Tag: Music

Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos | Open Culture

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Thanks to Steve Ramm for the link:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-music-vault-a-massive-youtube-archive-of-22000-live-concert-videos.html

** Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos
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in Music (http://www.openculture.com/category/music) | December 30th, 2015 Leave a Comment (http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-music-vault-a-massive-youtube-archive-of-22000-live-concert-videos.html#respond)

Last summer, we highlighted an almost unbelievably rich resource for music fans: the Music Vault (https://www.youtube.com/user/musicvault) , a Youtube archive of 22,000 live concert videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/musicvault/videos) from a range of artists, spanning about four decades into the present. In a time of soaring ticket prices, the Music Vault (https://www.youtube.com/user/musicvault) allows us to catch a show at home for free, and to see bands we missed in their heyday perform on stages around the world. Last summer, I wrote, “enjoy revisiting the glory days and rest assured, they aren’t going away anytime soon.” But I spoke too soon, as many Music Vault videos (there were only 13,000 then) began disappearing, along with the nostalgia and hip currency they offered. Well, now they’re back up and running, and let’s hope it’s for good.

Unsurprisingly—given its association with Wolfgang’s Vault (http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/) , a restoration and archive project that began with the collection of legendary concert promoter Bill Graham—the Music Vault’s (https://www.youtube.com/user/musicvault) storehouse includes perhaps more Grateful Dead material than anything else, like the nearly six hour Winterland concert above from 1978. Check out the intro interview with now Senator, then comedian Al Franken, doing some political humor for radio station KSAN. (And see Franken do another Dead intro skit in 1980 at Radio City Music Hall here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WtC_vm9e8) .) There’s so much Grateful Dead in fact, they get their own channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbae0TFCzNQYrAcbaCMznNA) . You’ll also find plenty more live classic rock shows from Neil Young (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dswdLNlu__0&index=18&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8) , Lynyrd Skynyrd
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5gdTtBq90&index=17&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8) , Van Morrison (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Akk5Kab9I&index=7&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8) , the Stones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPh5PL2c8Y&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8&index=19) , Joe Cocker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tb5yrU1GLI&index=5&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8) , and more. (Check out this rare show from a pre-Van Halen Sammy Hagar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV4_LJHO9lk&index=11&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8) in 1978.)

If that’s not what you’re into, there’s also plenty of punk and new wave, like the classic Talking Heads performance of “Life During Wartime” above at the Capitol Theatre from 1980 (see the complete concert here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_PC6TlIhs) ). You can also catch Iggy Pop in ’86 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhjNmgNFCYQ) , Blondie in ’79 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKXcLPFOSI) , the Ramones in ’78 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a96C4QnSPzg) , Prince in ’82 (http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/prince-performs-early-hits-in-a-1982-concert.html) , or Green Day in ’94 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nyDSdHERRQ) . You don’t get the cred from saying you were there, whatever that’s worth, but you get the thrill of seeing these artists in their prime, (almost) live and direct. Fancy more contemporary fare? Check out the New Music Discovery channel (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhnmhDNF1JJilAZbrHMz9qwWcZrcQCOk4) with live performances from
current acts, curated by Daytrotter and Paste Magazine. Dig funk, soul, and reggae? They’ve got you covered, with shows from Parliament-Funkadelic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AQaLeMZqJU) , Jimmy Cliff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aMT1Hf-NHE) , Curtis Mayfield (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XQ8qKfruZw) , and many more. See Bob Marley and the Wailers do a stellar rendition of “No Woman, No Cry” at the Oakland Auditorium in 1979, below.

More of a jazz cat? No worries, Music Vault has an extensive jazz channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUTHs1X8pQI5TDqmmJrBkUQ) featuring everyone from Miles Davis (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhnmhDNF1JJjG0jpdXD0AkR8wKKrbGQsa) to Herbie Hancock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy1ICphDYTQ) to Tony Bennet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWFnPmS5D4) , and including newer artists like vocalist Lizz Wright (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTxan25BJhU) and trio The Bad Plus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_6sP_dCJPY) . (They’ve even got a surprising performance from Orange is the New Black’s Lea DeLaria at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2002 (https://youtu.be/jj1EcMjwsOE) .) The Music Vault also hosts classic music documentaries and interviews, like the Rolling Stones 1976 European Tour documentary below. (Other highlights include documentary Last Days at the Fillmore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDWjfsy-GA) and a 1974 interview with Bill Graham.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeuDS0n3XI) ) Whatever your thing is, you’ll probably find a little bit, or a lot, of it in this enormous database of live concert film and video and other features (though almost no pop, r&b, or hip-hop). If you don’t, check back later. The Music Vault promises to add new “hand-curated” concert videos daily.

Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos | Open Culture

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Thanks to Steve Ramm for the link:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-music-vault-a-massive-youtube-archive-of-22000-live-concert-videos.html

** Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos
————————————————————

Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos | Open Culture

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Thanks to Steve Ramm for the link:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-music-vault-a-massive-youtube-archive-of-22000-live-concert-videos.html

** Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos
————————————————————

Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming – Atlanta Magazine

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/piano-man-at-87-jazz-legend-johnny-knapp-is-still-jamming/

** Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming
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** Knapp has gigged with Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan in his seven decade career.
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December 15, 2015 (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/piano-man-at-87-jazz-legend-johnny-knapp-is-still-jamming/) Jerry Grillo (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/author/jerry-grillo/)
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/1215_knapp01_amelton_oneuseonly.jpgPhotograph by Audra Melton

Johnny Knapp is 87, and he feels it. He moves with a walker, his withered legs powered by wiry forearms and large hands that have flown over piano keyboards for 70 years. It’s Tuesday, and his ride is waiting.

Knapp had polio as a boy. He wears orthopedic shoes to compensate for uneven legs. He paces himself, his gait an iambic meter—one-two, left-right—past relics and mementos, past the gorgeous sculptures he rescued from a trash heap decades ago, a decision he is thankful for now because they remind him of the artist, his wife, Dee, who was never very impressed with her own talents and who died in February.

After the funeral, their son, John, asked his old man to move in with him, to Raleigh, North Carolina, but Knapp refused. “My life is here. I’d miss my friends,” he says. “I’d miss the Tuesday lunch.”

He pushes through his music room—one-two—past the grand piano, past the floor-to-ceiling shelves of CDs, vinyl records, folders filled with compositions, playbills from 1950s Broadway, and hundreds of volumes, including nearly everything Upton Sinclair ever wrote and a few remaining yoga books.
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/1215_knapp04_amelton_oneuseonly.jpgPhotograph by Audra Melton

“I gave the rest of them to Charlie Parker when he was in the hospital,” says Knapp, recalling the doomed Bird, their jam sessions, the polio-stricken piano player hosting the heroin-addicted saxophonist, the two of them unearthing and clarifying the melodies hidden within bebop’s frenzy. Parker asked him to go on the road, but Knapp couldn’t afford the pay cut and didn’t care for the drugs. “Yoga helped get me out of my leg braces. I figured it might help Charlie. It didn’t.”

This was around 1955. Knapp figured his worst years were behind him, like the discarded braces. Then he was rehobbled in a car crash several years ago, a bigger bummer than polio because it ended his driving days, making him feel crippled for the first time in his life, leaving him to depend on the kindness of friends—like Atlanta music icon Col. Bruce Hampton, today’s driver for the short trip to a Lilburn IHOP, where a core group of musicians gathers for the Tuesday lunch.
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/1215_knapp03_amelton_oneuseonly.jpgA recent Tuesday lunch at IHOP included, from left, Col. Bruce Hampton, Knapp, Jez Graham, and Jack North.

Photograph by Audra Melton

Mostly they come for Johnny Knapp, who gigged with Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, who ghostwrote songs with legendary tunesmith and playwright Bob Merrill, who was at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day Bobby Kennedy was shot, and who performed in places like the Copacabana, Birdland, Basin Street East, and pretty much all of the great jazz clubs, then moved to Hollywood to play for movie stars and class-A directors.

“He’s the Forrest Gump of music,” Hampton says. “He’s been everywhere and done everything and played with everyone. He’s a beast. There are two great jazz piano players in my mind: Art Tatum and Johnny Knapp.”

Hampton has been known to exaggerate. Knapp hasn’t done everything. But he did have his own parking space at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, thanks to a pass that mobsters helped him acquire.

“I made a handshake agreement with a guy called John the Knife to play in his nephew’s band,” Knapp says. “When I told Dee, she couldn’t believe it. She said, ‘You’ve got to get out of that deal. That handshake is for life.’ So I called the guy and tried to be funny. I told him, ‘Mr. The Knife, I’ve reconsidered.’” The mobster sent a couple of associates to see Knapp. Not to renegotiate.

“He wanted them to break my fingers. That’s what they told me,” Knapp says. “But they could see my legs, how I walked, and I think they felt sorry for me. ‘Looks like someone already got to you,’ one of them said. They told me not to make promises I couldn’t keep and left me alone.”

Lunch used to be every other Tuesday. But since Dee died, the guys get Knapp to the IHOP every week. Sometimes Hampton drives him. Sometimes it’s Jim Basile, the longtime Atlanta morning traffic guy who plays a fine bass. Sometimes it’s Jez Graham, the piano player for Francine Reed and the guy who started the Tuesday lunch thing because he wanted Knapp to meet Hampton. “They’re living legends,” says Graham. “They had to meet.”
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/1215_knapp02_amelton_oneuseonly.jpgPhotograph by Audra Melton

Usually six to eight people show up on Tuesday, most of them musicians. There have been as few as three and as many as 20-plus, like the week after Dee died. There’s the occasional soundman, actor, or writer, and they’ve all heard bits of Knapp’s life story, his high-pitched New York rasp conjuring memories and half memories.

Here’s infant Johnny, gliding over lower Manhattan rooftops in the arms of his terrified father, fleeing the cops who wanted to quarantine the child with other polio victims, flatfoots scraping the blacktop. Here’s 12-year-old Johnny, tied to the fire escape so he can’t fall, an accordion on his lap, the voices of Eastern European immigrant women calling from below, through the flapping laundry, “Johnny, Johnny, play us a song.”

Here’s 19-year-old Johnny talking his way into piano lessons from Clarence Adler, Aaron Copland’s private music instructor. And here’s Johnny outside Birdland, calling to Miles Davis, who defies the “Crow Jim” movement—reverse segregation, when a white man had no rights in the country of jazz—and crosses Broadway to hug Johnny. “Miles didn’t give a shit,” says Knapp. “He could be gruff. But if he liked you, he liked you.”

Dee and Johnny were immersed in the 1950s and 1960s New York music scene. He earned big paychecks for society gigs and smaller ones for jazz sit-ins, enough to buy a Mercedes with cash, enough to give away hundreds of thousands of dollars to unlucky musicians—generosity he kept hidden from Dee, “because then she’d know why we’re so poor now. I’d never hear the end of it.”

They moved to Los Angeles, where he played for directors like Robert Altman and Sydney Pollack, movie wrap parties. He still flies out to the coast for similar gigs now and then, though Altman and Pollack (like most of the people he’s ever known or loved) are dead. He can’t remember the names of the directors who hire him now, and he’ll miss seeing James Garner (also dead), who usually stood by his piano and kept him company.

“I’m nose to nose with death,” he says, a little annoyed with Dee for taking her backstage pass to the universe, because 53 years together just wasn’t enough. “I know she’s in a better place. She wanted that. I’ve got to learn to be happier for her, but I can’t help being unhappy for me. If I love her, I guess it’s more important that she is where she needs to be.”
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/1215_knapp05_amelton_oneuseonly.jpgKnapp’s wedding album

Photograph by Audra Melton

They moved to Atlanta about 30 years ago to be near his mother, who was close to the end, and he became known as a musician’s musician. Every week, still, Knapp plays somewhere, usually as a guest, though he has standing gigs at Northlake Mall and a few retirement homes.

The Tuesday lunches coincide with a late-innings career boost for Knapp, who last year finished work on a musical adaptation of Great Expectations, a project that playwright Bob Merrill left unfinished when he shot himself in 1998. Merrill’s widow is trying to move it into production. Also, Knapp is collaborating with a writer on what may or may not be a musical about the Tuesday gatherings, where every topic is fair game.

Once the subject turned to put-downs. Hampton asked Knapp about the worst criticism he ever received for a performance.

“A guy said to me, ‘You play music like you walk,’” Knapp says, laughing like a man who laughs last, because he’s still got the gig, because he’s still in demand and people are glad for it.

Following a jam last winter with Hampton’s band at Terminal West, a 23-year-old woman made him an offer he physiologically and morally had to refuse. “And then, this guy comes up to me and tells me he drove 75 miles so he could see me play before I die,” Knapp says between sips of decaf. “I told him, ‘Buddy, you made it just in time.’”

This article originally appeared in our December 2015 issue.

Tags: Col. Bruce Hampton (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/col-bruce-hampton/) , Jaz Graham (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/jaz-graham/) , jazz (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/jazz/) , Jim Basile (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/jim-basile/) , Johnny Knapp (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/johnny-knapp/) , music (http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/music-2/)

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December 22, 2015 / No Comments / More

Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming – Atlanta Magazine

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/piano-man-at-87-jazz-legend-johnny-knapp-is-still-jamming/

** Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming
————————————————————
*
*

** Knapp has gigged with Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan in his seven decade career.
————————————————————

Photograph by Audra Melton

Hampton has been known to exaggerate. Knapp hasn’t done everything. But he did have his own parking space at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, thanks to a pass that mobsters helped him acquire.

Photograph by Audra Melton

Once the subject turned to put-downs. Hampton asked Knapp about the worst criticism he ever received for a performance.

This article originally appeared in our December 2015 issue.

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

December 22, 2015 / No Comments / More

Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming – Atlanta Magazine

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/piano-man-at-87-jazz-legend-johnny-knapp-is-still-jamming/

** Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming
————————————————————
*
*

** Knapp has gigged with Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan in his seven decade career.
————————————————————

Photograph by Audra Melton

Hampton has been known to exaggerate. Knapp hasn’t done everything. But he did have his own parking space at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, thanks to a pass that mobsters helped him acquire.

Photograph by Audra Melton

Once the subject turned to put-downs. Hampton asked Knapp about the worst criticism he ever received for a performance.

This article originally appeared in our December 2015 issue.

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

December 22, 2015 / No Comments / More

All That Jazz! Celebrating the Lighthouse All-Stars and the legacy of Howard Rumsey

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.easyreadernews.com/96801/all-that-jazz/

** All That Jazz! Celebrating the Lighthouse All-Stars and the legacy of Howard Rumsey
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Added on May 21, 2015 Bondo Wyszpolski (http://www.easyreadernews.com/author/bondo/) Music (http://www.easyreadernews.com/tag/music/)

** by Bondo Wyszpolski
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Chet Baker, left, sitting in with Howard Rumsey (right) and the Lighthouse All-Stars in 1949. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Chet Baker, left, sitting in with Howard Rumsey (right) and the Lighthouse All-Stars in 1949. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Walking down Pier Avenue and stepping into the Lighthouse is quite different now than when Howard Rumsey showed up on May 29, 1949 to play his very first show. John Levine had purchased the club a year earlier and soon agreed to Rumsey’s replacing the rowdier element with an inviting atmosphere conducive to hearing modern, contemporary jazz. Throughout the 1950s and into the early ‘60s the Lighthouse was truly a beacon for West Coast jazz.

Beginning today and running through Sunday, the Los Angeles Jazz Institute is presenting “Music for Lighthousekeeping: An All-Star Tribute to Howard Rumsey.” By way of 27 concerts, rare films and special events, each offering not only celebrates Rumsey’s legacy, it also pays tribute to the music and to the musicians who emerged from this historically important venue.

For some attendees, it’s a nostalgic look back at a vanished era.

“People are coming from all over the world,” says Ken Poston, founder and director of the L.A. Jazz Institute. “We tried to put together an event that would pay tribute to Howard by really pointing out all of the impact that he had on the creation of the scene here in the 1950s. We wanted to cover Howard’s whole career from the beginning up to his retirement.”
A later edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars. In 1957, Rumsey settled on a two-horn front line of tenor and trombone for the group and added the new arrival from Great Britain, Victor Feldman. 1958 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

A later edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars. In 1957, Rumsey settled on a two-horn front line of tenor and trombone for the group and added the new arrival from Great Britain, Victor Feldman. 1958 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

After John Levine died in 1970 the Lighthouse was sold, and then sold again in 1981. The mostly-jazz policy had continued to wane, although by the mid-1990s the late Ozzie Cadena was instrumental in getting jazz reinstated on a one or two day a week basis. Meanwhile, Rumsey himself had moved on. He owned and operated Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach (later on morphing into Harvelle’s and Brixton) from 1971 to 1985.

Fittingly, “Remembering Concerts by the Sea” is the last event on Sunday night, and like almost all of the others it’s taking place at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles, near the airport.

Go west, young man

One might easily believe that Ken Poston had been raised in the Lighthouse itself, for he seems to have memorized every bit of information concerning its musical history, the lineups and personnel of the various Lighthouse All-Star groups, and which musicians came through town for an evening or a week to sit in with them (Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis). So it’s a surprise to learn that he’s originally from Kansas City and that after graduating college worked for the Kansas City Jazz Commission. He moved to Southern California with his wife in 1987 to take a job at KLON, the jazz radio station, where he remained for 11 years.

Two years prior to that, Poston had come to the West Coast on his honeymoon. “One of the first things I wanted to do was to go see the Lighthouse,” he says, “because I’d grown up listening to those records.”

He’s referring in large part to the albums recorded at the Lighthouse between 1952 and 1956 for the Contemporary label.
Gerry Mulligan performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Gerry Mulligan performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Because some of the album covers were, let us say, a bit misleading, Poston initially thought the Lighthouse was situated in a real lighthouse. Driving over to 30 Pier Avenue, that’s what he had his eyes out for. Of course he saw his mistake once he found the building, which he recognized easily from old photographs.: “It was amazing to see that it looked the same as it did.”

That evening Poston and his wife went inside to hear the music, “and it was some horrible alternative rock thing, whatever they were doing in the mid-’80s.” Well, that area was a little seedy back then, although in a good way, laidback, lived-in, with an arthouse movie theater and an independent bookstore, and cheap places to eat.

When Poston moved out here in 1987 and began putting together events for the radio station, he quickly got in touch with the man whom he esteems to this day:

“Howard’s been important to me as a friend and as a mentor because he’s steered me in a lot of right directions over the years and been involved in a lot of the different events that we’ve done.”

Furthermore, Poston continues, “Howard was really an instrumental person in the beginning of the L.A. Jazz Institute. Howard’s archives were the beginning of all the different collections, and Howard’s involvement helped give us the legitimacy to then get other people’s archives and collections. So we want to put that archive on display, not just visually. What the concerts are all about is using all the original music and then enhancing that with films and photographs. It’s really a unique event in that it’s utilizing a lot of those materials.”

The music never stopped

It’s not Rumsey alone who is being honored and feted, but “all the different musicians that were part of the Lighthouse All-Stars. We thought it would be interesting to show that impact by having concerts of a lot of the alumni like the Bob Coopers and the Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffres and all those guys, doing concerts of their music but showing the source of it all really coming from what Howard started.”
Howard Rumsey earlier this month at his Newport Beach home. Photo by Bondo Wyszpolski

Howard Rumsey earlier this month at his Newport Beach home. Photo by Bondo Wyszpolski

So what this means is that specific concerts are geared towards the different Lighthouse All-Star lineups, which varied over the years as players came and went, although with Howard Rumsey always featured on standup bass. For example, there is the first group in what is billed as the Shorty Rogers-Jimmy Giuffre-Shelly Manne era, which was prominent from around 1951 to 1953. Ron Stout, Ken Peplowski, Mike Fahn, Jeff Hamilton and others will commemorate the group and the music, which includes “Out of Somewhere,” “Swing Shift,” “Viva Zapata,” “Sunset Eyes,” and “Big Boy.” Rather importantly, the event takes place from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. It’s the first and only concert to be held in the landmark venue itself.

Poston made sure to book the club for the occasion: “It would be disappointing for people if they came (for the jazz weekend) and were that close to the Lighthouse — especially the ones who’d never been there — and didn’t get a chance to go.”

Will Rumsey himself be there? We hope so. But sitting in his Newport Beach home he’s frail and has some trouble remembering details. Although he’s attentive to everything Poston is saying, he no longer adds much to the conversation and tires easily. He is, after all, 97 years old, and time is running out. His standup bass resides in a darkened room without Rumsey’s once-nimble fingers bringing it to life.

After Rogers, Giuffre, and Manne departed in 1953, Rumsey assembled another lineup, and so began the Bud Shank-Bob Cooper-Claude Williamson-Max Roach era. Capturing the highlights of those years, which included tunes like “Witch Doctor,” “Who’s Sleepy,” “Jazz Invention,” and “Mad at the World,” will be musicians Bobby Shew, Pete Christlieb, Scott Whitfield, and Lanny Morgan.

Another lineup change occurred in 1957 with Rumsey, Vic Feldman, Bob Cooper, Frank Rosolino, and Stan Levey. While most of the earlier ensembles were recorded, thus leaving a legacy of sorts that can be listened to as well as read about, the later lineups were not. That was the case here. Poston calls the Rumsey-Feldman-Cooper-Rosolino-Levey group “one of the best groups of all,” and adds: “That group was together three or four years but it didn’t record. Can you imagine how great they sounded after playing every night for four years?”
Primetime for the Lighthouse All-Stars, 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Primetime for the Lighthouse All-Stars, 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

However, Poston explains, “We’ve got some radio broadcasts of that group from the local AM station that did a weekly broadcast, and we’ll play some of those at the event. The show was called Night Life, and the announcer says, ‘From Hermosa Beach, we’re here at the Lighthouse.’ And so it’s kind of a neat Hermosa tie-in, too.”

As a working unit, the Lighthouse All-Stars recorded for the last time in 1956, which means that Vince Guaraldi (who stepped in when Victor Feldman stepped out) isn’t on any of their albums, nor are there recordings of the short-lived but vital lineup from the Art Pepper-Conte Candoli-Terry Trotter era, which was one of the last bands to wear the All-Stars moniker.

The bigger picture

A significant amount of music was created by members of the Lighthouse All-Stars, but Poston recently made a fascinating discovery. “I keep a timeline of everything related to Howard in terms of dates. I decided to plug into it the musicians that were part of the Lighthouse All-Stars, the recording sessions they did with other people and under their own name while they were members of the Lighthouse All-Stars.
A strong second edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars featured (l-r) Max Roach, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, and Howard Rumsey, with Claude Williamson on piano. 1955 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

A strong second edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars featured (l-r) Max Roach, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, and Howard Rumsey, with Claude Williamson on piano. 1955 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

“When you put all that in there you see the big picture,” he continues, pointing out that musicians like Shorty Rogers and Bud Shank were concurrently having an impact on West Coast jazz away from the club. But it was all or mostly generated from what was going on in downtown Hermosa Beach.

“That wouldn’t have happened without what Howard did,” Poston says, “and you can’t think that somebody else would have done it. He didn’t just throw the doors open and operate a nightclub like other people did.”

Spreading the good word

Unlike some members-only or restricted-access venues, Rumsey’s Lighthouse wasn’t about remaining aloof. As Poston phrases it, “Howard realized that becoming part of the community was important because that really wasn’t done, especially in Southern California as far as jazz was concerned.” In 1952 and perhaps even into 1953, Poston says, Rumsey penned a regular column for the Daily Breeze and also joined the local Chamber of Commerce with whom he partnered on a number of events.

But it went beyond this. From 1954 to 1961 or ‘62 yearly collegiate Easter weekend festivities took place at the Lighthouse in which young jazz musicians or jazz combos were invited to play at the club and then were critiqued by members of the Lighthouse All-Stars. “They didn’t have jazz programs in the colleges in those days,” Poston says, so this was an opportunity for jazz-minded students to get a little feedback and exposure.

Also during the 1950s, on the All-Stars’ days off, which were Monday and Tuesday, Rumsey took the group around to perform at local high schools and colleges. “It was brilliant,” Poston says, “because not only was it exposing the students to the music, it was creating an audience for the Lighthouse All-Stars.” Thus they were educating young people and promoting the club at the same time.

One should bear in mind that what Howard Rumsey was promoting was modern jazz and not the kind of swing or big band music that had been popular decades earlier — or would later on cool down and become soft jazz or adult contemporary. The 1950s was truly the era of the jazz greats (Coltrane, Parker, Davis, Monk, Holiday, Gillespie, Mingus, Brubeck…)
Shorty Rogers and Howard Rumsey performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Shorty Rogers and Howard Rumsey performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Another thing that Poston stresses is that the Lighthouse was a place, a center with some longevity at a crucial time when jazz blossomed. “It was more than just putting the group into the club. It was establishing this culture in the area. I’m trying to think of other examples of jazz clubs here in Southern California from that time period or any other…

He can’t, really, although Zardi’s Jazzland and the Haig in Hollywood are considered. Of the latter, “As important as it was for Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, you wouldn’t have people coming from all over the world because it wasn’t the center of everything, it wasn’t this culturally significant place. It was just a place that did some important things and then was gone.”

The man, the legacy

“You can’t go to any of our events,” Poston says, “where Howard’s not inundated with people telling him about what they remember, going there in 1952 or 1956 or whatever year it was, and what they had to eat, and what they served. They all remember the Chinese food out of the kitchen and all the little details. And there’s very few places as far as jazz is concerned that you could compare that to. Maybe the original Birdland. It’s a special thing that Howard did that benefited so many people. In all honesty, this whole West Coast jazz thing would not have happened had it not been for him.”

Music for Lighthousekeeping: An All-Star Tribute to Howard Rumsey, today through Sunday at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles, features extensive programming. Information, (562) 200-5477 or lajazzinstitute.org (http://lajazzinstitute.org/) .

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Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
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May 24, 2015 / No Comments / More

All That Jazz! Celebrating the Lighthouse All-Stars and the legacy of Howard Rumsey

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.easyreadernews.com/96801/all-that-jazz/

Chet Baker, left, sitting in with Howard Rumsey (right) and the Lighthouse All-Stars in 1949. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

For some attendees, it’s a nostalgic look back at a vanished era.

Fittingly, “Remembering Concerts by the Sea” is the last event on Sunday night, and like almost all of the others it’s taking place at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles, near the airport.

Go west, young man

Gerry Mulligan performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

When Poston moved out here in 1987 and began putting together events for the radio station, he quickly got in touch with the man whom he esteems to this day:

The music never stopped

Howard Rumsey earlier this month at his Newport Beach home. Photo by Bondo Wyszpolski

Primetime for the Lighthouse All-Stars, 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

The bigger picture

A strong second edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars featured (l-r) Max Roach, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, and Howard Rumsey, with Claude Williamson on piano. 1955 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Spreading the good word

Shorty Rogers and Howard Rumsey performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

The man, the legacy

**
————————————————————

This E Mail Is Being Sent by:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU) HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU&feature=player_embedded)

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

May 24, 2015 / No Comments / More

All That Jazz! Celebrating the Lighthouse All-Stars and the legacy of Howard Rumsey

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.easyreadernews.com/96801/all-that-jazz/

Chet Baker, left, sitting in with Howard Rumsey (right) and the Lighthouse All-Stars in 1949. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

For some attendees, it’s a nostalgic look back at a vanished era.

Fittingly, “Remembering Concerts by the Sea” is the last event on Sunday night, and like almost all of the others it’s taking place at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles, near the airport.

Go west, young man

Gerry Mulligan performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

When Poston moved out here in 1987 and began putting together events for the radio station, he quickly got in touch with the man whom he esteems to this day:

The music never stopped

Howard Rumsey earlier this month at his Newport Beach home. Photo by Bondo Wyszpolski

Primetime for the Lighthouse All-Stars, 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

The bigger picture

A strong second edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars featured (l-r) Max Roach, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, and Howard Rumsey, with Claude Williamson on piano. 1955 photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

Spreading the good word

Shorty Rogers and Howard Rumsey performing at the Lighthouse in 1952. Photo courtesy of the L.A. Jazz Institute

The man, the legacy

**
————————————————————

This E Mail Is Being Sent by:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU) HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU&feature=player_embedded)

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

May 24, 2015 / No Comments / More

Tag: Music

Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos | Open Culture

Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos | Open Culture

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All That Jazz! Celebrating the Lighthouse All-Stars and the legacy of Howard Rumsey

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