CARY - It was an evening Charlie Chiklis would have loved: The air full of songs from his big band, the dance floor a blur with the swinging, waltzing and fox-trotting dancers.

More than 300 friends, family and music lovers filled a basketball court at the Herbert C. Young Community Center on Friday to honor Chiklis, the musician, scientist and Cary neighbor who died in August after a 20-year battle with cancer. He was 75.

"Whether you like to listen or dance, he wanted you to have fun, and that's what we're going to do tonight," said Terry Blalock, who made good on a promise to keep the band going.

"We are still the Moonlighters, and we will always be the Moonlighters," he said, leading the band on saxophone into the opening tune.

Bill and Joan Moore of Apex wasted no time hitting the dance floor at the center of Kay Yow Court.

The Moores were here the last time the Moonlighters played, about a year and a half ago, when Chiklis was front and center.

"Tonight has that same energy," Bill Moore said, "even though we're mostly old-timers out here."

Chiklis was truly in his element on stage, said his daughter, Cynthia Matson, who thanked the crowd, the band, and the town of Cary for making the evening a success.

Matson described her father as "a brilliant scientist, a loving father and husband and a wonderful musician."

Chiklis moved to North Carolina from Massachusetts with his wife in 1989, following a 23-year career as a chemist with Polaroid.

He holds more than a dozen patents for materials he developed with Polaroid and NASA, where he contributed to designing space suits and heat shields for the Apollo mission in 1969.

Not long after moving to North Carolina, Chiklis started the Moonlighters, a popular swing band throughout the Triangle.

On Friday night, his former band mates picked up the tune where Chiklis left off.

Following the intermission, Meredith Matson, 10, gathered a half-dozen of her drama classmates from Oak Grove Elementary at the foot of the stage.

They sang a couple of jazz tunes to honor her grandfather.

"What can I say, this night means everything to me," said Joan Chiklis, his wife of 53 years. "He was a wonderful, wonderful person."