Bud Shank

Born: May 27, 1926

Bud Shank has been an integral member of the international jazz scene for 60 years. A respected saxophonist, composer, and arranger, his soaring dynamic performances have enlivened countless concerts, festivals, nightclubs, and recording sessions. Shank first came to prominence in the big bands of Charlie Barnet and Stan Kenton during the late 1940s. In the 1950s the saxophonist began a long tenure with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars, as well as work with his own quartet. A charter member of the "West Coast" jazz movement, Shank's cool but always strongly swinging sound has made him one of a handful of sax players with an instantly recognizable and always exciting sound

Chico Batera

The Jazz West Coast Style of Music: An Introduction

by Steven Cerra
May 23, 2025

I know it's hard to imagine with today's governmental overreach telling people what cars to drive, what bathrooms to use, and the highest personal, property and commercial taxes of any state in the nation, but California in the 1950s was a place of opportunities and possibilities. It's why my dad relocated the family from ...

Fernando Trueba & They Shot the Piano Player

by Mark Sullivan
March 26, 2024

Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba has long been a jazz fan, and has made several films with a jazz focus. Calle 54 (2000) is still a notable documentary on Latin jazz. The film primarily consists of studio performances by a wide array of Latin Jazz musicians. Artists featured include Chucho Valdés, Bebo Valdés, Cachao, Eliane Elias, Gato ...

They Shot the Piano Player

by Mark Sullivan
March 21, 2024

They Shot the Piano Player Sony Pictures Classics Director: Fernando Trueba Run Time: 103 minutes 2023 They Shot the Piano Player is an animated docudrama that explores the real-world 1976 disappearance of Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenório Júnior. Ten��rio was a gifted young pianist (34 years old at the ...

Take Five with Jon De Lucia

by AAJ Staff
August 16, 2023

Meet Jon De Lucia Jon De Lucia is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. Originally from Quincy, MA, he moved to New York City in 2005.Since then he has performed in the US and internationally at the Burlington Discover Jazz Fest, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and the Tamana-shi Jazz Festival in Japan. In New York he ...

Chris Biscoe: Music Is: Chris Biscoe Plays Mike Westbrook

by Duncan Heining
July 24, 2023

Chris Biscoe can trade choruses with the best and melt the heart with the tenderest of ballads. But that is not what makes him special. Live and on record there is always a sense of quiet anticipation as he starts a solo. One knows one is about to hear something new, something different. It is more ...

The Pacific Jazz Group: Pacific Jazz Group

by Jack Bowers
June 25, 2023

West Coast jazz from the mid-twentieth century makes a comeback on this earnest album by the Pacific Jazz Group, whose music owes its genesis to the Pacific Jazz label, which recorded many of the Coast's best and brightest stars during that historic and bounteous era. The idea was set in motion by pianist Dred Scott, one ...

Alan Broadbent Trio: Like Minds

by Jack Bowers
July 21, 2022

Alan Broadbent, a superb New Zealand-born pianist who has made his home in America for more than fifty years, has mapped out another impressive trio album, Like Minds, his twenty-seventh as leader or co-leader and third for Savant Records. The term “pianist" is used here because that is Broadbent's most conspicuous role on this recording. He ...

Charu Suri: The Jazz Raga

by Karl Ackermann
March 28, 2022

The Roots of Indo-JazzJazz and Indian ragas share common ground in their traditional use of improvisation. They are often talked about in compatible terms, but Ravi Shankar, for one, did not believe that ragas could be compared to jazz improvisation. Spontaneous creation in jazz differs from the complex rhythmic structural patterns of Indian improvisation. Shankar became ...