The Lighthouse All-Stars

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Lighthouse All-Stars were the house band of The Lighthouse, a jazz club at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. On 29 May 1949 owner John Levine let bassist and bandleader Howard Rumsey start a regular Sunday jam session, as a trial. It worked. Rumsey soon became manager of the club and put together a house band, the Lighthouse All-Stars.

Music and breakthrough

Although visiting groups also played at the club, the group grew into an ensemble with a face of its own. Guest musicians included Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and Miles Davis. The longest-serving members were Bob Cooper on tenor saxophone, Conte Candoli on trumpet and Stan Levey on drums. The West Coast musicians Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne and Jimmy Giuffre were also regular guests in the early years, and in 1953 Max Roach was the regular drummer for a time. Recordings from 1953 include Sunday Jazz a la Lighthouse and, with Chet Baker and Miles Davis as guests, Witch Doctor and At Last!.

Influence

The club became an important place for live recordings. Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, The Jazz Crusaders and The Modern Jazz Quartet recorded albums there. Rumsey left in 1971 to open the club Concerts By The Sea in Redondo Beach. From 1981 the jazz policy was largely discontinued, but since the mid-1990s jazz has been slowly returning. The All-Stars belong to the West Coast jazz of the 1950s, the loose, relaxed side of jazz from California.

Listening