Bud Shank
Encyclopedia
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.
, 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
.
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.
With Sérgio Mendes
With Gábor Szabó
and Bob Thiele
With The Mamas & the Papas
With Hugo Montenegro
(flute)
With Ron Elliott
With Boz Scaggs
With Harry Nilsson
With Gene Clark
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alto saxophonist
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
in Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
'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
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
and baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
sax. He is also well known for the alto flute solo on the Mamas & Papas
Mamas & Papas
Mamas & Papas is a UK-based retailer and manufacturer supplying prams, pushchairs, baby products, furniture and maternity wear. It was established in Huddersfield in 1981 by Italian entrepreneurs David and Luisa Scacchetti and has grown as a family business to become one of the UK’s top nursery...
song California Dreamin'
California Dreamin'
"California Dreamin is a popular song by The Mamas & the Papas, first released in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...
recorded in 1965.
Biography
Bud Shank was born in DaytonDayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He began with clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
in Vandalia, Ohio
Vandalia, Ohio
Vandalia is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Dayton. Its population was 15,246 during the 2010 census. The James M. Cox Dayton International Airport is located in the city...
, but had switched to saxophone before attending the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
. While at UNC, Shank was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha
Pi Kappa Alpha
Pi Kappa Alpha is a Greek social fraternity with over 230 chapters and colonies and over 250,000 lifetime initiates in the United States and Canada.-History:...
Fraternity. In 1946 he worked with Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet
Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...
before moving on to Kenton and the West coast jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
scene. He also had a strong interest in what might now be termed world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, playing bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
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
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
.
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
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
at his home in Tucson, AZ, one day after returning from San Diego, CA where he was recording a new album.
As leader
- Brazilliance, Volumes 1 and 2 (1953) early bossa nova with Laurindo AlmeidaLaurindo AlmeidaLaurindo Almeida was a Brazilian virtuoso guitaristand composer who made many recordings of enduring impact in classical, jazz and Latin genres...
- 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 FergusonMaynard FergusonMaynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
and Bob BrookmeyerBob BrookmeyerRobert Brookmeyer is an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer.-Biography:Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brookmeyer first gained widespread public attention as a member of Gerry Mulligan's quartet from 1954 to 1957. He later worked with Jimmy Giuffre... - Theme Music from The James Dean Story (1957) - with Chet Baker
- Blowin' Country (1958) - Pacific Jazz with Bob CooperBob Cooper (musician)Bob Cooper was a West Coast jazz musician known primarily for playing tenor saxophone, but also for being one of the first to play solos on oboe. He worked in Stan Kenton's band starting in 1945 and married the band's singer June Christy...
- All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole PorterAll Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole PorterAll Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter was an LP album by Julie London, released by Liberty Records under catalog number LRP-3434 as a monophonic recording and catalog number LST-7434 in stereo in 1965.-Track listing:...
(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 CooperBob Cooper (musician)Bob Cooper was a West Coast jazz musician known primarily for playing tenor saxophone, but also for being one of the first to play solos on oboe. He worked in Stan Kenton's band starting in 1945 and married the band's singer June Christy...
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 FlorenceBob FlorenceBob Florence was an American jazz arranger and pianist. He began taking piano lessons at five and initially intended to be a concert pianist. However, on taking classes with Bob McDonald he changed direction toward jazz.At the beginning of his career Florence worked as a pianist and arranger with...
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 ShankarRavi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
- Improvisations (1962)
With Sérgio Mendes
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
- Brasil '65 (1965)
With Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
and Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele was an American record producer who worked on countless classic jazz albums and record labels.-Biography:...
- Light My FireLight My Fire (Gábor Szabó album)Light My Fire is an album by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó and American record producer Bob Thiele featuring performances recorded in 1967 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1967)
With The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
- "California Dreamin'California Dreamin'"California Dreamin is a popular song by The Mamas & the Papas, first released in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...
"
With Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Montenegro was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best known work is derived from interpretations of the music from Spaghetti westerns, especially his cover version of the main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
(flute)
- Colours of Love (1970)
With Ron Elliott
Ron Elliott (musician)
Ron Elliott on October 21, 1943) is an American musician, composer and producer, best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of rock band The Beau Brummels. Elliott wrote or co-wrote the band's 1965 U.S...
- The CandlestickmakerThe CandlestickmakerThe Candlestickmaker is the lone solo album by American musician Ron Elliott, released in 1970 on Warner Bros. It was recorded following the dissolution of The Beau Brummels, with whom Elliott had been the chief songwriter and guitarist...
(1970)
With Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
- Silk DegreesSilk DegreesSilk Degrees is the seventh album by Boz Scaggs, released on the Columbia Records label in 1976. The album reached #2 on the U.S. pop albums chart.-Reception:The album marked Scaggs' commercial zenith, mainly spearheaded by the R&B/Soul hit "Lowdown"...
(1976)
With Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
- Duit on Mon DeiDuit on Mon DeiDuit On Mon Dei is the eleventh album by Harry Nilsson. The original title for this album was "God's Greatest Hits" but RCA didn't approve. The title is a punning spelling of Do It On Monday, playing on the British Monarchy's motto Dieu et mon droit...
(1975)
With Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
- RoadmasterRoadmaster (album)Roadmaster is a country rock album by Gene Clark from 1973. The album was compiled from various unreleased recordings for A&M Records made in 1970 through 1972, eight tracks yielded from an April 1972 recording session featuring Clarence White, Spooner Oldham, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Byron Berline and...
(1972) - Firebyrd (1984)
External links
- Bud Shank's website
- Interview at All About Jazz
- Bud Shank, encyclopedia entry at Jazz.com