Bud Shank - Barefoot Adventure (Remastered Edition) (2025) [Hi-Res]

Featuring original compositions arranged by Shank for Bruce Brown’s surf film of the same name, this is a swinging, hard-driving jazz session by six top-flight session players at the height of their careers: Bud Shank (alto and baritone), Bob Cooper (tenor), Carmell Jones (trumpet), Dennis Budimir (guitar), Gary Peacock (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).

The original Pacific Jazz recording features excellent sonics, precise soundstage, and wide dynamics while showcasing Shank’s elegant playing at its most adventurous, playing with supreme confidence and sophistication.

Filmmaker Bruce Brown was best known for his documentaries that surveyed the lifestyles of the surfers he first became enamored with in the mid-Fifties while stationed in the Navy at Honolulu, Hawaii. His 1964 film, The Endless Summer, became a cult classic, but three years prior to its release, he had completed the film Barefoot Adventure, and enlisted Bud Shank to compose the film's soundtrack music. Bruce Brown wrote the liner notes for the album, and he details the process of meeting with Bud Shank to discuss his ideas for the film: "Bud and I ran through the entire film; once, twice, three times, and again…and again. The film kept Bud's eyes busy, I kept his ears busy with continuous information. All the while he was making notes that would eventually become the basis for the music itself. … Bud asked questions like…"what exactly did you have in mind in the way of music?" My answer was: "Well…exciting, but not too exciting, slightly happy…yet sad and ominous." Bud took a few more notes as I peeked over his shoulder. He wrote: "dirty, churchy, medium funky blues/semi wig out." I didn't want to appear illiterate but I sure hoped we meant the same thing.

Bud Shank enlisted a sextet of mostly stable mates at Pacific Jazz for the recording, which according to Brown's liner notes was done in a five-hour period in a single night in November, 1961. The complement of players featured Shank on alto and baritone saxes, Bob Cooper on tenor sax, Carmell Jones on trumpet, Dennis Budimir on guitar, Gary Peacock on bass, and Shelly Manne (on loan from Contemporary Records) behind the drum kit. Bruce Brown continued about the recording session: I sat nervously in the Pacific Jazz recording studios as Richard Bock, the brains behind the operation, set up the microphones. The musicians assembled and prepared to play. I looked up at the acoustic tile ceiling and, without really expecting an answer, muttered "Do you know what dirty, churchy, medium funky blues means?" As the tape was threaded into the machine, I hoped against hope that it meant the same thing as "exciting, but not too exciting, slightly happy…yet sad and ominous." As the group began to play a smile crept across my face that stayed the entire five hours of recording.

"Yeah, I know—big build-up for Cool, West Coast jazz—then Bud Shank and his men totally bring the funk! Guilty as charged, but Cool jazz isn't exclusively relegated to the confines of smoothly effective flute solos that anchor moody pop songs. This album makes me want to take a much deeper dive into West Coast jazz, especially the music of Bud Shank, which I obviously need to hear more of! In the guise of the excellence incarnate presented by this Impex Records release, diving into the deep end is even more of a temptation!" (Tom Gibbs, positive-feedback.com)

"I can only describe the contents of this album as a marriage of high-brow surf music meets hard-boiled detective serial music meets beatnik coffee klatch music meets Bossa Nova! And it's so out of left field that I absolutely love it! Barefoot Adventure is dripping with more style and personality per groove rotation than anything else I've come across in a long time. Sonically, Impex has done a stellar job on this release. The vinyl has a stone-quiet background, and the dynamics and dimensions of the music are outstanding given the period. A sonically satisfying and just plain fun listen. If jazz and or the surf genre seem at all interesting to you, go grab yours now!" (Carlo Lo Raso)