At the beginning of his career the alto saxophonist and flautist Bud Shank was immediately pigeonholed in the slot for ‘cool jazz’, but anyone who has checked out the career of this special musician knows that by now he belongs to the hottest alto players of the post-Parker period. His sound and style have more in common with Jackie McLean and Phil Woods than with Lee Konitz or Paul Desmond. At he beginning of the fifties he studies with trumpeter/composer Shorty Rogers and played a.o. in Stan Kenton’s Big Band. In the seventies he created a furore with the L.A. Four (with a.o. Laurindo Almeida and Ray Brown). But the recent By Request: Bud Shank Meets The Rhythm Section also points in the direction of a musician who still belongs to the absolute jazz top. It’s a beautiful thing that, at the festival, we’ll meet the afore-mentioned Phil Woods on Shank’s side. Just like Shank he is one of the true masters of the bop idiom. At he end of the fifties Woods already had a very personal sound and in the years to come he hasn’t lost anything of his creativity or enthusiasm. He is a virtuoso who opted for melodic development and because of that he bid bop farewell for just a little bit. His love for acrobatic phrasing and fast tempos, and the perfect and inspired execution of his ideas, rank Woods among the kings of the alto sax.
