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April 4, 2009
TT: Bud Shank, R.I.P.
Bud Shank, one of the great alto saxophonists of the cool-jazz era, outlived his fame--but not his talent. I was lucky enough to see one of his last New York appearances, a 2003 gig at the Jazz Standard about which I wrote in this space:
As I listened to Shank cleave the air with his flame-thrower tone and remembered that he was born in 1926, I asked myself, How does he do it? Of course it's possible to play alto saxophone like that when you're that old (I heard Benny Carter play as well--though with less stamina--when he was a decade older), but it's a long, long way from possible to probable. And did that faze Shank? Not in the slightest. He stood up in front of a world-class rhythm section that was lobbing musical hand grenades into the crowd and soloed like a man half his age, if that....
Shank was working up to the end, literally: he finished recording an album the day before he died. Not a bad way to go.
If you don't know Shank's playing, this album is the place to start.
The JazzTimes obituary is here.
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Here's the trailer for Against the Tide, a 2008 documentary about Shank:
Posted April 4, 2009 12:00 AM
