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Howard Rumsey

Howard Rumsey was an American jazz double-bassist primarily known for his leadership of the Los Angeles group the Lighthouse All-Stars in the 1950s. In early 1949, Rumsey was in search of a playing job and came across the Lighthouse Club on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, which he felt would be an ideal place to play music. The Lighthouse was built in 1934 as a restaurant named Verpilates. In 1940, the business changed hands, and under new ownership it was turned into a Polynesian-styled club named the Lighthouse, primarily serving merchant seamen. In 1948 the club was sold to John Levine. After convincing Levine to permit the playing of jazz in the club, Rumsey played his first show on Sunday 29 May 1949, to immediate success. The first Lighthouse All-Stars was a group made up of Los Angeles musicians who had been a part of the Central Avenue scene in the 1940s, including Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes, Frank Patchen, Bobby White and Keith Williams. This band lasted for a time before Rumsey changed personnel to feature a new wave of players. The second edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars featured Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, and Shelly Manne. The success of this group soon landed them with a recording contract for Les Koenig's Contemporary Records. Not only were the Lighthouse All-Stars recording for Contemporary, but many of the members of the group were also leading sessions for this same label. After Rogers, Giuffre and Manne left together in 1953 for a job at The Haig, Rumsey had to recreate his band yet again. This third edition featured Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Rolf Ericsson and Max Roach. This band took part in a historic recording on 13 September 1953, Roach's first show with the group, which would feature both Chet Baker and Miles Davis, along with Russ Freeman and Lorraine Geller. With the eventual breakup of this edition, the chairs were filled by various other notable musicians throughout the following years. In his book West Coast Jazz, author Ted Gioia claims to have listed over seventy-five musicians who were once members of the group. By the early 1960s interest in jazz in Los Angeles had greatly faded and the group came to its demise. From 1971 to 1985, Rumsey owned and operated Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach, California, a "distinctive club that provided an ideal tiered, concert-seating venue (seating 200) which offered the finest jazz in the Los Angeles area.

Source: Wikipedia

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Howard Rumsey: The Lighthouse All Star

Read "Howard Rumsey: The Lighthouse All Star" reviewed by Rex  Butters


Reprinted from August 2007. With the release of Ken Koenig's exhaustive, enlightening, and entertaining DVD history of a SoCal treasure, Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing Productions, 2005), 89 year-old Howard Rumsey returns to the spotlight. Bassist, booker, and raconteur extraordinaire, Rumsey presented the best jazz shows in jny: Los Angeles for 33 consecutive years. First with a group of studio musicians and Kenton veterans, he ran the ongoing jam and experimentation of the Lighthouse ...

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1

Obituary

Howard Rumsey (1917-2015)

Howard Rumsey (1917-2015)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Howard Rumsey, a West Coast jazz bassist who began his recording career in Stan Kenton's orchestra in 1941 and managed the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., a club that became ground zero for the West Coast jazz sound starting in the early 1950s, died July 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 97. When I interviewed Howard in 2009, it quickly became apparent that the Lighthouse and Howard's Lighthouse All-Stars had paved the way for the airy jazz sound that ...

85

Interview

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 3)

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Southern California in the early 1950s was a place of rapid transition. As cars became more affordable and local highways improved, teens in the warmer months gravitated toward the shore. At the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, manager Howard Rumsey found himself in the right place at the right time. With nighttime demographics skewing younger and suburban populations expanding, a new form of jazz emerged. On car radios and 10-inch LPs, the new jazz was in keeping with the Pacific Coast's ...

174

Interview

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 2)

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In 1949, when Howard Rumsey began contracting musicians for the Lighthouse, a seaside jazz club in Hermosa Beach, CA, he had more talent to choose from than could squeeze onto his small stage. Los Angeles was awash with winter-weary talent hungry for lucrative work in the movie and recording studios. In the years that followed, the numbers only swelled. Just 32 miles from downtown L.A., Hermosa Beach offered sand, surf and lots of restless young listeners looking for a new ...

110

Interview

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 1)

Interview: Howard Rumsey (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

If you dig West Coast jazz, you have bassist Howard Rumsey to thank. Howard is the last surviving member of Stan Kenton's original 1941 band. He also was responsible for turning the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, CA, into one of the most exciting jazz clubs of the late 1940s and 1950s. As the club's manager, house bassist and promoter, Howard attracted jazz artists to the Lighthouse who had just relocated to California and were awaiting membership in the local musicians' ...

67

Interview

Howard Rumsey Interviewed at AAJ

Howard Rumsey Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

With Ken Koenig's enlightening and entertaining DVD history of a SoCal treasure, Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse, ninety year-old Howard Rumsey returns to the spotlight. Bassist, booker and raconteur extraordinaire, Rumsey presented the best jazz shows in LA for thirty-three consecutive years. First with a group of studio musicians and Stan Kenton veterans, he ran the ongoing jam and experimentation of the Lighthouse All-Stars, establishing the springboard for the soon-to-be-ballyhooed “West Coast Jazz" sound.

After more than a ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

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Contemporary Records
1989

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In the Solo Spotlight

Original Jazz Classics
1957

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Original Jazz Classics
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Original Jazz Classics
1956

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Oboe/Flute

Original Jazz Classics
1956

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Howard Rumsey's...

Original Jazz Classics
1955

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