Young Chang Muggsy would have been proud....

Young Chang

Muggsy would have been proud. Jazz was dying out in the late ‘20s

when big bands and swing took over the music scene. But Muggsy

Spanier and his Ragtime Band swooped in toward the late ‘30s and

helped to revive Dixieland music, demonstrating with a “seven-piece

band that he could get all the excitement of the ‘20s,” said Brian

White, co-leader of the group Muggsy Remembered.

White and his six bandmates, co-led by cornetist Alan Gresty, will

perform at the Costa Mesa/Orange County Classic Jazz Festival through

Sunday with a repertoire that is based on, but not limited to, the

works of the famous cornetist who White affectionately refers to as

just “Muggsy.” The four-day event devoted entirely to jazz’s many

genres, across seven stages and with about 20 musical acts, more than

confirms that the music Muggsy committed to reviving has more than

stayed alive.

“People have lost sight of the fact that he was the man that

started the revival that was in his heyday in Chicago,” said White,

who flew from London this week to be a part of the festival. “We’re

only too delighted to be spreading the word.”

And if there’s a place to spread the sounds of jazz, the Costa

Mesa-based jazz fest would be it.

Formerly the L.A. Classic Jazz Festival, the tradition that’s in

its third year in Costa Mesa invites artists from around the world to

perform American music that was popular from the turn of the century

to the 1950s. Genres include ragtime, Dixieland, swing, boogie-woogie

and others. This year, three international acts from Australia,

England and Holland join American musicians hailing from as close as

Cerritos to as far as Largo, Fla.

“What distinguishes our festival from other similar events is it

is exclusively the American music of this period,” said Connie Baker,

one of the festival’s three directors. “And when you buy a ticket,

you don’t get a seat. What you get is a badge. That badge lets you

into every performance. The audience is totally in charge of what

they want to listen to.”

Special events include a performance titled “Twin Pianos” by

pianists Robbie Rhodes and David Boeddinghaus at 7:30 p.m. today in

the Hilton, a joint show with the High Sierra Jazz Band and Joep

Peeters and His Gumbo Gabbers at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at the Hilton,

and a one-time performance by dancer/entertainer Fayard Nicholas with

Banu Gibson and the New Orleans Hot Jazz at noon Sunday at the

Hilton.

The seven stages of the music smorgasbord will be in the Hilton

Costa Mesa and the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, which sit across the

street from each other.

Featured musicians include the New Wolverine Jazz Orchestra from

Australia, Peeters from Holland, Gibson from New Orleans and more

than 15 other groups from around the country.

“We would like to introduce them to the United States’ traditional

jazz audience,” Baker said of the international artists. “The really,

really serious jazz aficionados may already know who they are.”

White characterized the collective mood of the music that will be

performed as “feel-good music.”

“It puts smiles on people’s faces. Everybody seems happy around

this sort of music,” said the 67-year-old clarinetist, whose group

formed in the mid-’80s to pay tribute to Spanier.

For the members of Muggsy Remembered, the festival is a chance for

them to play Spanier’s “Great 16,” a set of 15 titles, and pieces

from their expanded repertoire, in a foreign country with foreign

audiences.

“The fact that there are a lot of bands here means there are a lot

of people,” White said. “And it gives us a chance when we’re not

playing to go around and hear the other guys.”