Bud Shank
Bud Shank.jpg
Bud Shank in 2006
Background information
Origin Dayton, Ohio, USA
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) 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, 1926April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He played flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra, on various recording sessions including The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds, and occasionally in live performances (as with The L.A. Four) until he gave it up later in his career to focus exclusively on the alto saxophone. He also recorded one album playing only tenor saxophone.

Contents

Biography[edit]

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 was produced and directed by Graham Carter of Jazzed Media. The film is titled: Bud Shank "Against the Tide" Portrait of a Jazz Legend. The nearly 2 hour film was 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[edit]

As leader[edit]

As sideman[edit]

With Ravi Shankar

With The Mamas & the Papas

With Hugo Montenegro (flute)

With Gene Clark

References[edit]

  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. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  3. ^ Weber, Bruce (April 7, 2009). "Bud Shank, Jazz Saxophonist, Is Dead at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2009. 

External links[edit]

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|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:2009}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default = 1926 births

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|| LIVING  = Living people
| UNKNOWN | MISSING  = Year of death missing
| #default = 2009 deaths

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