A Grand Jam : ‘The Bash ‘88’ in Costa Mesa will offer devotees of music a daylong festival of jazz, big band and Dixieland styles

On Sunday, the gang down at Musicians’ Local 7 is having a king-size jam session. And you’re invited to sit in.

Billed as “The Bash ‘88,” this 18th annual daylong music festival at the Red Lion Inn in Costa Mesa will feature 300 professional members of Musicians Assn. Local 7, American Federation of Musicians, and a few famous friends in a nonstop musical smorgasbord. Nearly 50 different jazz, big band, Dixieland and lounge acts will be represented, as will the classical side of the spectrum.

It starts at 10 a.m., it is expected to bop well into the wee hours and it is for a couple of really good causes. The $10 ticket price benefits the local’s fund for scholarships and emergency relief.

“The scholarship is targeted toward promising students who need a little lift and a few connections to get rolling,” said Doug Sawtelle, president of the 1,350-member local. “We also have a well-used emergency relief fund for musicians. Members can draw on it when they need it. If a guy has his horn stolen, we can buy him a new horn. It just makes a guy able to work.”

Headlining the event: big band great Bob Crosby, who, from his home in La Jolla, promised a set with the tangy taste of Dixieland.

“We’ll be doing a lot of Preservation Hall stuff . . . maybe some improvisational jazz,” said Crosby, 75, who will be backed by the Frank Amoss Big Band during his show in the hotel’s main ballroom at 6 p.m. “Really, I think Dixieland is the only real art form that America has . . . it’s survived the test of time for over 100 years.

“You know, Louis Armstrong once said if you live 10 miles north of New Orleans, you can’t play Dixieland. But it’s amazing what a good musician can do with it. When the soloists ‘talk’ to each other on their instruments, well, it’s almost like a Bach fugue.”

Crosby--whose older brother Bing was known to croon a tune or two--went on to say that he had never planned to be a band leader or singer. He was picking cucumbers to raise college tuition in 1933 when he happened to hook up with the Anson Weeks Orchestra (remember “Dancin’ with Anson?”). The next thing he knew, he was earning $100 a week plus room and board.

The following year, he became the first singer with the fledgling Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, and in 1935 he started up his own big band, Bob Crosby and the Bobcats. Through the years, Crosby has written or co-authored such hits as “Until,” “Boogie Woogie, Maxixe” and “What’s New?” (recently recorded by Linda Ronstadt).

According to Bash chairman Frank Amoss, Crosby made his mark on American music with his unique brand of big band-arranged Dixieland. He said the entertainer has been named Bash grand marshal in recognition of his “lifelong contribution to live music.”

Tex Beneke and His Orchestra will follow Crosby in the ballroom at 8 p.m. A past grand marshal of the event, Beneke got his start with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1938 and has continued to play, as he terms it, “in the Miller mood.” Orange County-based big bands performing in the ballroom will include Al Latour and the Big Band Command, and the Bernie Far Band.

Jazz will be played in the Emerald Bay Room, where you can look for the Bill Baker Jazz Band (Baker wrote many arrangements for the Righteous Brothers) and the Jack Reidling Trio, among others. Dixieland groups, in the lounge, will include Mississippi Mudders, Fullerton Strutters and the Lennon Street Stompers from Fullerton College.

The Cal State Fullerton Faculty Artist Trio and the Irvine Symphony Quartet are on the classical music program in the Balboa Room, and there will be a 13-piece trombone act, intriguingly titled Tom Pederson and the Terrible Tempered Trombones, in the lobby bar.

After the last scheduled performances at 10 p.m., a room will be available for a free-for-all jam session open to “anybody who wants to bring an instrument and sit in,” according to Bash co-founder J.J. (Chip) Allen.

Allen said the Bash began in 1970 when he and his wife learned of Clair Goff, a down-on-his-luck musician who needed a hand.

“This guy needed a new engine for his car so he could get to his jobs,” Allen recalled. “And he had cancer. We got together a bunch of musicians and had a benefit concert at the Sheraton Beach Inn in Huntington Beach and earned enough money to get him his motor. He’s doing fine now, working up in the Bay Area.”

Proceeds from that first show were about $1,000, Allen said, and have continued to grow every year to an average of $10,000 per Bash. All the musicians donate their time, and this year the hotel is giving the group a substantial discount.

Tickets for ‘The Bash ‘ 88’ are $10 and will be available at the Red Lion Inn, 3050 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa. Information: (714) 546-8166.