posted by Robert J. Carmack  #@blues2jazzguy

Ahmed Jamal Trio at the Famous Lighthouse Cafe

Howard Rumsey, a jazz bassist and entrepreneur who helped popularize the notion of a progressive West Coast jazz scene in the 1950s as leader of the Lighthouse All-Stars, died on July 15 in Newport Beach,Calif. the cause was complications of pneumonia, said Nancy Simonian, a longtime friend. He was 97.

Growing up in the early 1960s in Los Angeles gave me lots of opportunities. To learn an instrument, and get skilled enough to play in various church and school orchestras and marching bands, If you were like me that was not enough, I liked jazz when most of my friends and peers were boppin’ to Motown.

One of my greatest opportunities came in the form of playing saxophone in a youth band sponsored by the late Gerald Wilson and the Grant Music Center, Henry Grant, Conductor…