Bud Shank's impressive career is the focus of this nearly two-hour documentary completed in the fall of 2007 and issued the following spring. Centered around a studio session with pianist
Mike Wofford, bassist
Bob Magnusson, and drummer
Joe La Barbera, excerpts of the studio performances are woven into interview snippets with
Shank in the studio and in his Tucson, AZ, home, along with comments by each member of the quartet and jazz educator/critic
Dr. Herb Wong.
Shank discusses his musical history in depth, describing each of his musical instruments (he also played tenor sax for a time) and his formal studies. He reflects on his time playing with
Charlie Barnett,
Stan Kenton, and
Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars; his partnership with
Laurindo Almeida (with whom he recorded Brazilian folk tunes well before
Stan Getz made his acclaimed bossa nova albums in the early '60s); and his work and friendship with
Bob Cooper and
Shorty Rogers, both of whom taught him a lot. There are also several television performances with various small groups, all heard in complete (or nearly so) form.
Shank also shares his memories of working in various studio sessions (though he was resented by classical musicians), his return to composing after thoughtless discouragement kept him away for years, soundtrack composing, and his teaching in the Port Townsend Workshop for a quarter century. One of the most fascinating parts of the documentary is his discussion of the making of
The Lost Cathedral, which blended improvised music in an abandoned cistern with long reverb, which was then edited and mixed into a live performance by a different group to produce the CD.