The Lighthouse

Sal Cracchiolo learned how to play the trumpet on his mother’s horn. As his love of the instrument grew she saw to it that Sal received classical trumpet lessons with some of the top teachers in their neighborhood of Long Beach, California. At 15 Sal began performing and recording with Jr. & the Preludes. As R&B horn bands grew in popularity in the mid 1960s, Sal found himself in great demand. As his career was developing, Sal met Poncho Sanchez just as his Latin jazz band was forming.

Howard Rumsey may have played the first electric bass to be recorded on a jazz recording.  While performing with Stan Kenton’s first orchestra in the early fall of 1941, Howard was asked by the bandleader to experiment with a new electric bass.  The instrument had no name on it and Howard was never sure who made it, but it produced a unique sound, something Kenton was looking for.  Howard recalled the instrument to have been rather crude and the amplifier was unable to project the low notes without quickly distorting, but he recognized it to be a pioneering instrument that was lat