Howard Rumsey: The Lighthouse All Star

Rex Butters

CD/DVD Reviewer since 2003

After years of writing music related articles, Rex still wonders who has time to listen to all these cds?

Recent articles (242 total)

Published: September 27, 2007

"The amp would only play on AC, so when we went east of New York, I had to rent a converter to get the thing to play. We were doing one nighters in the northeast, and it was just a real pain in the ass. They didn't know how to record it, either. When I went into Decca over here in Hollywood with the original Kenton band, Jack Kapp was standing right there, and he saw me coming in with that electric bass, and he said, 'Don't you know we've never recorded one of those thing successfully?'

"It scared me so bad, and I said, 'Well, this will be the first one.' And I ducked under him and went in the studio. I recorded with it. I did the original Kenton library for the McGregor Transcriptions with that, and they're now available on CD. In New York a guy said to me, 'Why don't you put a propeller on it and fly it?' One night the police calls came over it just before the curtain went up. Three or four years later, every one of those New York players were doubling on electric bass.

Photo Credit
Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

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