By Gary Gosselin, Heritage Newspapers

Picture this scene. Late one early spring evening a phone call is made and goes something like this:

"Davy, hey Little Davy, we gotta get the band together. The band, we gotta get the band together — something big, really big, is coming down the pike."

No, it’s not a scene from the Blues Brothers movie and no one needs to be "sprung" from Joliet Prison.

It’s a scenario played out in Lincoln Park. Little Davy is Lincoln Park attorney David Zelenak and he’s the lead man in the local band Little Davy and the Diplomats.

The reason they’re getting back together, of course, is Cruisin’ Downriver July 8, at which the band will play from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Lincoln Park band shell.

Getting back together is somewhat a misnomer, because some of the members have been playing gigs with each other all along. But it wasn’t the same oldies music and not the zany, outlandish outfits and antics as their trademark act from the 1970s.

Dave, the band’s tenor, and brother Ed (on piano), another Lincoln Park attorney, are the only two original members left from the old band. They said they each used the proceeds from their music to put themselves through college.

The band now includes another brother, Pat, playing drums, Joe Podorsek on guitar, Ted Blankenship on bass, Dave DeClark on trumpet, Jim Prescott playing baritone saxophone, Mike Jones on alto sax, and for vocals, Mama Cass Durfin.

"These guys are professional musicians and can play with anyone," Ed said of the "band." "And the reason they play with us is we have fun, laugh, blow off steam and just have a good time."

The members of the band represent a broad range of musical talent dating back to at least the early 1960s.

Podorsek spent many years at the legendary Motown, and even helped teach famous (infamous?) rocker Ted Nugent. Blankenship worked for the Grand Ole Opry, and Ed Zelenak is a former radio announcer.

DeClark appears regularly with the Contours, Prescott has been with the Coasters, the Platters and the Placemats, and Jones has worked with Bird of Paradise. Durfin has been performing solos and duos in clubs throughout the Midwest since the late 1970s.

In its heyday, Little Davy and the Diplomats were playing three nights a week, were the house band for WDRQ radio and even released a comedy 45-record, "C.B. Polka" in 1977.

The band even had its moment of Hollywood fame, and was the focal point of a short-lived sitcom, "Fernwood Tonight," a spin-off show of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."

"It’s not a lark; we all made our way through college by playing," said "Little Davy." "Some of them actually taught music and still do, and some never left it. These guys are good."

The band will play a wide variety of music during their two-hour set, including music from the Turtles, the Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, Santana, the Coasters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion, Motown and the Ponettes.