Billboard : 02/25/1956
Score of 80

A distinguished crowd of West Coast modernists who ordinarily make headquarters at the Los Angeles jazz nitery, The Lighthouse, trekked South to Laguna Beach one night last June for a concert that must have been a real gasser for local fans. As recorded, most time is given to the Lighthouse All-Stars, which at that time consisted of Rumsey, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Frank Rosolino, Claude Williamson and Stan Levey. Barney Kessel, the guitarist, took the spotlight for a richly appealing set of his own. The third major attraction was a group by the Hampton Hawes Trio (backing the pianist were Shelly Manne on drums and Red Mitchell on bass). This is West Coast at its exciting best, and should be a great hit with jazz customers.

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Cashbox : 02/25/1956

Two fine jazz teams take over on an “on the spot” disk. The two groups – Howard Rumsey‘s All-Stars and The Hampton Hawes Trio. The most unusual item on the disk is the initial waxing Witch Doctor No. 2 by the All-Stars. It deliciously combines rhythms of the West Indies and those of our own, into a truly exciting number. The other pieces settle down to less novel but highly capable jazz artistry. Mood For Lighthouse by the “All-Stars” comes off exceedingly well in jazz counterpoint. Good sound. The set is a rewarding addition to any jazz enthusiast’s collection.

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Down Beat : 04/04/1956
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

A concert recorded at Laguna Beach Calif., last June. Tracks 1, 3, 5, and 7 are played by Rumsey‘s All-Stars with Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Frank Rosolino, Claude Williamson, and Stan Levey. Midnight is a Barney Kessel solo backed by the All-Stars, while Lady Jean is a Rosolino excursion on his own tune with All-Stars backing. Walkin’ and The Champ are performed by the Hampton Hawes trio with Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne. The playing is proficient throughout with chief kicks from the trio tracks, Kessel’s well conceived variations on the Monk melody, Williamson’s work on all tracks he appears, and Shank’s flute on Witch Doctor. The cover can best be described as the most nonabstract of the year.

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Liner Notes by Lester Koenig
12/06/1955

Laguna Beach is a lovely, relaxed town on the Pacific two hours drive south of Los Angeles. On Monday night, June 20th, 1955, it became the center of modern jazz on the West Coast as Howard Rumsey brought his Lighthouse All-Stars, Barney Kessel, and the Hampton Hawes Trio to the Irvine Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater, for an impressive concert before an impressed audience.

Rumsey and The All-Stars during 1955 found time to increase their influence by numerous concerts away from their home base, The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. They played for schools and colleges throughout Southern California and Arizona, and succeeded in winning friends and influencing people wherever they went. Laguna was no exception; for the 1,200 who turned out the concert was a highlight of the jazz year.

Jazz concert performances often lack the polish of those in the recording studio, but more often this if offset by a freer, more spontaneous, creative, and swinging feeling, generated in part by the interaction of audience and performers. So while there are defects in these forty-five of the best minutes of the night’s music, defects which both the musicians and the recording engineer would have liked to remedy, there are moments of excitement here that cannot be duplicated.

Five of the eight performances in this set are by The All-Stars. During the five years Rumsey has held forth at The Lighthouse his groups have always included the very best musicians, and the present group is no exception. Each man is a prominent recording artist in his own right, and each finishes high in the annual polls conducted by the leading jazz magazines. The concert presentation put each man in the solo spotlight and there are many fine solos by Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Frank Rosolino and Claude Williamson. Of course, equally important is the fact they work well together to create a swinging, balanced ensemble sound.

Though a studio performance of Witch Doctor was issued by Contemporary in 1954 (C2506) the concert version which starts Side 1 is included because of several changes in the personnel, and because of Bud Shank’s flute solo which was not part of the original conception. It was added early in 1955 after the success of the “oboe-flute” album (C2510) made the flute a fixture at The Lighthouse.

Barney Kessel, one of the greatest of jazz guitarists, was accompanied by The All-Stars for his portion of the program. His sensitive arrangement and performance of Thelonious Monk‘s modern classic ‘Round About Midnight was one of the best received of the evening. In Barney’s hands it became a lovely concerto for guitar and orchestra. Of Barney’s latest Contemporary album (C3513) critic Ralph Gleason wrote, “He breaks down all the barriers, psychological and musicological that have been built up over the years. Jazz fans, no matter what their background, years of collecting King Oliver and Johnny Dodds, or a frantic race to keep up with the jazz of the Fifties, can all appreciate Barney Kessel.”

Mood for Lighthouse is a new Bob Cooper original, written for the All-Stars shortly before the concert. Walkin’, which concludes Side 1, is by the Hampton Hawes Trio. At the time, Hamp’s first and extremely successful Contemporary album (C3505) had not been recorded, and he was virtually unknown. The audience reaction, however, was wildly enthusiastic and completely justified Howard Rumsey’s faith in Hawes’ new group. Hamp had worked at The Lighthouse before a two year stint in the army, and had only been back in Los Angeles a short time before the concert. Hamp is accompanied here by his regular bassist, the formidable Red Mitchell, a first-rate rhythm man and an extraordinary soloist. For this concert the trio was fortunate in having Shelly Manne, that most musical and inventive of drummers. In the widespread appreciation for his leading role in West Coast jazz innovation and experimentation there is a tendency to minimize his basic quality; he is first and foremost a swinging jazzman, a fact which is quite evident in his two performances with Hamp.

Side 2 begins with Claude Williamson’s Blind Man’s Bluff. Claude also arranged it. The structure of this original is unusual: a sixteen bar phrase followed by a twenty bar phrase. The soloists, Coop, Shank on alto, Rosolino and Claude enjoyed blowing the progressions and the piece swings from start to finish. Lady Jean is Frank Rosolino’s own tune, and features his trombone. It reveals him as a warm and feeling musician as well as a remarkably facile and technically skilled one. Lady Jean is followed by The Hampton Hawes Trio’s exciting, wailing version of Dizzy Gillespie‘s The Champ, and then the All-Stars wind up things with Shorty Rogers‘ Casa de Luz (Spanish for Lighthouse), a tune Shorty wrote in 1953 when he was a regular member of Rumsey’s group.

As the weekly Laguna Beach Post reported June 23rd, the Thursday following: “…it was clear that this concert was manned by some of the most knowledgeable and talented musicians in the land and it was a pleasure to be there.”