West Coast legend Bud Shank dies

He grew up in Dayton, Ohio and was introduced to the clarinet, flute and saxophones early on, before going to study at the University of Carolina from 1944-46. He first came in to prominence with the big bands of Stan Kenton and Charlie Barnet in the late 1940s. It was his experience in these bands where Bud would start to develop his own sound – melodic bebop that was both harmonically interesting and technically impressive. In the 1950s, Bud toured with Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All Stars as well as with his own quartet, featuring the likes of Hampton Hawes and Jimmy Rowles. During this period, Bud also teamed up with former Kenton soloist, Laurindo Almeida – a guitarist who integrated Brazilian rhythms and Latin elements in to jazz music. This later paved the way for the Bossa Nova movement in the early 1960s, where musicians such as Stan Getz found great commercial success.

In the late-1960s, Bud with drew from the jazz scene and concentrated on his session work. Bud would be most known to the public via his flute solo on the Mamas and Papas hit, ‘California Dreaming’, and won the Most Valuable Player award from the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences four times. Come the mid-1970s, Bud returned to the jazz circuit and helped form the world-renown LA Four, featuring Ray Brown. In this later phase of his career, Bud took on larger projects, performing with symphony orchestras and a collaboration with sitarist Ravi Shankar. Bud also was also a regular with the Stan Kenton band again, as well as the legendary Duke Ellington band. The next 30 years were non-stop for Bud, even after giving up the flute in 1986, he continued to form his own big band, and release albums up to 2006, despite growing pulmonary trouble. Bud, after over 60s years as a professional musician, has earned the status legend, and can be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer and his other West Coast contemporise, without hesitation.

- Lewis Clement