Army Times
Tom Scanlan : 09/28/1957

The Bud Shank Quartet’s newest album is, in many ways, the best set this group has made. Shank, one of the most able alto sax men in the business, pianist Claude Williamson, bassman Don Prell, and drummer Chuck Flores have been working together for some time now and have clearly managed to achieve a distinctive group feeling that was not always apparent on their earlier works.

There is a variety of tunes and tempos and the album is the kind you can enjoy from beginning to end. Included are Night in Tunisia (featuring Shank on flute), the old Basie swinger Jive at Five, four standards, and two originals by Williamson. The originals, Tertia and Theme, make the most of the two most tried and true chord progressions extant, the blues and “rhythm.”

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Madison Capital Times
John Francis : 09/19/1957

The Bud Shank Quartet is approaching top form. Given considerable leeway by Pacific Jazz Enterprises Inc., the alto sax-flute expert has experimented much on previous discs with mixed reactions on the part of listeners. A new album, simply labeled The Bud Shank Quartet, lets his small combo work over ditties composed by such as Claude Williamson (pianist on this one), Ravel, Romberg, Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Van Heusen and Burke. The bassman is Don Press; the drummer Chuck Flores. Williamson also does a turn on the celeste. Decidedly different – this platter.

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Miami Herald
Fred Sherman : 09/22/1957

In this age of chamber jazz, too often you run into a quavering tone that comes through the door just as the swinging beat goes out and gets lost.

Not so with the new Bud Shank Quartet album featuring Claude Williamson on piano. Only thing precious about this product is the album cover of the leader. Shank leans to the flute on this eight-tracker, but the alto sax is not neglected. It’s the same quartet that made the successful album last year: Don Prell on bass and Chuck Flores on drums. I caught the group live at the Blue Note in Philadelphia last summer and this new album is an accurate reading of their talent. Outstanding is Williamson’s Tertia, eight and a half minutes of pure jazz. Shank switches from flute to sax with poise. Williamson’s piano bit is tasty. Don’t miss this one.

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St. Joseph News-Press
Edwin R. McDonald : 11/10/1957

Bud Shank‘s Quartet is back with an album featuring Claude Williamson, its pianist. Theme and Tertia are compositions by this able player, the latter being a jazz suite of high order. Bud Shank slips around nimbly as usual on his alto sax and also on his flute. In fact, he is much busier on the flute than before and the effects he works up with Don Prell, bassist, are very special. There is a quotation from Ravel in Lamp is Low, the concluding number. These boys have real imagination.

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Down Beat : 10/31/1957
Don Gold : 3.5 stars

This LP has one virtue all record companies should take to heart. The eight tunes included provide a wide array of sounds, in term of tempo and mood. There is a splendid variety here that makes listening to the entire LP a pleasant experience.

Tunisia is played briskly, with Shank on flute. Tertia is an extended work by Williamson, with solo spots for all the instruments. You begins with a flute-led ballad intro, then becomes a medium-tempo interpretation. Theme is a fleet blues. Jive is relaxed and flowing. Sunrise is injected with considerable early-morning funk. Polka is played sensitively, as a ballad. Finally, Lamp becomes a combination of Ravel, ballad, and uptempo variations.

Shank plays with communicative warmth on both instruments, but at times is somewhat fragmentary in conceptual terms and a bit strident in tone. Williamson comps and solos with a good deal of force and authority, continuing to indicate the growth of a mature soloist. Prell and Flores support intelligently.

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Liner Notes by Marvin Nathan

If most album liner notes are to be believed, it would seem that all the world’s most creative and sensitive people play jazz. Words like “genius,” “perfect sensitivity,” “supreme creativeness” are tossed around as freely as a hula dancer’s hips. These words and terminologies, glib to begin with, have had their meanings made even more vague by constant use and misuse on many album notes. In fact, genius no longer seems to be God’s gift to man, but rather then critic’s or the record supervisor’s. Whether a particular musician is great, or even good, is, of course, purely personal, and in most cases indeterminable until a long period of time has elapsed (Charlie Parker is one exception). Thus it behooves the serious, or even casual jazz listener to look for certain tangible qualities in an album which prove it is a pleasant experience for him to hear. Genius is frequently difficult to perceive and identify, but such things as good musicianship, well thought out and performed material, an attitude of sincerity and unpretentiousness, and, at least, a basic feeling that some fragment of art is being created within are, I feel, some of the qualities which serve to distinguish the relative values of most albums.

In this album, I believe that the Bud Shank Quartet has measured up to these and other specifications. The group plays well together, and plays in tune. Unquestionably, a strong mutual feeling of purpose exists amongst Shank, pianist Williamson, bassist Prell and drummer Flores. Each member of the group has a dual purpose as soloist and accompanist, and each carries out his task expertly.

Leader Shank has never been able to be identified as a member of any one particular school of altoists, although he has had Konitz, Desmond and Pepper periods. He is a youthful (31 years old) veteran of the Charlie Barnet, Alvino Rey and Stan Kenton bands. He rose to the stature of a major jazz soloist while playing with Howard Rumsey‘s Lighthouse All-Stars. Shank has recorded with almost every big name in “West Coast” jazz. In this album, he exploits his ability on the flute more than in any previous album. He has a full, rich sound and plays difficult passages with evenness and real drive (note his solo on Night In Tunisia).

This album presents Shank in almost every conceivable role in which a jazz musician can be seen. The tunes range from slow, thoughtful ballads (Polka Dots And Moonbeams), to medium groovers (Jive At Five), to extremely fast uptempos (Lamp Is Low). Shank shows himself to be completely at home at all of these tempos. He doesn’t get lost technically or rhythmically on the fastest passages, and has enough tone control and musical ideas not to have to double time the very slow tunes. Besides tempo variety, this album places Shank in a number of different shades of jazz expression. On Dizzy‘s Night In Tunisia, Shank recreates the excitement and bombastic attack which Bop represented, even though Bud plays the tune on flute, an instrument not generally associated with the Bop era. Shank achieves the “down home,” easy-swinging feeling of Basie, Pres and Sweets on Edison’s Jive. In Softly As In A Morning Sunrise and Tertia he places his alto in an almost semi-classical vein, although these moods aren’t quite convincing because Bud plays with such drive and constant swing. However, his lyricism is evident throughout the album and is a thing of beauty.

In all these various circumstances, Shank stands up as a skilled and thoughtful artist.

Pianist Claude Williamson, is also an alumnus of the Charlie Barnet band. Claude has had a rich classical background which has helped, not controlled, his playing and composing. Williamson is a two-fisted pianist and a thoughtful musician. He has the knack of writing perfectly lovely melodies (hear the Blues section of his suite, Tertia). He comps with rhythmic variety and with harmonies that show real imagination. Williamson combines a “funky” approach with natural lyricism to express his soloistic ideas (All Of You). He shows a fine empathy for soulful Impressionism on his introduction to The Lamp Is Low, which was taken from Ravel‘s Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte. Generally speaking, Claude is not a lengthy soloist, but he expresses his ideas directly, without pretends and with a good understanding of the Blues.

Don Prell, the bassist, is a relative newcomer to the Hollywood jazz picture, coming originally from Salt Lake City. He lays down a good, steady line and has a fat, rich tone on his instrument. Prell has the enviable ability to create a mood or a precise rhythmic feeling in an extremely short time. Listen to his 8 bar solo at the end of Jive At Five.

Drummer, Chuck Flores, is the youngest member of the group (22 years old). For his years, Chuck has developed a great deal of taste. He is a swinging, unassuming soloist (Jive) and has the rare quality of not just playing the beat, but being right on top of it at all times, and thus “kicking” the quartet constantly. Flores, no doubt, developed this latter skill from his experience with the hard-driving Woody Herman big band.

A word about the music. This album presents an extremely well-balanced selection of tunes. The beautiful ballad, Polka Dots And Moonbeams, is given a sympathetic and coloristic treatment by Shank’s flute. Sigmund Romberg‘s light opera classic, Softly, is presented with a delicate, almost Blueish manner. The normal ballad, Lamp, starts off thoughtfully enough, but after the introduction Bud picks up his alto, modulates to a new key and “wails” at a very fast tempo. Harry Edison’s Jive displays Shank’s new tenor approach to the alto. The rhythmic phrasing is simpler, the sound is full-throated, and the preciseness of attack is less evident.

On the other side, Bud lends a Near Eastern flavor to Dizzy’s Night by using the flute. Williamson has a direct, fervently swinging solo, and Prell’s bass is happily sounding in the background. All Of You starts like a ballad, then swings into a medium tempo groover. The excellent clarity of Shank’s tone shows to good advantage here. Prell takes a pulsating solo which is an excellent contrast to the slow bass intro he plays on the tune. Tertia is Williamson’s jazz suite and shows all four men to good advantage. The suite begins with a slow andante-like introduction with the alto and piano, it then breaks into a deliberately moving Blues with beautiful flute work by Shank; then the piece concludes with a fast section featuring the alto and piano again with drum breaks by Flores. Williamson, in this work, captures three distinct jazz feelings and bridges them with graceful transitions. The final tune is a fast Blues entitled Theme. Bud’s fast fingered alto sets the mood and Williamson, Prell and Flores (with some tasty fours) follow Shank’s lead.

This album shows the Bud Shank Quartet at top form. The material is of the highest caliber, the recording circumstances are the best possible, and the musicians rise to the occasion. Bud’s agile flute work shows why he is a consistent poll winner on that instrument. The clarity of tone, diversity of rhythmic figures and individual approach explain his high position of regard as a leading jazz altoist. His fellow musicians are sympathetic and, in their own right, each top soloists. These factors plus Bud’s warm, tangible musical personality, add up to a truly enjoyable listening experience.