"Some good things happened while I was in California. I sat in with some of the musicians at the Lighthouse on a few occasions and they made a record out of that." --Miles Davis
Jazz came to HB in this Fashion:
A tall black-haired chap, named Rumsey, swaggered through town. Bored/frustrated of playing in big band groups, he walked into a virtually empty Lighthouse. It was one day after WW II. Owner John Levine had bought it, sight unseen, on the basis of wartime business.
Conversation went something like this:
Rumsey: Levine, you ever experimented with a music policy in this joint?
Levine (irritated): Everybody and his brother has tried to tell me how to run this place…Now you walk in off the streets and tell me what I should do?”
Rumsey leans back. Levine takes him in.
Levine: Convince me.
CUT TO:
1950’s - -- the lure HB is the infamous Light House was its resident jazz group, Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars. A top citadel of jazz on the south coast.
They operate in a long, low, oblong, dimly lit room with an informal, easy atmosphere for shirt-sleeve jazz. At one end are photos of Stan Kenton (most of this group including leader Rumsey are ex-Kentonites), June Christy and other artists. At the other is a green-lit clock and a couple of red glowing ship's lanterns.
Along the walls are a series of impressionistic paintings done in bas-relief with Plaster of Paris. They have such titles as "How Can I Understand You If You Don't Say What I Already Know Blues?" "Some Days I Feel Aggressive" and "Who's Got The Melody?"
Overhead, above a false ceiling of open crossed batting strips, are a set of four, newly installed, giant hi-fidelity speakers. Their mission is to carry accurate sound without distortion to every far corner of the room. They do.
The patrons sit in a semicircle at low tables around the small bandstand with its mirrored back, or on cushioned stools at the bar which runs the length of the room on the opposite side.
Since then, Rumsey has had three different jazz groups. He considers the current one the finest of the lot. The personnel: Rumsey on bass, Bob Cooper (husband of singer June Christy) on tenor sax, Bud Shank on alto sax, Claude Williamson, piano, and Stan Levey, drums. Claude Williamson on trumpet, joins them in week ends.
Eighty percent of their music are originals. They are tunes such as "Viva Zapata," "Witch Doctor," "Warm Winds," "Albatross," "Mambo Los Feliz," "Comin Thru the Rye Bread."
Bob Cooper and Bud Shank decided to explore the possibilities of the flute and oboe in jazz. It was such a success that the group's latest long-play record for the Contemporary record label features their oboe-flute duets.
Such tunes as "Aquarium," "Still Life" and "Hermosa Summer", with the soft brush of drums and Rumsey's forceful bass beat as accompaniment, are some of the most beautiful and moving jazz numbers I have heard.
Jazz came to HB in this Fashion:
A tall black-haired chap, named Rumsey, swaggered through town. Bored/frustrated of playing in big band groups, he walked into a virtually empty Lighthouse. It was one day after WW II. Owner John Levine had bought it, sight unseen, on the basis of wartime business.
Conversation went something like this:
Rumsey: Levine, you ever experimented with a music policy in this joint?
Levine (irritated): Everybody and his brother has tried to tell me how to run this place…Now you walk in off the streets and tell me what I should do?”
Rumsey leans back. Levine takes him in.
Levine: Convince me.
CUT TO:
1950’s - -- the lure HB is the infamous Light House was its resident jazz group, Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars. A top citadel of jazz on the south coast.
They operate in a long, low, oblong, dimly lit room with an informal, easy atmosphere for shirt-sleeve jazz. At one end are photos of Stan Kenton (most of this group including leader Rumsey are ex-Kentonites), June Christy and other artists. At the other is a green-lit clock and a couple of red glowing ship's lanterns.
Along the walls are a series of impressionistic paintings done in bas-relief with Plaster of Paris. They have such titles as "How Can I Understand You If You Don't Say What I Already Know Blues?" "Some Days I Feel Aggressive" and "Who's Got The Melody?"
Overhead, above a false ceiling of open crossed batting strips, are a set of four, newly installed, giant hi-fidelity speakers. Their mission is to carry accurate sound without distortion to every far corner of the room. They do.
The patrons sit in a semicircle at low tables around the small bandstand with its mirrored back, or on cushioned stools at the bar which runs the length of the room on the opposite side.
Since then, Rumsey has had three different jazz groups. He considers the current one the finest of the lot. The personnel: Rumsey on bass, Bob Cooper (husband of singer June Christy) on tenor sax, Bud Shank on alto sax, Claude Williamson, piano, and Stan Levey, drums. Claude Williamson on trumpet, joins them in week ends.
Eighty percent of their music are originals. They are tunes such as "Viva Zapata," "Witch Doctor," "Warm Winds," "Albatross," "Mambo Los Feliz," "Comin Thru the Rye Bread."
Bob Cooper and Bud Shank decided to explore the possibilities of the flute and oboe in jazz. It was such a success that the group's latest long-play record for the Contemporary record label features their oboe-flute duets.
Such tunes as "Aquarium," "Still Life" and "Hermosa Summer", with the soft brush of drums and Rumsey's forceful bass beat as accompaniment, are some of the most beautiful and moving jazz numbers I have heard.
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