Bud Shank

Although initially typecast as a cool jazz devotee early in his professional life, Bud Shank revealed through decades of growth that he ranked among the most fiery and inventive alto saxophonists of the generation immediately following Charlie Parker. While grouped with the smooth-toned West Coast musicians throughout the 1950s, the altoist kept developing; by his later period his approach aligned more closely with Jackie McLean or Phil Woods than with Paul Desmond or Lee Konitz. Shank’s piercing yet lyrical phrasing, marked by melodic directness and rich tonal shading, stood out as one of the truly singular extensions of the bebop language.

He studied at the University of North Carolina between 1944 and 1946. At first he performed on several woodwinds—flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone—before focusing primarily on alto and flute toward the end of the 1940s. After leaving college he relocated to California, where he took lessons from trumpeter and composer Shorty Rogers and performed with the big bands of Charlie Barnet from 1947 to 1948 and Stan Kenton from 1950 to 1951. During the 1950s he established himself as a key participant in the West Coast jazz community, working and recording with bassist Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars, tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper, Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida, and others. He also led a sequence of sessions for World Pacific in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Throughout the 1960s Shank anchored himself in Los Angeles recording studios yet surfaced periodically for jazz and bossa nova projects alongside musicians such as Chet Baker and Sergio Mendes. His 1966 collaboration with Baker, Michelle, achieved modest commercial success by reaching number 56 on the charts. He contributed to film soundtracks that included The Thomas Crown Affair and The Barefoot Adventure. In the 1970s he co-founded the L.A. Four with Almeida, bassist Ray Brown, and drummers who at different times included Chuck Flores, Shelly Manne, and Jeff Hamilton. Although he had been among the first jazz musicians to feature flute, Shank abandoned the instrument in the mid-1980s to devote himself exclusively to alto. Over the final two decades of the twentieth century he issued small-group recordings at a steady pace for the Contemporary, Concord, and Candid labels. His 1997 Milestone album, By Request: Bud Shank Meets the Rhythm Section, captured the altoist in vigorous form alongside pianist Cyrus Chestnut and a group of younger players. Three years afterward Silver Storm appeared.

Shank remained active well into the new century, launching the Los Angeles-based Bud Shank Big Band in 2005 and making his debut as a big-band leader with Taking the Long Way Home, issued the following year on the Jazzed Media label. In 2007 Jazzed Media released Beyond the Red Door, a duo recording with pianist Bill Mays. His commitment to jazz persisted until the final days; he died at his home in Tucson, Arizona, on April 2, 2009, from a pulmonary embolism shortly after completing a recording session in San Diego. Physicians had cautioned the saxophonist, who had relocated to Tucson for health reasons, that undertaking the session could prove life-threatening. Bud Shank was 82.