[Dixielandjazz] Bud Shank. R.I.P.

[Bill Haesler]

Tavecchio, L.W.C. asked:
> Did anyone know this statement by Duke, and when he said it?
> "Bud Shank is too much. I told him I had his contract ready . . .  
> Bud Shank is something else!"
> -- Duke Ellington 

Dear Louis,
Regarding the Duke Ellington quote: “Bud Shank is too much. I told  
him I had his contract ready but I can’t get him to leave California.  
He was the greatest part of the Kenton Neophonic concert the other  
night, and he was even greater with us the last two days [recording  
the film score for Assault on a Queen]. He even shook up Johnny  
Hodges. Bud Shank is something else.”

It was made by Duke in 1966 and used as Footnote 10, page 204 in the  
Gordon Jack book 'Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Perspective' [Oxford:  
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004].
Unfortunately, we will have to find someone with the book to advise  
whether Mr Jack identified the original 1966 source.
Here is the 'flyer' information regarding Mr Jack's book:

Fifties Jazz Talk
An Oral Retrospective. Gordon Jack.
London-based musician and journalist Gordon Jack’s method is to let  
the musicians tell their own stories with minimum intervention, in the  
manner of Ira Gitler’s classic Swing to Bop. Famous or obscure, these  
more than 30 musicians who came to prominence in the 1950s each has a  
story to tell, and Jack captures the style and tone of his  
interviewees in this oral retrospective of what may have been jazz’s  
last golden age. Included are: Gene Allen, Mose Allison, Dave Bailey,  
Chuck Berghofer, Eddie Bert, Bob Brookmeyer, Pete Christlieb, Bill  
Crow, Joe Dodge, Bob Enevoldsen, Don Ferrara, Herb Geller, Corky Hale,  
Peter Ind, Frank Isola, Lee Konitz, Stan Levey, Jack Montrose, Gerry  
Mulligan, the Gerry Mulligan Quartet (with Larry Bunker, Chico  
Hamilton, Carson Smith, Bob Whitlock), Lennie Niehaus, Jack Nimitz,  
Hod O’Brien, Bill Perkins, Bud Shank, Phil Urso, and Phil Woods.

2004  272 pages  0-8108-4997-6 / 978-0-8108-4997-6 Paperback  
£24.99 Studies in Jazz 47


Kind regards,
Bill.