more events at The Porch, visit: http://universitycity.org/porch-events

Clockwise from top left: Quique Sinesi, Pino Forastiere, Michael Dawes, and Brian Gore. Photo via Brian Gore’s Facebook page.

A group of guitar virtuosos from four countries is coming this Sunday, Jan. 19 to Crossroads Music at the Calvary Center (48th & Baltimore) to take part in the International Guitar Night, a North America’s premier mobile guitar festival. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are still available. The festival has featured some of the best performing guitar composers from around the world since 1995.

Here’s who’s coming to perform in West Philly: Pino Forastiere (Italy), Mike Dawes (England), Quique Sinesi (Argentina) and Brian Gore (California). Each year Gore, the festival founder, invites a new cast of acoustic guitar players to join him for special evenings of solos, duets and quartets. Participating musicians relish the chance to express reverence for one another, and to collaborate rather than compete with one another. Since the beginning, audiences nationwide have cherished “the friendly informal ambiance” of the performances. So, now you can enjoy it too. More information and tickets are available here.

Also, check out this video of Pino Forastiere:

Play On, Philly! (POP), the acclaimed innovative educational music program which began in 2011 at West Philly’s St. Francis de Sales School, is inviting neighbors to their first collaborative concert tonight at 7 p.m. at West Catholic Preparatory High School (45th & Chestnut). Admission is FREE.

This season, POP has been focusing on collaboration, creativity and composition, as part of a new program, POP Creates. All of their concerts this season will be collaborations, including Orchestra 2001 and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera, Messiah College, and Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three, to name a few. The impressive guest artist list includes: Trio Cavatina, Joseph Lin, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, the Takacs Quartet and Time for Three.

Tonight’s concert is a collaboration between St. Francis de Sales Firebird String Orchestra and Junior String Philharmonic of Lehigh Valley (JSP). The highlight of the concert will be a joint performance of Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and selections from The Nutracker Suite. Pieces by Bach and Pachelbel will also be featured. The concert will be conducted by Kenneth Bean, Music Director/Conductor of JSP and Naomi Gonzalez, Conductor at POP.

To read more about Play On, Philly! and to check the schedule of their upcoming events, visit: http://www.playonphilly.org/

(Photo courtesy of Play On, Philly!)