Bud Shank ~ New Groove/Barefoot Adventure

[Jazzrook]

I've never seen the surf film 'Barefoot Adventure' but the exhilarating music Bud Shank composed for it stands up very well on its own.
Here's 'Dance of the Sea Monsters' with a fascinating sextet including Shank(alto sax); Bob Cooper(tenor sax); Carmell Jones(trumpet); Dennis Budimir(guitar); Gary Peacock(bass) & Shelly Manne(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDmf_dc95w

Also, from 'New Groove' there's a fine version of Monk's 'Well You Needn't' with Cooper out and Mel Lewis replacing Shelly Manne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC6YrK1UKs

Both albums can be found on FRESH SOUND FSRCD 678

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I've never seen the surf film 'Barefoot Adventure' but the exhilarating music Bud Shank composed for it stands up very well on its own.
Here's 'Dance of the Sea Monsters' with a fascinating sextet including Shank(alto sax); Bob Cooper(tenor sax); Carmell Jones(trumpet); Dennis Budimir(guitar); Gary Peacock(bass) & Shelly Manne(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDmf_dc95w

Also, from 'New Groove' there's a fine version of Monk's 'Well You Needn't' with Cooper out and Mel Lewis replacing Shelly Manne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC6YrK1UKs

Both albums can be found on FRESH SOUND FSRCD 678

Yes, I was surprised how good Shank sounds on all this stuff. BTW, Altos and Fresh Sound, they seem to have lifted all Frank Strozier's Vee Jay and Jazzland albums. Listening to these at the weekend. Long Night (lovely bluesy feel) and Cloudy and Cool are really impressive. He was quite a player but wound up, after featuring with Oliver Nelson and Woody Shaw etc., teaching high school science and a late attempted return playing piano, his first instrument. "Life's deals".

BN.

Has there been a Strozier track on JRR? Wouldn't mind " Sleepy", him with the MJ3+2 inc Harold Mabern. Something of a "jazz hit".

[Stanfordian]

I've never seen the surf film 'Barefoot Adventure' but the exhilarating music Bud Shank composed for it stands up very well on its own.
Here's 'Dance of the Sea Monsters' with a fascinating sextet including Shank(alto sax); Bob Cooper(tenor sax); Carmell Jones(trumpet); Dennis Budimir(guitar); Gary Peacock(bass) & Shelly Manne(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDmf_dc95w

Also, from 'New Groove' there's a fine version of Monk's 'Well You Needn't' with Cooper out and Mel Lewis replacing Shelly Manne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC6YrK1UKs

Both albums can be found on FRESH SOUND FSRCD 678

Hiya Jazzrook,

Try as I might with Bud Shank I can't get on with his music. It seems I am attracted to the soulful sounds of African/American hard-bop, pre-modal jazz from artists such as Ike Quebec, Tina Brooks, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Sonny Stitt, Sonny, Clarke, Coleman Hawkins, Cannonball Adderley, Julian Adderley, Dexter Gorgon, Jimmy Griffin, Gene Ammons, Leo Parker, Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver, Ben Webster, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Blue Mitchell, Jackie McLean, Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins etc. I'm sure you get the picture.

[Jazzrook]

Yes, I was surprised how good Shank sounds on all this stuff. BTW, Altos and Fresh Sound, they seem to have lifted all Frank Strozier's Vee Jay and Jazzland albums. Listening to these at the weekend. Long Night (lovely bluesy feel) and Cloudy and Cool are really impressive. He was quite a player but wound up, after featuring with Oliver Nelson and Woody Shaw etc., teaching high school science and a late attempted return playing piano, his first instrument. "Life's deals".

BN.

Has there been a Strozier track on JRR? Wouldn't mind " Sleepy", him with the MJ3+2 inc Harold Mabern. Something of a "jazz hit".

Bluesnik ~ Yes, a very underrated altoist. I have 'Fantastic Frank Strozier'(VEE JAY) with Booker Little and Miles' rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers & Cobb.
A wonderful album.
Can't recall ever hearing FS on JRR but Humph played him a few times on 'The Best of Jazz':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyBa5wytI9g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sooZbwygJNs

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Bluesnik ~ Yes, a very underrated altoist. I have 'Fantastic Frank Strozier'(VEE JAY) with Booker Little and Miles' rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers & Cobb.
A wonderful album.
Can't recall ever hearing FS on JRR but Humph played him a few times on 'The Best of Jazz':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyBa5wytI9g

JR

He recorded for Steeplechase when he was in George Coleman's Octet, Seems to be enormously regarded by all who knew him, I feel a JRR coming on.

He was even on Sun Records (a blues backing date) when he was 14!

BN,

[Ian Thumwood]

Strozier played in one of Miles Davis' groups in the early 1960's but I don't thunk it was one where any recordings have materialised. I have only beard him on a few tracks from a session with Chet Baker where he is the most interesting thing about the group.

I am a bit surprised by the megative comments about Bud Shank. There is something tart about his tone which I really like. When I was getting in to jazz as a teenager it was his performances with the Laurindo Almeida 4 that really appealed, especially a performance of one of the Bach inventions. In the early 1980s this band was very well fancied and was a particular favourite at the time of my friend Dave who introduced me to a lot of the then modern jazz. I can understand just why this band was so popular , not only because it filled the void left by the MYQ but also due to the fact that there was so little, genuine, good quality jazz in the musical mainstream in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

I think that Concord did well in that period chronicling groups like the LA4 as well as West Coast based alumni of the Basie and Ellington bands. They were also quite adept at picking up Latin / Brazilian influenced jazz. There are some musicians on the label like Charlie Byrd / Barney Kessel / Herb Ellis who always seemed a bit too polite but the LA 4 with the bite of Shank's alto to the fore genuinely produced something that transcended the Smooth Jazz / Fusion dross that defined much of that era.

[Jazzrook]

He recorded for Steeplechase when he was in George Coleman's Octet, Seems to be enormously regarded by all who knew him, I feel a JRR coming on.

He was even on Sun Records (a blues backing date) when he was 14!

BN,

Bluesnik ~ Just discovered that FS was on Roy Haynes' 1963 album 'Cymbalism' with Ronnie Mathews(piano) & Larry Ridley(bass):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENzoQ3Te9QA

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yep, he kept very good company. The "I remember Bird" (I think its called) with Oliver Nelson's band live, is a bit special. Strozier the featured soloist.

BN.

Just been listening to Mobley''s Third Season for the first time. REALLY impressed. And again unreleased at the time (latter 1960s).

[Jazzrook]

Yep, he kept very good company. The "I remember Bird" (I think its called) with Oliver Nelson's band live, is a bit special. Strozier the featured soloist.

BN.

Just been listening to Mobley''s Third Season for the first time. REALLY impressed. And again unreleased at the time (latter 1960s).

FS did keep very good company - he played with Miles at the Blackhawk(but never recorded with him unfortunately).
Miles said in his autobiography "everything went pretty well for a new group, although I knew right away that Mabern and Strozier weren't the players I was after. They were very good musicians, but they just belonged to another kind of band".

FS also appeared on Shelly Manne's 1966 'Boss Sounds!': www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq22O61EZeU

Will have to check out Mobley's 'Third Season'(1967) if I can find a copy! I believe Sonny Greenwich is on that - a guitarist I've never heard.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

FS did keep very good company - he played with Miles at the Blackhawk(but never recorded with him unfortunately).
Miles said in his autobiography "everything went pretty well for a new group, although I knew right away that Mabern and Strozier weren't the players I was after. They were very good musicians, but they just belonged to another kind of band".

FS also appeared on Shelly Manne's 1966 'Boss Sounds!': www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq22O61EZeU

Will have to check out Mobley's 'Third Season'(1967) if I can find a copy! I believe Sonny Greenwich is on that - a guitarist I've never heard.

Greenwich is a bit of a revelation, at least to me. Really kicks off in his solos and nothing like the more traditional approach. Amazed that Bluenote kept this on the shelf, at the same time as Hank's " Reach Out" was released. On the title track of that you can hear them all thinking, "let's just get this piece of craaaaap over with!" The rest is good Hank, but cmon Alfred?! What possessed you!

* "Third Season" is on YouTube but only by track. Really really impressed with this and in Spillet's very good essay on late Mobley he praises it both for Hank's playing and his care in writing.

[elmo]

Greenwich is a bit of a revelation, at least to me. Really kicks off in his solos and nothing like the more traditional approach. Amazed that Bluenote kept this on the shelf, at the same time as Hank's " Reach Out" was released. On the title track of that you can hear them all thinking, "let's just get this piece of craaaaap over with!" The rest is good Hank, but cmon Alfred?! What possessed you!

* "Third Season" is on YouTube but only by track. Really really impressed with this and in Spillet's very good essay on late Mobley he praises it both for Hank's playing and his care in writing.

"

Glad you reminded me of "Third Season" - It was not one of my favourites - It always surprises me how sometimes you can hastily disregard music because it doesn't fit what you expect at the time. Playing it again today and its so much better than I remembered - thank goodness GOOD STUFF WILL OUT; also played "A caddy for daddy" It's another fine Mobley album - particularly like the version of Wayne Shorter's composition" Venus Di Mildew"

Frank Strozier - What about McCoy Tyners " Today and Tomorrow" - Fantastic line up Thad Jones, John Gilmore, Frank Strozier, McCoy, Butch Warren, Elvin. That line up plays on three tracks , Strozier certainly holds his own and seems to take on elements of Gilmore's Avant Bop. The track "Three flowers" is particularely good for all concerned.
I think John Gilmore is very very underrated, I buy anything that has him on it so you can imagine my Sun Ra collection.
elmo

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Gilmore is on Andrew Hill's "Compulsion" (Bluenote 1965), which kind of fits in with your point about not liking something and then returning to it. I didn't like Compulsion much in the 60s and wasn't too fond of it when it was reissued in the RVG series. But playing it again (for the work of Gilmore and Hubbard) about six months ago I now find it sensational with the "African'" influence that initially seemed almost contrived working wonderfully. Goes to show, you never can tell...as Comrade Chuck Berry wisely said.

BN.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

BTW, for those REALLY interested in Hank Mobley, there's a c. one hour profile/interview with the guitarist Eddie Diehl on YouTube. Deihl recorded with Hank and Woody Shaw on the "Thinking of Home" Bluenote album. Not the easiest character but he's very complimentary about Mobley as a man and as a player, mentor, small group arranger etc. I think the Mobley refs are watchable separately.

BN.

[Jazzrook]

"

Glad you reminded me of "Third Season" - It was not one of my favourites - It always surprises me how sometimes you can hastily disregard music because it doesn't fit what you expect at the time. Playing it again today and its so much better than I remembered - thank goodness GOOD STUFF WILL OUT; also played "A caddy for daddy" It's another fine Mobley album - particularly like the version of Wayne Shorter's composition" Venus Di Mildew"

Frank Strozier - What about McCoy Tyners " Today and Tomorrow" - Fantastic line up Thad Jones, John Gilmore, Frank Strozier, McCoy, Butch Warren, Elvin. That line up plays on three tracks , Strozier certainly holds his own and seems to take on elements of Gilmore's Avant Bop. The track "Three flowers" is particularely good for all concerned.
I think John Gilmore is very very underrated, I buy anything that has him on it so you can imagine my Sun Ra collection.
elmo

elmo ~ Many thanks for pointing out McCoy Tyner's 'Today and Tomorrow' - a fascinating line-up!
As someone else who collects anything with John Gilmore on this is one I'll have to get.
Here's that 'Three Flowers' track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLwXn7cV_Y4

JR

[Jazzrook]

Greenwich is a bit of a revelation, at least to me. Really kicks off in his solos and nothing like the more traditional approach. Amazed that Bluenote kept this on the shelf, at the same time as Hank's " Reach Out" was released. On the title track of that you can hear them all thinking, "let's just get this piece of craaaaap over with!" The rest is good Hank, but cmon Alfred?! What possessed you!

* "Third Season" is on YouTube but only by track. Really really impressed with this and in Spillet's very good essay on late Mobley he praises it both for Hank's playing and his care in writing.

Bluesnik ~ Some info on Sonny Greenwich:

http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/sonnygreenwich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0kIFuNROS0

JR