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A few years ago, I was seated in a bus riding from Los Angeles to Hermosa Beach to see the Phil Norman Tentet play at the Lighthouse Café, a shrine for jazz fans. I had been there once for a brief look see a year or two earlier, but there was no music going on – I just wanted to see the place. Seated next to me was another attendee at the four-day jazz event that I was attending, a stranger to me. We got to talking, and it turned out that it was a chap named Ken Koenig. He informed me that he was in the process of making a documentary about this jazz Mecca that we were about to visit.

Well, that film is now available as Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse, and it is a gas. Combining still photos, film clips and interviews, Koenig has created an affectionate and interesting portrait of this cauldron of West Coast Jazz.

Koenig has definitely done his homework well. He draws extensively from the interviews that he did with the musical guiding light of the club, bassist Howard Rumsey. The interviews are presented in a more complete form as a bonus feature on the DVD. Rumsey, now approaching 89 years of age, although he has the presence of a much younger man, has total recall about his days at the Lighthouse, and shares that information in a thorough and engaging manner. Among the other voices heard from are musicians Max Bennett, Milt Bernhart, Bill Holman, Bud Shank and Stan Levey. There are also recollections and commentary from Ross Levine, son of the club’s owner John Levine, Los Angeles Jazz Institute Director Ken Poston, musicologist Robert Hughes, jazz photographer William Claxton, Lighthouse bartender Ken Kolar, jazz journalist Kirk Silsbee and jazz historian Robert Gordon. Together with the script that Koenig has skillfully written to cohere the disparate components, the interviews, stills and performance footage provide a comprehensive view of the scene that gave rise to and nurtured this important piece of jazz history.

Jazz came to the Lighthouse as a result of Rumsey’s desire to get back actively into the Los Angeles jazz scene. He had been a member of the early Stan Kenton Orchestras, but had grown away from the music business to follow other pursuits. He was seeking a venue where he could organize jam sessions featuring modern jazz. One Sunday afternoon in 1949, he wandered into a sparsely populated restaurant/bar that had once been a haven for local seamen right near the ocean in Hermosa Beach, a coastal community located just south of Los Angeles. The Lighthouse had a stage that seemed appropriate for Rumsey’s dream, so he approached owner John Levine, and suggested that he allow Rumsey to organize Sunday Afternoon jam sessions. Levine somewhat reluctantly agreed, and on May 29, 1949, the Lighthouse started on its way to becoming the most important jazz venue in the Los Angeles area.

The time was ripe, as local police activity had begun to put a damper on the Central Avenue scene. Central Avenue was located in a predominately black area of Los Angeles, and for years had been a vibrant center for music, especially jazz and rhythm ‘n blues, as well as theater, and other public entertainments. The races mixed rather freely in the Central Avenue entertainment venues, both on stage and off. This always rankled the mostly Caucasian police force in Los Angeles, and by the end of the 1940’s, the police employed various methods to discourage the mixing of races.

Rumsey’s belief that a venue featuring modern jazz could succeed in one of the beach communities proved to be valid. From the Sunday afternoon when they opened the front doors and let the sounds of bebop waft above the beach crowds, the customers started coming. Rumsey also started to play jazz records in the Lighthouse on weekday evenings, but soon convinced Levine to let him bring in live jazz for the evenings. This began a 22-year relationship during which the Lighthouse achieved world wide recognition as one of the great jazz clubs extant.

Over the years, many of the greats players of jazz graced the Lighthouse stage. Initially, Rumsey was able to present racially mixed groups with players like Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss and Hampton Hawes sharing the stage with their white contemporaries. In fact, during a short period when Rumsey ended up incarcerated for a minor drug offense, Edwards filled his position as musical director of the Lighthouse. Within a few years, it became apparent that the black musicians were no longer welcome in Hermosa Beach. This was not a situation that set well with Rumsey and Levine, but they were realistic enough to understand that, in this case, it was best not to fight City Hall. There followed a ten-year period when black players were rarely among the players at the Lighthouse. There was a brief period of about six months, starting in September 1953 when this situation was eased. Max Roach was hired to replace Shelly Manne in the drum chair, and during Roach’s tenure players like Miles Davis suddenly started to appear at the Lighthouse. Max was like a magnet for the greatest stars in jazz, players who wanted to sit in with one of the masters of modern jazz drumming. Following the end of Roach’s contract with the club, Stan Levey was in on drums, and things returned to the way they were before Roach’s arrival, although this was not a reflection on Levey as a player or a person. There were still occasional players like saxophonist/flutist Buddy Collette and pianist Sonny Clark who broke the color line, but they were few and far between until the early 1960’s when the tensions eased, and racially mixed groups once again became the norm.

At the time that the black musicians started to feel uncomfortable with the racial attitudes in Hermosa Beach, many players who had been on the road with the Stan Kenton Orchestra decided that they wanted a less hectic lifestyle, and opted to settle in the Los Angeles area. One of the most significant was trumpeter/flugelhornist, composer/arranger Shorty Rogers. He soon found himself in the company of Rumsey, saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre, trombonist Milt Bernhart, drummer Shelly Manne and pianist Frank Patchen as members of the original Lighthouse All-Stars. This group was one of the first to develop the sound that became known as West Coast Jazz. This style featured written arrangements that, while still based in bebop, had a more formal structure, and, to many ears, a more distant emotional involvement with the music. Other progenitors of West Coast sounds were the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker. Each brought its own unique contributions, with Brubeck bringing in many classical influences, and Mulligan making extensive use of counterpoint in his pianoless quartet. In addition to the players listed above, others who enjoyed stays with the Lighthouse All-Stars during its heydays of the 1950’s were trumpeters Maynard Ferguson, Rolf Ericson, Stu Williamson and Conte Candoli; trombonists Bob Enevoldsen and Frank Rosolino, saxophonists Bob Cooper and Bud Shank, and pianists Marty Paich and Claude Williamson.

In the mid-1960’s, Rumsey recognized that it was becoming too difficult to maintain the Lighthouse All-Stars with the caliber of musicians who had made it so successful, so he disbanded the group, and adopted a policy of booking other major jazz groups into the Lighthouse. By 1971, John Levine had died, and Howard Rumsey moved on to a new venue a little further south called Concerts By the Sea. This ended the run that the Lighthouse enjoyed a one of the best and most famous jazz venues. It remains open to this day, still occasionally featuring jazz, but no longer relying on a loyal coterie of jazz fans for its existence.

Koenig has done a masterful job of conveying the story of a special place and time in jazz. Yes, you learn the facts, but you also hear some of the music and get a real sense of the unique ambience that the Lighthouse provided for the enjoyment of the music that was played there, music that was creative, entertaining and significant. Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse is a love song to this special club and the music that came to life there. I guarantee that you will watch it again and again. It will not only keep calling you back, but will compel you to seek out more of the music that you get a taste of in the film.

With the Holiday Season approaching, this would make a great gift for jazz fans on your list. It can be ordered at www.RoseKing.org.