Jazz 88.3 hosts another California Cool Concert, highlights West Coast sound

KSDS Jazz is hosting another installment of its California Cool Concert series Tuesday night at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley, featuring rarely heard music that’s seldom performed live. 

The California Cool Concert series highlights West Coast jazz, offering a fun event for San Diegans while also raising funds for the station.

Tuesday night, Gilbert Castellanos will lead a musical tribute to Chet Baker and Clifford Brown. The concert will include music by both artists that is not readily available to the public, according to station manager Ken Poston.

“This isn’t something that you’ll see next week or next year. You have to come tomorrow night to see it, because, you know, theoretically it’s the only time it’ll happen unless we do it again,” Poston said.

The uniqueness of the event is exactly what KSDS Jazz strives for, never wanting to step on the toes of other local live jazz events.

“When we do an event, we try to come up with something to make it unique and to make it special, and something that is not what everyone else is doing,” Poston said

Fundraising is as important as ever for the San Diego Jazz station as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, faces potential budget cuts. The majority of KSDS Jazz’s funds come from memberships and donations. Oftentimes, however, the station relies on a CPB federal grant to fill in funding gaps.

The CPB may face a billion dollars in cuts pending Senate approval. Poston said he doesn’t know how the potential cuts might affect the station because while the grant isn’t a huge part of the station’s budget, it’s still a significant amount of money.

“No matter what happens, I think we’re in pretty good shape, because we do pretty well with our membership and with our fundraising events,” Poston said. “Hopefully, it’ll just be a matter of planning some additional fundraising to make up for that, if, in fact, it goes away.”

The California Cool Concert series was planned before the CPB was threatened with budget cuts.

The station used to run only two campaigns a year, but has recently switched to three. Poston said the station likes to keep the campaigns to around 10 days, rather than weeks long, like he’s seen other stations do.

The station also works events into membership plans and vice versa. When someone becomes a member, they are offered event exclusives, discounted prices and membership gifts. On the flipside, event attendees who aren’t members have the chance to become ones.  

KSDS Jazz doesn’t want its only focus to be fundraising, though.

“We also are able to do things for the community, do things for the musicians. The events do a lot of different things, and it’s also publicity for the radio station,” Poston said.  

Tickets to the California Cool Concert series may be purchased here.