The five-concert series, held Thursday evenings at Willow Glen Elementary School, began July 8.

"The first week was a little weak," said concert organizer Scott McDonald. "The second week we had the Hitmen out there, and we estimated that about 500 people were there."

McDonald said the third concert, featuring big band jazz by Mark Russo's Classy Cats, would be a good indicator of average attendance for the third concert in the series. He said beforehand that he expected about 200 people to turn out for the July 22 show, and his estimate was right on the money.

This is the third year that Music in the Glen has been part of the Willow Glen summer landscape.

Since this is not a money making event, McDonald said, the concert series depends on the kindness of its sponsors, which this year include the Willow Glen Resident, Aqui, USBank, Creative Security Concepts Inc. and Realtor Michael Ortegon. McDonald's firm, Edward Jones, also made an investment in the series, and Peak Travel Group pitched in $3,000 to bring the Joe Sharino Band in to play the final show of the summer on Aug. 5. McDonald said he's expecting a capacity crowd for that concert.

McDonald said he conceived Music in the Glen as a neighborhood event, as opposed to Music in the Park in downtown San Jose, which draws its audience from the South Bay at large.

"This is a family atmosphere," he added. "I went to Music in the Park, and I had my kid with me. I don't know if I'd go back."

The crowd that came to enjoy the Classy Cats band was a mix of families with small children and older adults who grew up listening to the big band standards the group plays. Willow Glen resident Mary Burreisci, whose friend is a trumpeter in the band, said this was her first time at Music in the Glen, but not her last.

Throughout the show, Burreisci helped her 11-month-old son, Dallas, stay on his feet and dance to the music.

"He'll want to be a regular here," she said as Dallas hopped up and down to the beat, while holding his mother's hands.

Jim and Lynn Bailey, who have lived on Hazelwood Avenue for 25 years, are regulars at Music in the Glen. Last Thursday they brought Lynn's parents, Joseph and Eleanor Waller, to the concert.

"Grandma and grandpa like big band music, so that's special," Jim said, adding that he likes the neighborhood feel of the concert series.

"We walk down here. It's less than a mile [from our house]," he said. "If we're just taking it easy and staying home, it's a good place to go."

McDonald said he doesn't have a sense of whether people who attend Music in the Glen head to the restaurants and coffee shops along Lincoln Avenue after the show.

"I'd say there's not a great impact on local businesses at the moment," he added. "Once it becomes a habit for people ... it will be more like Campbell's Summer Concert Series, where people go to coffee first and dinner after."

McDonald said he's learned a thing or two about how to make Music in the Glen habit-forming. "Last year we didn't really market it because we thought the first year's momentum would take us through. This year we got the signs up early.

"It's really not that difficult to put together once you've done it a couple times," he added. "Bands want to come play."