Bud Shank

Bud Shank
Bud Shank in 2006
Background information
Born	27 May 1926(1926-05-27)
Origin	Dayton, Ohio, USA
Died	2 April 2009(2009-04-02) (aged 82) Tucson, Arizona, USA
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	alto saxophone, flute
Years active	1946–2009
Associated acts	Laurindo Almeida, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, Ravi Shankar, Bill Mays

Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first call studio musician in Hollywood. In the 1970s he performed regularly with the L. A. Four and ultimately abandoned the flute to focus exclusively on playing jazz on the alto saxophone. He also recorded on tenor and baritone sax. He is also well known for the alto flute solo on the Mamas & Papas song California Dreamin' recorded in 1965.

Biography

Bud Shank was born in Dayton, Ohio. He began with clarinet in Vandalia, Ohio, but had switched to saxophone before attending the University of North Carolina. While at UNC, Shank was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. In 1946 he worked with Charlie Barnet before moving on to Kenton and the West coast jazz scene. He also had a strong interest in what might now be termed world music, playing bossa nova in the early 1950s (years before it became a craze), and in 1962 fusing jazz with Indian traditions in collaboration with Indian composer and sitar-player Ravi Shankar.^[1]

In the first decades of his career Shank played the flute as a second instrument, but during the 1980s dropped it and became purely an alto saxophonist. In 2005 he formed the Bud Shank Big Band in Los Angeles to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stan Kenton's Neophonic Orchestra.

A documentary film about Bud Shank, Bud Shank "Against the Tide" Portrait of a Jazz Legend, was produced and directed by Graham Carter of Jazzed Media and released by Jazzed Media as a DVD (with a companion CD) in 2008. To date the documentary film has been awarded 4 indie film awards including an Aurora Awards Gold.

Shank died on April 2, 2009, of a pulmonary embolism at his home in Tucson, AZ, one day after returning from San Diego, CA where he was recording a new album.^[2][3]

Discography

As leader

• Brazilliance, Volumes 1 and 2 (1953) early bossa nova with Laurindo Almeida
• Bud Shank with Shorty Rogers (1954) - Pacific Jazz
• Bud Shank and Bill Perkins (1955–58) - Pacific Jazz
• Cool Fool (1954 and 1955) joined by Maynard Ferguson and Bob Brookmeyer
• Theme Music from The James Dean Story (1957) - with Chet Baker
• Blowin' Country (1958) - Pacific Jazz with Bob Cooper
• All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965)
• Crystal Comments (1979) flute and two pianos with Alan Broadbent
• Drifting Timelessly (1990) with the Roumanis String Quartet
• A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing (1992) with Bob Cooper and the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra
• By Request: Bud Shank Meets the Rhythm Section (1997)- Muse Records quartet led by Shank on alto
• Taking the Long Way Home on Jazzed Media (2006) his first album as a big band leader, with arrangements by Bob Florence and others. Shank's alto is the featured instrument.
• Beyond the Red Door on Jazzed Media (2007) Shank playing alto saxophone in duet with pianist Bill Mays.
• Fascinating Rhythms on Jazzed Media (2009) Shank's final recording as leader of his quartet, recorded in January 2009. Quartet members are Bud Shank- Alto Sax, Bill Mays- Piano, Bob Magnusson- Bass, Joe LaBarbera- Drums.

As sideman

With Ravi Shankar

• Improvisations (1962)

With Sérgio Mendes

• Brasil '65 (1965)

With Gábor Szabó and Bob Thiele

• Light My Fire (Impulse!, 1967)

With The Mamas & the Papas

• "California Dreamin' "^[2]

With Hugo Montenegro (flute)

• Colours of Love (1970)

With Ron Elliott

• The Candlestickmaker (1970)

With Boz Scaggs

• Silk Degrees (1976)

With Harry Nilsson

• Duit on Mon Dei (1975)

With Gene Clark

• Roadmaster (1972)
• Firebyrd (1984)

References

1. ^ NPR
2. ^ ^{a b} Thurber, Jon (April 6, 2009). "Bud Shank dies at 82; alto saxophonist was immersed in West Coast jazz scene". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bud-shank6-2009apr06,0,5379847.story. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
3. ^ Weber, Bruce (April 7, 2009). "Bud Shank, Jazz Saxophonist, Is Dead at 82". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/arts/music/07shank.html. Retrieved April 7, 2009. 

External links

• Bud Shank's website
• Interview at All About Jazz
• Bud Shank, encyclopedia entry at Jazz.com

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Name	Shank, Bud
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 27, 1926
Place of birth
Date of death	April 2, 2009
Place of death