A festival as diverse as its community

The white-furred, red-eyed, and rarely seen rodent, which organizers say is a semi-mythical creature around these parts - sort of like the Jamaica Pond’s Loch Ness Monster - seems an apt symbol to celebrate the uniqueness of this place and the diversity of its inhabitants. Those characteristics were integral to the launch of what’s being billed as the first-ever Jamaica Plain Music Festival, a 20-band blowout scheduled for tomorrow between 1 and 7 p.m. at the Pinebank Baseball Field. (Go to www.jpmusicfestival.com for directions, artist lineup schedules, and rain date details.)

This is a long time coming, say organizers, who hatched the idea in December and received city permit approval the day before we sat down to chat with the planning principals. And it sprang out of a simple question posed by a friend of longtime JP resident and singer-songwriter Rick Berlin, whose latest project is a collaboration with the local Nickel & Dime Band (who’ll be among tomorrow’s performers). Neighboring communities like Cambridge and Somerville have had music festivals. So why not JP?

“It was an immediate call to action,’’ says Berlin, who helped put the wheels in motion with co-festival founder Shamus Moynihan, who also books the Midway Cafe. “It was such a powerful, no-brainer, have-to-do-it thing. The goal was to emphasize the fact that there’s incredible musical talent in this town … and they deserve to be heard.’’

A cross-section of JP-based, -bred, or -affiliated artists will converge on two stages tomorrow, ranging from the jump-blues outfit Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers to jazz saxophone master James Merenda. The concert will also include the rap-rock crew Sweatshop and Celtic punks Old Edison. Tallahassee brings its rustic Americana from the bar to the baseball field, while the Chris North Dream Quartet provides a blazing flip side to the brooding folk equation.