Music "Em Bebbi sy Jazz": from a festival in front of the hotel to a major event in Basel

The "Em Bebbi sy Jazz" festival celebrates its fortieth birthday on Friday. What is now a major event with over 70,000 visitors started out small on August 31, 1984. At the "Jazz-Fest am Rümelinsplatz" back then, 16 bands performed at 8 venues, as the program from that time put it.

By comparison, this year's edition features 70 bands with around 700 musicians on 30 stages. It has long been one of the biggest jazz events in Switzerland. Street bands that heat up the alleyways, a cozy Dixieland concert with sausage and beer or a soul voice that asks you to dance: On this summer evening, the city center of Grossbasel is full of live music.

The birthplace of the festival is the Hotel Basel between Rümelinsplatz and Spalenberg - the very inn that closed its doors in September 2023. In 1984, hotel manager Otti Baeriswyl launched the event together with Ernst Mutschler, a member of the management of Basler Kantonalbank (BKB), and jazz enthusiasts Urs Philipp Hug and Ruedi Müller.

Musicians from 1984 are still involved

Hug, who was also a musician on stage at the very first festival, remembers: "Otti Baeriswyl from Hotel Basel called me because he knew that I was active in the jazz scene," he told the Keystone-SDA news agency. This is how the festival came about around his hotel. Baeriswyl, who died in 2014, should have received an award for laying the foundations for the festival, he believes.

The name of the jazz festival was based on a BKB advertising slogan. Under the slogan "Em Bebbi sy Bangg", the company advertised at the time with benches. Originally, the event was intended exclusively for amateur bands from the Basel region and Dreiland, as stated in the 1984 program booklet. They could use the festival as a platform to get the odd concert request. Before the Internet, the program booklet was known as the "Basel jazz telephone directory", as the bands' details could be found there.

Urs Philipp Hug is one of the few people who played on stage both in the founding year and today. The drummer played with the New Orleans Hot Lips in 1984. This year, he is setting the beat with the Happy Feet Syncopators. Two other bands that were already part of the founding year and are on the program on Friday are Pat's Big Band and Pal Jam.

New musical concept since 2015

The fact that the festival is celebrating its fortieth birthday at all is not a matter of course. Ten years ago, the festival's continued existence was initially uncertain, as Dominik Ehrsam, spokesman for the current organizing committee, told Keystone-SDA. However, the musical director at the time, Peter Eichenberger, was committed to continuing the event. "Without him, Bebbi-Jazz would probably no longer exist," said Ehrsam. Eichenberger, who passed away this year and was also known as the director of the Claraspital, worked with his team to rejuvenate the festival.

In 2015, the event was finally launched with a new concept. With a focus on one style or aspect - such as jazz manouche, singer-songwriter, Latin or dance. The aim was to give the event a new image and increasingly appeal to a younger audience, said Ehrsam. Looking at the last few years, this has been successful.

The older Dixieland groups and young bands of other styles continue to play alongside each other. Even though well-known names can now be heard alongside amateur bands, the festival has remained true to its basic idea from 1984: There is still no entrance fee. It is financed by the Swisslos fund as well as numerous sponsors and patrons.