Search - Howard Rumsey :: Oboe/Flute

The Light Isn't On In The Lighthouse

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 12/02/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Howard Rumsey is a bassist, but he is best known as the leader of the popular 50s jazz group, The Lighthouse All-Stars. On "Oboe/Flute," also known as "Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars Volume 4," the "All-Stars" play jazz originals and standards with the unique frontline of, you guessed it, oboe and flute. This disc is split between two sessions. One-third of the CD (tracks 5, 6, 10 & 11) is from 9/25/56 and features Bob Cooper on oboe, Buddy Collette on flute, Sonny Clark on piano and Stan Levey on drums. The remaining eight selections are from an earlier two-day session in February 1954 with Cooper again on oboe (and on occasion English horn), Bud Shank on flute, Claude Williamson on piano and the great Max Roach on drums. Unfortunately both sessions are rather mediocre with the frontline producing a rather wimpy, easy-listening feel. The tunes with Roach on the drum kit have considerably more rhythmic backbone than the songs featuring Levey, but Williamson is no where close to being in Sonny Clark's league on the ivories. If only Clark and Roach had played together on this date, then "Oboe/Flute" might have been able to justify its "All-Star" billing."