A JazzFest Just for the Love of It : Music: The two-day event in Santa Ana will feature more than 150 predominantly amateur players. The emphasis will be on traditional styles.

Bill Chase was a professional clarinet player once, but he found that he couldn’t support his family that way. So he quit music and entered the world of advertising.

He’s 62 now, and music is still an avocation for him. He figures he plays for the perfect reason: because he loves to.

Chase is one of more than 150 predominantly amateur musicians who will perform during the second annual SoCal JazzFest presented by the New Orleans Jazz Club of Southern California today and Sunday at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge.

The emphasis will be on traditional jazz. As Chase notes: “In Southern California, there are hundreds of people involved in traditional jazz bands, mostly on a semiprofessional or advanced amateur basis. Our festival’s premise is to give an opportunity to these bands to be heard outside of somebody’s living room or a rehearsal hall. There are no jobs for pay in nightspots, at least for traditional or Dixleland players.”

What exactly is “traditional jazz”? There’s no easy answer. Like the word jazz itself, it means different things to different people.

To some, traditional jazz has replaced another catchall term, mainstream jazz, which for many years meant any form of acoustic-based jazz such as New Orleans style, Dixieland, swing, be-bop, hard bop or cool--developed before the advent of electric instruments in the ‘60s. Thus, artists such as Wynton or Branford Marsalis or the Count Basie Orchestra or Phil Woods would be considered “traditional.”

Chase favors a more precise definition.

“To me, traditional jazz would include everything from the inception of jazz in the late 1910s through the small bands of early ‘40s,” he says. “So that’s essentially small-band jazz before be-bop.” And that’s essentially what the 21 bands at the JazzFest will be playing.

The wide-ranging lineup includes groups such as Chris Kelly’s Black and White Jazz Band, which plays authentic New Orleans style; the Golden Eagles, which Chase describes as a “slightly modern version of Kelly”; Tin Pan Valley, which plays swing; Jazz Unlimited, a group that Chase says stretches to an “early be-bop style,” and Tracy Wells’ Big Band, which will play swing and modern tunes for dancing. All the bands emanate from Southern California.

Several of these ensembles do include active professional musicians. Brass player Betty O’Hara, 66, who plays Sunday with Jack Caskey’s Straight Ahead band, is a former studio player and is co-leader, with trumpeter Stacy Rowles, of the Jazzbirds, a modern quintet. Trombonist Bob Enevoldsen, who’ll play with fluegelhornist Diz Mullins’ All-Stars on Sunday, co-leads the Estes-Eno Big Band with drummer Gene Estes and plays regularly with Bill Holman.

Most of the musicians are in their 50s and 60s, but, Chase notes, there are several in their 20s--schooled musicians who “have chosen to get involved with this music.”

The first SoCal JazzFest, last year, was a financial disaster, Chase says. “We really ate it and had a big fight within our organization as to whether to go ahead with this year’s festival. But we decided yes, and to really push advance ticket sales. So far, we’ve sold about 1,000 tickets. I doubt if we’ll make a big profit, but we would like to break even.” He figures to draw about 1,500 people this weekend.

But although last year’s festival came up short moneywise, those involved say there were artistic rewards. “It was wonderful,” recalls O’Hara, who played last year with trumpeter John Best’s band. “I was very impressed with the playing.”

The second annual SoCal JazzFest takes place today from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge, 212 Elk Lane, Santa Ana. Tickets: $20. Information: (714) 974-4161.