Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse
After 30 years, West Coast jazz still has a tenacious group of followers. Many of them congregate each year at festivals celebrating the music in its birthplace, Los Angeles. A remarkable new DVD has recently appeared. It centers on Howard Rumsey, the bass player who, in 1949, began organizing Sunday afternoon jam sessions at The Lighthouse, a seaside bar at Hermosa Beach. Working with a core of the best musicians in the city, Rumsey put on his sessions each week until 1971, given impetus by the man who owned the bar, John Levine. People wandered in off the beach to complement the loyal jazz audience. The music and the bar prospered. Rumsey had been a member of one of the early Kenton bands. His first jam session groups took advantage of later Kenton men who had tired of life on the road. The core of his regulars, soon to be known across the world as The Lighthouse All Stars, was Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Milt Bernhart and Shelly Manne. As the police clamped down on the activities on Central Avenue, black musicians like Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss and Hampton Hawes found a new platform at The Lighthouse. After many ups and downs Max Roach was resident for about six months and during this period Miles Davis and other luminaries played at the bar. During the 60s Rumsey found it difficult to keep the band going and began booking touring bands. Levine died in 1971, and Rumsey moved his activities to Concerts By The Sea. But that’s another story. The DVD, Jazz On The West Coast: The Lighthouse, has been brilliantly put together by Ken Koenig, who also wrote the absorbing script. The results are both dazzling and professional. Amongst those interviewed on screen are Stan Levey, Milt Bernhart, Bud Shank, Bill Holman and Max Bennett. There are video clips and an incredible number of period photographs, with a separate one hour interview with Rumsey as a bonus. - Steve Voce, --Jazz Journal International, Dec. 2006Much anticipated since it was learned that filmmaker, IAJRC member and West Coast Jazz aficionado Ken Koenig was preparing a film about the legendary Lighthouse, it is now available for you to view as a DVD in your home. This is something that was worth waiting for.The bass player Howard Rumsey was looking for a place that would allow jam sessions and found a willing bar owner in John Levine whose establishment wasn t doing much business in the late forties. The place, named The Lighthouse, was in the small community of Hermosa Beach, California, not far from Los Angeles, and so it came to pass that these two persons were made for each other and, ultimately, for many jazz fans, to the benefit of all.Different from any other jazz club in the music s history, The Lighthouse was conveniently located for the beaching crowd. To refresh oneself from too many rays, it was as easy to head for the cool sounds of jazz at The Lighthouse, as it was the ocean. Business at the bar improved markedly and John Levine, who was a gambler before he met Howard, made a winning move in allowing the jam sessions.It was a two-way street; as the musicians also gained from the establishment of a jazz center so close to their homes, the movie studios, where most were also employed, and the recording studios. A house band soon came into being usually consisting of, among others, to be sure, Bob Cooper, Bud Shank, Frank Rosolino, Claude Williamson, Stan Levey, and, of course, the leader, Howard Rumsey. The regulars changed, naturally, from time to time, and many guest musicians were invited to play, especially out-of-towners from other coasts. And then, there were the recordings and the popular (and descriptive) term West Coast Jazz that came out of such a modest beginning. Worldwide stuff, it was, and it lasted for several years. The music lives on, of course, via the many recordings.All was not as easy as you may think, however. Hermosa Beach was a small town, but subject to some big city ills nonetheless. Racial and religious prejudice, for instance, seeped out of LA and infested the beach. Rumsey and Levine worked hard together, dealt with it, and eventually were rid of it.Ken Koenig has most successfully documented The Lighthouse story by using fascinating photographs, video clips and numerous interviews of many who were there on both sides of the bar. While many of those intimately involved, including musicians and John Levine, have passed on, fortunately Howard Rumsey was able to participate in the film s making.There is, in addition to the film, a very interesting one-hour interview with Howard regarding the recording sessions and more.This DVD is a must. - Russ Chase, --International Association of Jazz Record CollectorsJazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse is a time capsule/oral history of the legendary Southern California venue active throughout the 50s. A collaboration between impresario John Levine and bassist/musical director Howard Rumsey, the Hermosa Beach club became the hotspot of the cool school, regularly featuring such artists as Hampton Hawes, Teddy Edwards, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Buddy Collette, Jimmy Giuffre, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Holman, Chet Baker, Elmo Hope, Benny Carter, Joe Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Levey, Frank Rosolino, Bud Shank, Conte Candoli, Bob Bryant, Doug Sides, Bob Cooper, Art Pepper and Max Roach (and many others).The DVD release provides perspective on the Lighthouse scene through photos, choice cuts on the virtually continuous soundtrack and interviews with a variety of active participants: photographer William Claxton (responsible for many of the iconic images gracing Pacific Jazz album covers); a former bartender; Ross Levine (John s son); jazz historians and journalists; and key players such as Shank and Rumsey. Also included are video clips of Shorty Rogers burning down the changes to Viva Zapata and a 1962 television spot featuring Rumsey and the boys at full swing.One of the most fascinating bits (included as an extra feature) is an hour-long interview with Rumsey. Presented with a stack of Lighthouse All-Stars recordings, the aging bassist often takes a minute or two to collect his recollections of the people and particulars involved in each session, yet invariably retrieves an anecdote as informative as it is entertaining. Once the musical lynchpin of all-things-Lighthouse, Rumsey, who turns 80 this month, is a living history of jams-gone-by: a witness to those players, patrons, producers and fans who walked into the beautiful jazz world.The Lighthouse illuminates the story of two men who, on the basis of a handshake, set the stage for twenty-two years of good music and times. For those of us who weren t there, the video provides a taste of the flavors we missed. - Tom Greenland, --All About Jazz, Nov. 11, 2006