[Dixielandjazz] The Basin Street Regulars

[Bill Horton]

Question:  What town of under 9000 population has had TWO successful
tradjazz festivals every year for over 24 years?  Hint: It's headquarters
for "The Finest Jazz Club In The Universe."

Answer:  Pismo Beach, California.  The club is the Basin Street Regulars
(BSR), with about 1000 members (not all from Pismo, of course.)

In October the BSR will sponsor the 26th First Annual Jubilee By The Sea,
with 18 great bands, and it is expected to be a sellout, as the previous 25
have been.  However, despite the 24th annual Mardi Gras having been a modest
success in April, the sponsoring Pismo Business Improvement Group, decided
to abandon the Mardi Gras next year.

Hotelier Hardy Hearn, a BSR member and head of the Mardi Gras for its 24
years, asked the BSR to take over sponsorship, to see the event make its
quarter-century birthday next year.  Those of you who have ever been
involved in putting on a jazz festival know what a monumental job it is,
with its hundreds of behind-the-scenes tasks-procuring and contracting bands
and venues, renting sound and lighting equipment and drum sets and tents and
seating, publicity, ticket sales, procuring volunteers and caterers,
arranging for transportation and insurance, etc. ad infinitum.  It's a
year-long job for many, and on an unpaid basis!

Nobody knows this better than the BSR, veterans of 26 such campaigns, but
they agreed to take on the Mardi Gras for 2004!  If there was a Jazz Medal
of Honor, it should go to these hardy souls (and Hardy, too, incidentally!)

Here's a thought that just occurred to me:  If you'd like to be associated
with this fine club, you can join it for only $15 per year!  The best way to
do that is probably to tune in to their fantastic web site at PismoJazz.com.
But be prepared to spend about an hour there, because you will want to
explore all its nooks and, especially, crannies.  It is the masterwork of
K.O. Eckland, which, for those familiar with K.O., is enough said.

Bill Horton
PismoJazz.com