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Bud Shank Quartet

The Pacific Jazz Years

Giant Steps GSCR 028

Described by Richard Cook (pithily apt as ever) as 'a fleet, supple bebop arrow, with less of a sharp point than Art Pepper's but similarly incisive', Bud Shank's alto is the main focus of interest on these two CDs, comprised of three of the saxophonist's quartet's early Pacific recordings from 1956.

There's a live date from the California Institute of Technology, and two subsequent studio recordings, and each adheres pretty tightly to the same formula: standards ('The Nearness of You', 'All of You', 'Softly, as a Morning Sunrise' etc.), the odd jazz classic (Shearing's 'Lullaby of Birdland', Dizzy Gillespie's 'A Night in Tunisia' and suchlike), plus in-band originals and the odd classical hybrid, all addressed with the light but firm swing and buoyant, apparently insouciant optimism that for many characterise 'West Coast jazz'.

Shank's flute (along with Bob Cooper's oboe) occasionally leavens this mixture, and pianist Claude Williamson, bassist Don Prell and drummer Chuck Flores all perform perfectly adequately (though the latter's 'bomb'-dropping is at times a little contrived), but it is the pure-toned, deceptively polite and refined Shank alto, fluent and ever inventive, that breathes robust life into the likes of classics such as 'When Lights are Low', bluesy selections such as 'Walkin' and the occasional latin excursion ('Carioca').

Cooper's oboe has undoubted novelty value, and is skilfully handled, but its sound is a little anaemic for jazz and serves mainly (along with the soloists' penchant for quoting classics as well as jazz sources) to provide ammunition for those who consider such music – particularly when compared with its contemporary East Coast equivalent – somewhat bloodless.

These reservations aside, though, this is a handy compilation of the early, influential work of a seminally important figure in California-based jazz.