Lighthouse All-Stars Collection II

 The very first Lighthouse All-Stars recordings

Howard Rumsey (1917–2015) occupies a central place in the history of West Coast jazz—not primarily as a virtuoso bassist, but as a visionary organizer, bandleader, and catalyst for a community of musicians who helped define the modern jazz sound of Southern California in the 1950s. Before becoming synonymous with the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Rumsey had worked with major bands led by Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet, and Barney Bigard, experiences that grounded him firmly in the professional jazz world of the 1930s and 40s. Yet it was his work as an impresario and resident bandleader that would secure his lasting legacy.

In May 1949, Rumsey persuaded the owner of the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach, California, to allow Sunday afternoon jam sessions. What began as informal gatherings soon evolved into one of the most important regular jazz venues in the United States. Musicians from the Los Angeles scene—along with visiting players—would perform extended sets that could stretch from late afternoon into the night, attracting beachgoers, dedicated jazz fans, and fellow musicians alike. These sessions became a focal point for what would soon be labeled “West Coast Jazz.”

Out of these weekly performances emerged a more defined ensemble known as the Lighthouse All-Stars. The earliest late-1940s formation included local players such as Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes, Frank Patchen, Bobby White, and Keith Williams, with Rumsey on bass. It is important to note, however, that no known commercial or publicly documented recordings exist of this original late-1940s lineup. Their significance lies in their live presence and in the groundwork they laid, rather than in any surviving discography.

Only in the early 1950s, once the group's personnel evolved to include figures such as Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, and Shelly Manne, did the Lighthouse All-Stars begin recording commercially. Independent labels—including Skylark and the Lighthouse Record Company, and later Contemporary Records—issued recordings that carried the Lighthouse sound far beyond Hermosa Beach. These records helped codify an aesthetic often associated with West Coast jazz: arranged yet flexible, cool in tone but rhythmically vital, and marked by a strong sense of ensemble interplay.

Rumsey’s true achievement was the creation of a sustained musical environment. By maintaining a regular platform for experimentation and performance, he fostered a scene in which arrangers, improvisers, and composers could refine a distinctly West Coast approach to modern jazz. Even without recorded evidence of its earliest incarnation, the name Lighthouse All-Stars came to represent one of the foundational institutions of postwar American jazz, and Howard Rumsey remains its indispensable architect.

The story truly begins to crystallize once the band entered the studio. As we begin the Lighthouse All-Stars Collection, we turn to the earliest recordings of the Lighthouse All-Stars.

The Early Skylark and Tampa EPs: The Lighthouse All Stars, Maynard Ferguson, Charlie Shavers set brings together some of the earliest commercial recordings associated with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, issued originally on the Skylark and Tampa labels in the early 1950s. Although Howard Rumsey is not credited as leader on the session documents, this material represents the first recordings of the Lighthouse All-Stars with Rumsey firmly at the musical core of the ensemble, at a moment when the group was just beginning to define its sound.

Cut at Capitol Records on March 26, 1952, the personnel on the key tracks includes Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Jimmy Giuffre (tenor sax), Milt Bernhart (trombone), Frank Patchen (piano), Shelly Manne (drums) and Howard Rumsey on bass, with guests such as Vivien Garry on vocals. These sessions—released as a Skylark EP originally titled Jam Session 2 and later repackaged on Tampa LPs—offer a fascinating early glimpse of the Lighthouse ensemble just as it was coalescing into one of the defining groups of the West Coast jazz scene.

Shorty Rogers And The Lighthouse All Stars

Though often overshadowed by the better-known Contemporary Records albums that followed, this program is historically significant: it captures the Lighthouse All-Stars at the threshold of their commercial recording career, rooted in the post–jam-session culture Rumsey had nurtured at the Hermosa Beach club, and points toward the broader recognition the band would soon achieve.

These early recordings of the Lighthouse All-Stars are featured on the following CD:

Shorty Rogers And The Lighthouse All-Stars

Maynard Ferguson Octet

Charlie Shavers Octet

Early Skylark And Tampa EPs

The three recordings that make up this program were originally released on the Skylark and/or Tampa Records labels in the early to mid-1950s. We have included three EPs that are not necessarily related to each other in this program to complete the release of Skylark and early Tampa jazz recordings on VSOP RECORDS. Bob Scherman, a child prodigy who became a record producer and composer, created the Skylark and Tampa Records labels during the early 1950s. Skylark was the label that Bob Scherman used to release recordings between 1951 and 1955, when the label was collapsed into Tampa Records. Practically every Skylark jazz recording had been re-issued as a Tampa release by 1955. (There are several singles that we will add to upcoming releases, and albums by Bill Donati that include jazz material that will be digitally released in the future.)

Bob Scherman participated in and supervised all activities of Skylark and Tampa, but he had help. Much of the studio work was shared by Dick Taylor, who had worked with Bob Scherman on some of his earlier efforts connected with his publishing work. Bob had set up his publishing company, Webster Music, to provide demo services for songwriters, as well as to promote his own compositions. He brought in Dick Taylor to manage many of the demo recording sessions, and later to act as contractor for some of the Skylark sessions, and some of the early Tampa sessions, as well.

 

The first set of recordings on this album consists of recordings that were made on March 26, 1952 at Capitol Records. They are or at least appear to be the first recordings credited to the Lighthouse All Stars. Side 1 consists of "M.B.B." or "More Big Boy", and Side 2 consists of a medley which includes "You Know I'm In Love With You", "Whispering" and "I Get A Kick Out of You" performed by Vivien Garry. The first release of this material on Skylark Records (apart from single 78s) was an EP entitled "Jam Session 2" Skylark 12.   This same material was later re-released as Tampa LP 12 "Shorty Rogers and the Lighthouse All Stars", with a cover designed by Maurice Childs, (that is the cover used for this album.)

The second set of recordings on this album consists of a program that appeared on an EP originally entitled "Jam Session 1" released as Skylark SK11. Side 1 featured Paul Nero's "Cool Canary Blues" and Side 2 was devoted to a jam on "Sweet Georgia Brown". Both selections are fairly long, coming in at around 13 minutes and 40 seconds each and feature extended solos by each player. "Sweet Georgia Brown" was also released on Skylark EP100 as by a Lighthouse All Stars group with the same personnel. The actual recording date is not certain although it would appear contemporaneous with the "Jam Session 2" material, judging by the personnel and the Hot Canary-Cool Canary connection. The labels on the various releases of this material suggest that the original leader was violinist Paul Nero, whose actual name was Kurt Polniarof (not to be confused with saxophonist Klaus Doldinger who goes by the same name). Paul Nero was a very in-demand violinist for pop and jazz sessions, whose extensive work invites comparisons with the careers of Harry Bluestone and Felix Slatkin. He presented himself very much as a fiddler rather than a violinist and his playing is often compared to that of Eddie South or Stuff Smith. He composed a number of works based upon his original composition, "The Canary", including "The Hot Canary" by Stan Kenton featuring Maynard Ferguson on Capitol, Paul Weston on Capitol Records, Florian Zabach on Decca, Ella Fitzgerald with Sy Oliver on Decca and "The Cool Canary Blues" offered here. Portions of these live recordings were used to create the live portions of "M.B.B" and the Vivien Garry medley. The Maynard Ferguson "Jam Session 1" material is lengthy and was actually recorded live, in contrast to the "Jam Session 2" sides. While it is likely that originally the group was led by Paul Nero, most releases on Skylark credit it to Maynard Ferguson. He had recently recorded Paul Nero's "Hot Canary" with Stan Kenton for Capitol, and was very much identified with that recording. There are nice solos by Maynard Ferguson, Bob Cooper, Abe Most, Tony Rizzi and Paul Smith.

After the two "Jam Sessions 1" selections, we have included the original versions of "Big Boy" which were released as "Big Boy Part 1" and "Big Boy Part 2" on Skylark 538, both sides presented here as one track. As is evident, "M.B.B." is simply a combination of both parts 1 and 2 with additional live material added in to give the impression that the material was recorded live in a club. These are the essential components of every version of "M.B.B." and "Big Boy" released on Skylark and Tampa. It is interesting to note that there are many fans of this recording, especially among those who were alive and on the West Coast when this recording was first released. Today, there is still some question as to whether "Big Boy" and "M.B.B." were intended to be received as a tribute to the rhythm and blues honking saxophone style of playing that was enjoying popularity at the time or whether they were intended as parody. Opinions are divided, and each is welcome to form their own.

The final EP included on this release was originally released as Skylark 103 Charlie Shavers:"Jazz". The common link between all of these musicians is the post-war Tommy Dorsey band, in particular the period between September, 1946 and June, 1947 when all were sidemen in that aggregation and, at times, in the Clambake Seven. The material performed is also a bit earlier in style from the two other Skylark sessions featured on this album. All four selections are of average length for a 78 of that period, with no extended solos. Two of the selections are adaptations of popular classical works, one is a tin pan alley standard ("Three Little Words"), and one an original work devoted to musicians union head, James Petrillo. The selection devoted to James Petrillo, head of the musicians' union, also suggests that this was recorded during the late 1940's when his iron-fisted control of recorded music gave rise to the 1942 and 1948 recording bans. This material features clarinetist Abe Most, and he may have had something to do with both the Jam Session 1 material and these Charlie Shavers recordings being released on Skylark and Tampa, since his solos are showcased, at least on the Charlie Shavers' sides. Tony Rizzi is also on this recording, making him the only musician to perform on all three recordings presented here. *from the liner notes*

1 - M.B.B

(Giuffre, Rogers)

2 - Jam Session Medley

a) You Know I'm In Love With You

(Brandt)

b) Whispering

(Schoemberger)

c) I Get A Kick Out Of You

(Porter)

3 - Cool Canary Blues

(Paul Nero)

4 - Sweet Georgia Brown

(Berney,Pinkard)

5 - Big Boy, Part 1 & Part 2

(Giuffre, Rogers)

6 - Three Little Words

(Kalmar, Ruby)

7 - Pet-rill-o

(Shavers)

8 - Choppin' Up Chopin

(Chopin, Shavers)

9 - La Traviata

(Verdi, Shavers)

#1, #2, #5:

Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Jimmy Giuffre (tenor sax), Milt Bernhart (trombone),

Frank Patchen (piano), Tony Rizzi (guitar [#2b]), Howard Rumsey (bass),

Shelly Manne (drums), Vivien Garry (vocals [#2]).

Recorded at Capitol Records, March 26, 1952

(Producer Bob Scherman created a "live" jazz club sound with his Skylark releases by adding applause and "cocktail lounge chatter" at the mixing stage.)

#3, #4:

Maynard Ferguson (trumpet), Bob Cooper (tenor sax), Abe Most (clarinet), Paul Nero (violin),

Paul Smith (piano), Tony Rizzi (guitar), Stan Fletcher (bass), Irv Cottler (drums).

Recorded possibly at The Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, California, 1952

#6 to #9:

Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Abe Most (clarinet), Sid Cooper (alto sax), Boomie Richman (tenor sax), John Potoker (piano), Tony Rizzi (guitar), Sandy "Sid" Bloch (bass), and Alvin Stoller (drums).

Recorded in New York City, possibly late 1945

Note: The print quality of the booklet accompanying this CD is very poor. 

For a more comfortable reading of the same text, go to: https://magnebit.xeran.com/store/page242.html

Paul Nero: A Musician Ahead of His Time

When one thinks "West Coast Jazz",  it's the big names like Chet Baker, Furgeson, Getz and other horn players that are credited as its dominant force. Be-bop artists from the East Coast visited and left their mark but  to many, West Coast Jazz was devalued as lacking in be-bop's sophisticated edge. Strings didn't get the recognition they deserved  despite their major presence and Paul Nero was a major player. Unlike improvising artists Venuti and Grappelli, Nero was  prolific composer, conductor and arranger who campaigned vigorously to highlight string performers and  the string jazz genre as the West Coast Jazz sound. Nero argued that a violin had a greater capacity to adapt to and reshape modern jazz than status quo critics and many musicians allowed. He proved his case by inserting jazz violin in both be bop and classical genres, developed and taught jazz technique for string players and pushed the musical envelope with his own recording of a jazz violin orchestra: Paul Nero and his Hi Fiddles.

Paul Nero was among the first violinists of his time to fuse classical technique with jazz rhythms and be-bop frameworks while keeping his rich melodic persona. Although highly-regarded among his peer musicians, Nero never got the recognition he and others believed he deserved.

Why is Nero virtually unknown to the general public? One explanation for this could be that he was at least ten years ahead of his time, and since he left us too soon, he couldn't ride the wave of popular music's breakout. The music market of his time was not interested in new art forms for violin. Had Nero lived as long as his contemporaries (i.e. Venuti, Grappelli, Stuff Smith), his name wold have joined these artists who were "rediscovered" in the l970's jazz fiddle revival.

Another reason for Nero's low profile is that, until now, no one has provided an organized presentation of his life and works to musicians and music lovers.

Paul Nero, born Kurt Joachim Polnariow (Polnarioff) in Hamburg on April 29, 1917, was the youngest of three children. His father, Albert Abraham Icko Polnariow (Polnarioff), was a Ukranian violinist performer and composer who travelled extensively throughout northern Europe as kappelmeister.  His older sister, Rosa, a violin prodigy at 14, had already left for America with her father,  on an artist visa to perform with the Philadelphia orchestra.  Young Kurt stayed behind with his mother and middle sister initially but when he turned six they too sailed to New York  to rejoin the family for a new life in America. Like many Jewish immigrants, Nero grew up in a tight knit old world Russian-German community in the Bronx.  He became rapidly "Americanized" in the city’s public school system but at home he was trained  to become a classical violinist in the Russian tradition.

In Paul Nero's own violin playing, the old Russian classical technique of his early training and homeland culture permeates his musical expression. Instead of muting these influences in obedience to jazz idiom, he embraces them.

At Curtis Institute, young Kurt Polnarioff studied with Alexander Hilsburg in classical violin and composition, and after graduating in l937, he began his orchestra career with the Pittsburgh Symphony string section under Fritz Reiner's baton.

But it was jazz violin that Nero chose as his future path even  in the rigorous Curtis Institute. As his fellow students, Bernstein and Barber were excelling in the traditional classical  traditions, young Polnarioff formed the first Jazz Orchestra for Curtis students.

Polnarioff Americanized his name to Paul Nero and enlisted for military service right after the Pearl Harbor. He served in the US Navy in 1942 and was stationed in Washington D.C. as musical director of the US Navy Dance Band.

After the war's end and his honorable discharge, Nero returned to New York where he worked briefly in New York City, with Gene Krupa's Band as featured soloist, along with Anita O'Day,  then  at NBC  radio and  the Jan Savitt Jazz Orchestra  and also  teaching briefly at Juilliard.  Nero concertized on stage with Andre Previn at Town Hall and introduced his "hot fiddle" sound to receptive New York audiences.  He was elected to ASCAP in l946 and soon left the East Coast permanently for the Los Angeles emerging jazz scene.

Nero was able to find work as a free-lance session musician and his career quickly took off. In Los Angeles, hiring talent was coordinated by contractors who worked for radio producers. Nero was soon held in great demand; performing with such luminaries as, Paul Weston and Johnny Mercer's Capitol Records for Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee. Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Jo Stafford, and other L.A. based recording stars in the famed Capitol Studio. Nero soon started to go on his own and  recorded  for the Capitol, Decca and Sunset Records. His compositions blended old world memories with Californian cool sound  in the key of  optimism for America's postwar l950's. Paul Nero died of a heart attack on April 2, 1958 at the age of 41, in Los Angeles. *paulneroshotfiddles.com*

Paul Nero and His Hi Fiddles

Play The Music Of 

Shorty Rogers • Marty Paich

Jimmy Giuffre • David Raksin

Frank Comstock • Bob Cooper

Jack Montrose • Ruby Raksin

& Paul Nero

"It's about time someone did some real jazz with strings", said the Prez of Sunset Records. I agreed. "Go", said the Prez. And that's ALL he said. There were no (pardon the pun) strings attached.

This was to be my album. I a choice of tunes, arrangers, and composers. For more than twenty years I had been working toward this moment. Everybody said you couldn't play jazz on a fiddle. I said you could. 

This is not a typical album. Neither are these typical program notes. They could easily have been written in the third person. But this is no time to be coy and I'm as egotistical over my musical background as I am over my ability to breathe. The comments in the program have been written by the men who composed and arranged the music. Who is better qualified to explain the intent of the work than they?

As to the musicians... again I was very lucky. Gerald Vinci, Stan Harris and Paul Bergstrom are not typical string players. Combined with their excellent facility and background on their instruments, which speaks for itself, are the years of listening to good jazz and that rare quality of following the tone color, phrasing, and mood of the lead instrument, no matter what it did, yet never losing their individualities as performers. The fabulous sound and pulse of Rolly Bundock's bass; the imaginative solos and harmonic colors of Bobby Gibbons' guitar; the almost unbelievably restrained forcefulness of the two drummers — Milt Holland, who was in for eight sides — and Irv Cottler for four, made a septet out of what could very easily have become a string group with  a rhythm section backing it up. 

That's my story. I said fiddles can play jazz. I hope you are in agreement. *Paul Nero (liner notes)*

Paul Nero and His Hi Fiddles tries ambitiously to elicit jazz from a string quartet plus rhythm section. The various tracks are successful, however, only in direct ratio to the ability of the various composers and arrangers to feel fiddles and write for them.

Nero's own jazz background is not nearly as extensive as some of the other writers', yet his composition, "Scherzo-Phrenia", turns out to be the best side here. It swings, something most of the others fail to do, and it feels right — there is no self-consciousness or hokum evidente.

Nero also wrote "Vibrato, "Lullaby, and "Bridie", but with les over-all impact. Most successful of the other writers were Shorty Rogers, whose "Minuet" is a rather charming outing for the two violins, cello, viola, and rhythm (Rolly Bundock, bass; Bobby Gibbons, guitar, and Milt Holland and Irv Cottler splitting drums chores); Ruby Raskin, who neatly achieves his stated goal of "bop Dixieland" on "That's A Plenty", and Jack Montrose, who turns "Midnight Sun" into a hauntingly Bartokian excercise. Jack, who is steadily developing into a writer of real stature, faces a great future.

Jim Giuffre's "Waterfront" has moments of real merit, but it is the rhythm section that provides them, not the strings. Marty Paich makes "Street of Dreams" sound too much like Muzak, and Bob Cooper's "Flew" is dull and unimaginative.

This is a courageous try by Nero to explore the jazz possibilities of the string quartet, however, and succeeding albums would seem to be in order.

Suggestion: for the next LP, retain two or three of the writers from this one and ask other men like Russo, Mulligan, Lewis, Ellington, Burns, etc., to submit Works. Strings represent a challenging médium to the jazz composer, and precios few have ever shown they can work well in it.

*Jack Tracy (Down Beat, May 16, 1956)*

Side 1

1 - Scherzo-Phrenia

(Paul Nero)

2 - Street Of Dreams

(V. Young, S. Lewis)

3 - Just A Minuet

(Shorty Rogers)

4 - I Cover The Waterfront

(Green, Heyman)

5 - That's A Plenty

(Lew Pollack)

6 - Flew The Coop

(Bob Cooper)

Side 2

7 - Yes, We Have No Vibrato

(Paul Nero)

8 - Love Is For The Very Young

(David Raskin)

9 - Lullaby Of The Leaves

(Petkere, J. Young)

10 - Midnight Sun

(L. Hampton, F. J. Burke)

11 - A Foggy Day

(George and Ira Gershwin)

12 - Birdie Murphy, Won't You Please Come Home

(Paul Nero)

Paul Nero, Gerald Vinci (violins); Stan Harris (viola); Paul Bergstrom (cello);

Bobby Gibbons (guitar); Rolly Bundock (bass); Milt Holland, Irv Cottler (drums and percussion).

Recorded in Hollywood, California, March, 1956