Bud Shank - That Old Feeling (1986) [vinyl>flac]

I rather like the review I've used below but one thing struck me listening to this that Sheridan doesn't mention. In his West Coast heyday the similarity between Shank and Art Pepper was often remarked. Shank acknowledged Pepper as a major influence and at times sounded uncannily like him. Both musicians disappeared from the jazz scene in the latter part of the 60s, Pepper to deal with the consequences of his drug addiction, Shank for the lucrative security of the film and recording studios. Both returned in the 70s. This album was cut a few years after Pepper's passing and cut with Pepper's preferred pianist in his later years. Yet there is now no way that I could confuse the two. In the 50s they shared a similar tone, a sound, but by the late 70s they had moved apart. Sheridan uses the phrases 'a little more grit' and 'impassioned playing' to describe Shank's approach and indeed it is possible to discern more 'attack' more 'adventure' here, but I feel that Pepper had moved far further from his mid-fifties playing, there's a ferocious intensity, even on ballads, and a feeling for the blues that Shank never displays. Don't get me wrong I love the playing of both musicians throughout their respective careers, but I'd be interested in your opinions.

Review by Chris Sheridan, Jazz Journal, May 1987:
Bud Shank was always a highly effective alto soloist in the old West Coast days, as performances like East Of The Sun, with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Starts testify. However, his post-studio renaissance has seen a little grit added to the harmony, a bit of the crie de coeur that makes the difference between pleasantries and something more profound.
Here, his impassioned playing meshes vigorously with a robust rhythm trio to produce music of immense involvement, strong melody and varied emotional content. From the wiry opening bars of Benny Golson's usually wistful Whisper Not, this is clearly music that reaches out for attention — nor is the Shank way with a ballad any the more passive these days, as Cabin In The Sky readily testifies. Other highlights include the Monkishly puckish El Wacko, the bounding treatment of Sonny Rollins' No Moe and his unhackneyed way with As Time Goes By.
This is Shank's second album for Contemporary in 14 months and his third winner since splitting with the more wispy approach of the LA4. It should go a long way towards restoring his reputation as a pungent soloist with something worthwhile to say.

1. Whisper Not
2. Dream Dancing
3. Cabin In The Sky
4. El Wacko
5. No Moe
6. I've ToldEv'ry Little Star
7. As Time Goes By
8. That Old Feeling

Shank (as); George Cables (p); John Heard (b); Albert Heath (d).
Berkeley, California, February 17-18, 1986.
(Contemporary 14019)