Bud Shank: Bouncing with Bud and Phil - Live at Yoshi's (2005)

Ernest Barteldes

Concert/Festival Reviewer since 2005

Ernest Barteldes is a freelance writer and an ESL teacher.

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Published: May 13, 2006

Bud Shank: Bouncing with Bud and Phil - Live at Yoshi's

This document from a 2004 tour stop at one of the West Coast's best-known rooms finds two septuagenarian saxophone players revisiting and reshaping songs they have been performing throughout the years, often as duets. Play close attention to their rendition of Eden Ahbez's beautiful "Nature Boy, which Bud Shank introduces as a slow-tempo ballad, until the band picks up the beat and turns it into a more of a West Coast cool jazz tune.

Before Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz made bossa nova a hit with their landmark Jazz Samba album in 1962, Shank had been fusing Brazilian beats into jazz when he worked with Laurindo Almeida in the mid '50s. "Carousels, a Shank composition (co-written with manager/promoter Linda Shank), is evidence of that: while Bill Goodwin's drums and Bob Magnusson's bass deliver a samba-inspired backing, the sax players and pianist Mike Wofford keep their feet in American soil.

Benny Carter's "Serenade is another great moment in the album, Phil Woods soloing on the track and giving the listener goose bumps with his soulful performance.

Track Listing: Bouncing with Bud; Helen's song; Nature Boy; Carousels; Summer Serenade; Gemma's Eyes; Minority.

Personnel: Bud Shank & Phil Woods: alto saxophones; Mike Wofford: piano; Bob Magnusson: bass; Bill Goodwin: drums.

Record Label: Capri Records
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream