Bud Shank, 82, who brought Brazilian music to U.S. audiences, helped define “cool jazz” in the 1950s and played the dreamlike flute solo on The Mamas and the Papas’ 1965 hit “California Dreamin’,” died April 2 at his home in Tucson, Ariz. He had a lung ailment.
Mr. Shank was a versatile musician whose 60-year career took him from the big bands of the 1940s to the Hollywood studios and to renewed respect as an innovator late in life. His style evolved with age as he burnished his reputation as one of the most important musicians of his generation.
Along with Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck, Mr. Shank was one of the prime creators of the West Coast school of cool, a style of jazz seen as the relaxed, melodic counterpart of California life in the 1950s. In fact, Mr. Shank disliked the isolationist term “West Coast jazz,” and his spirited, energetic style belied his roots as an Ohio farm boy.
Mr. Shank was among the first musicians to make the flute a legitimate jazz instrument in the early 1950s, and it proved to be a useful talent once he shifted his career to the Hollywood studios. He improvised his flute solo on “California Dreamin’,” played the flute solo on The Association’s No. 1 hit from 1967 “Windy” and performed on dozens of films.