Within the Nineteen Fifties, musicians on the West Coast, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco, started to splinter off from the hard-bop and blues-forward jazz that pervaded the East Coast scene. Saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, trumpeter Chet Baker, and others developed a extra lyrical model of jazz that favored composition and association over improvisation. Their sound was smoother and extra melodic, a musical complement to California’s laidback, sun-soaked vibes.
This model of jazz discovered a house at The Lighthouse Cafe, a historic venue positioned in Hermosa Seashore, California that commonly hosted jam periods. Metropolis slickers from Los Angeles would spend the day taking within the solar and surf, after which wander into the membership for respite, typically nonetheless of their bathing fits, solely to finish up staying effectively into the night time to benefit from the playful music and electrical ambiance.
The Lighthouse Cafe ultimately earned its title because the “Jazz Corner of the West” due to a serendipitous assembly between two misunderstood creatives: proprietor John Levine and bassist/bandleader Howard Rumsey. Initially opened in 1934 as a restaurant known as Verpilates, the venue was transformed right into a Polynesian-style bar and renamed “The Lighthouse” to draw extra native longshore employees and service provider seamen. Business was sluggish going, so when Rumsey, who had beforehand been a sideman in Stan Kenton’s Orchestra, proposed a Sunday night time jam session in 1949, it was a low-stakes funding on Levine’s half.
Take heed to Lee Morgan’s Dwell on the Lighthouse right here.
The periods grew to become an on the spot success, not least due to the room itself. Usually talking, West Coast jazz musicians favored bigger ensembles, resulting in a full and enveloping sound within the Lighthouse Cafe’s intimate area. The viewers typically felt swallowed up within the vitality of the jam periods. The venue was the foil to New York Metropolis’s Village Vanguard, the place the music was a bit extra chamber-like. It didn’t harm that the Lighthouse Cafe was in a position to lure the best-of-the-best: You could possibly discover Miles Davis, Max Roach, or any variety of legendary artists improvising every week with the membership’s home band, the Lighthouse All-Stars. With artists rotating on and off the stage, these jam periods typically lasted greater than half a day, feeling extra like an informal rehearsal or meandering dialog as an alternative of a time-bound present.
Throughout Rumsey’s tenure as bandleader and membership supervisor on the Lighthouse Cafe, greater than 50 musicians graced the venue’s stage. A few of them have been influential in defining the West Coast model – like pianist Hampton Hawes and saxophonist Stan Getz, whose hit rendition of “The Girl From Ipanema” introduced bossa nova music into the limelight in the USA. Others have been regulars who labored out ever-evolving preparations and wide-ranging melodic motifs with the Lighthouse All-Stars. Up to date Data proprietor Les Koenig additionally enlisted the venue’s home band to document a number of albums on his label with totally different lineups. (They in the end launched 13 albums in complete.)
Greater than two dozen jazz albums have been recorded on the Lighthouse Cafe by the likes of Lee Morgan, Elvin Jones, and The Jazz Crusaders. Take heed to any dwell recording of a Lighthouse Cafe session, and the vitality is palpable: you possibly can virtually really feel the nice and cozy neon lights and fervent snaps of beachgoers within the background.
One of the vital electrifying dwell recorded periods on the iconic venue lately bought the complete crimson carpet therapy. Lee Morgan’s The Full Dwell on the Lighthouse is an expansive assortment of all 12 units of music the legendary trumpeter’s quintet recorded throughout their engagement on the Lighthouse Cafe in July of 1970. In response to The Philadelphia Tribune’s Shannon J. Effinger, this recording “not only epitomized the turbulence of those changing times but also allowed Morgan to redefine who he was.” Initially launched in 1971 as a 2-LP set, and later expanded to a 3-CD set in 1996, the brand new quantity showcases 33 performances, together with over 4 hours of beforehand unreleased music, with Morgan at his peak, effortlessly swinging and improvising toe-to-toe along with his band.
The Lighthouse Cafe has been an necessary venue for West Coast jazz ever since that fateful Sunday afternoon in 1949, bringing collectively the best jazz minds to play collectively. At this time, the venue nonetheless conjures up youthful musicians and up-and-comers. The Lighthouse figures prominently in La La Land, the 2016 movie starring Ryan Gosling as a jazz pianist and Emma Stone as an aspiring actress, who meet and fall in love whereas pursuing their goals in Los Angeles. Within the movie, they spend many evenings on the nightclub, and the close by Hermosa Seashore pier. At this time, “Sunday Jazz Brunch” stays a spotlight for locals and guests alike, and the venue continues to be a fixture on Hermosa’s Pier Plaza.
Take heed to Lee Morgan’s Dwell on the Lighthouse right here.
