Mosaic Select - Bud Shank & Bob Cooper CD

Personnel: Bud Shank (flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Howard Roberts (guitar); Benny Gill, Samuel Cytron, Tibor Zelig, Sam Caplan, Milton Feher, Marshall Sosson (violin, strings); Jack Pepper, Robert Sushel, Eudice Shapiro (violin); Myron Sandler, Louis Kievman (viola, strings); Milton Thomas (viola); Paul Bergstrom, Ray Kramer (cello, strings); Bob Cooper (bass clarinet, oboe, tenor saxophone); Maynard Ferguson, Stu Williamson , Bob Brookmeyer, Bob Enevoldsen (valve trombone); Claude Williamson (piano); Chuck Flores , Larry Bunker, Shelly Manne (drums).
Liner Note Authors: Johnny McLellan; Will MacFarland; Woody Woodward; Michael Cuscuna; Robert Stewart.
Recording information: California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena, CA (04/03/1954-02/18/1958); Capitol studios, Los Angeles, CA (04/03/1954-02/18/1958); Radio Recorders, Los Angeles, CA (04/03/1954-02/18/1958).
Arrangers: Johnny Mandel; Russell Garcia; Bob Brookmeyer; Bob Cooper.
For hardcore West Coast jazz fans, this Mosaic Select volume will be a kind of treasure-trove, though for most it will simply be a compelling curiosity piece. The collaborations of saxophonist and flutist Bud Shank and arranger, saxophonist, and oboist Bob Cooper created some tumult in the mid-1950s, when they recorded four albums together with various-sized ensembles, and, to a lesser degree, on Shank's date with Bob Brookmeyer arranged by Cooper. All tolled, there are five albums on these three discs: Bud Shank and Bob Brookmeyer (along with the session's remaining tracks that showed up on Bud Shank and Three Trombones on Pacific Jazz), Jazz at Cal-Tech (Pacific Jazz), Flute and Oboe (World Pacific), Swing's to TV, as well as the cuts from Jazz Swings Broadway (World Pacific) and of course, the classic, Blowin' Country (World Pacific). The quark strangeness and charm of these recordings cannot be underestimated, and neither can their swing. With sidemen like pianist Claude Williamson, drummers Chuck Flores or Shelly Manne, bassist Don Prell and others, these dates have a kind of quaintness that dates them in that restless yet ultra-hip period in the 1950s when almost anything went as long as it swung, and that stood outside the entire hard bop scene. These sides are not for everyone, but they are priceless for the sheer sophistication and adventurousness of their arrangements and the interplay between Shank and Cooper, which was symbiotic. A very fine idea by the folks at Mosaic. ~ Thom Jurek