Basin Street Quartet at Royal Thai During Peddler's Faire

Larry Risner has loved the music of 1930s and 40s jazz since he was a kid. While his peers were playing early rock and roll, he was learning to play the banjo and listening to swing.

During the early 1960s, Risner began playing in pizza parlors. He did very well -- he put a down payment on his first Martinez home with money he made playing in local pizza parlors.

These days, Risner is trying to find a pizza parlor with a policy that permits live music. There don't seem to be many. He's played them all at one time or another, but lately pizza places, where Dixieland jazz was once ubiquitous, no longer uses live entertainment.

Now, Risner's band, the will be regularly featured at the on the fourth Saturday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. And they will be the featured performers at the restaurant August 6 during the The band will play there from noon to 2 p.m.

"The music we play you don't hear much any more," Risner said. "We cater to middle aged folks and seniors. But the younger kids like it, too."

Songs like "Sunny Side of the Street," "Pennies From Heaven" and "Up The Lazy River" are handled in a very laid-back, New Orleans-flavored way that reveal Risner's roots in that music, which he has loved since he was a young man.

"When I was 12 I was working on building a radio. I finally finished it around midnight, and on the radio came Earl 'Fatha' Hines. That was it for me. I was in heaven."

A neighbor purchased a stereo from Stanley's (a now-defunct Martinez institution), and that's when Risner first heard the tunes of Turk Murphy. After that, he was hooked. He learned to play banjo and was instrumental in the formation of the East Bay Banjoy Club.

And he has never looked back. Risner stopped performing for about 15 years while he helped raise his family, but he never lost his love for the music, and now he's back at it at 69, more active than ever.

"You can lose yourself in this music," he said. "It's carefree, happy music."

The other members of the band are Carol Dutcher on clarinet, Morgan Olk on piano, Fredy Kinadeter on bass and tuba, and Trish MacIntosh on vocals. Dutcher has her own band, , who also perform at the Royal Thai on the third Friday of the month. Risner also plays banjo and guitar in that band.

So while you're shopping tomorrow at the Peddler's Faire, should you get the urge for some tantalizing rhythm with your Thai food, the Basin Street Quartet has you covered.