Robert “Bud” Spangler (December 7, 1938 – January 16, 2014) was an American jazz percussionist, composer, radio broadcaster, music producer, and concert organizer. He began his music career in the Detroit music scene of the 1960s, engineering for R&B, blues, and funk-oriented bands, and working as a drummer for jazz groups. In the 1970s that included working with Strata Records, Blue Note, and Tribe Records.
After moving to Northern California in the 1970s, Spangler produced Grammy-nominated recordings for jazz artists such as Taylor Eigsti, Mark Levine, and Cedar Walton, and from 1982 co-led and performed in the modern jazz ensemble Tom Peron-Bud Spangler Interplay Quartet. From 1991 to 2007 Spangler helped create and produce the Woodside, California concert series Jazz at Filoli. He worked as a host-producer at radio stations from the late 1950s, including KCSM in San Mateo and KJAZ (FM) in San Francisco.
Robert “Bud” Spangler was born in Norwalk, Ohio on December 7, 1938. He moved to Wyandotte, Michigan at a young age, where he attended high school. Despite having had polio as a child, he began to learn percussion in the 7th grade, and took a particular interest in jazz.
Career
Music in Detroit
Spangler moved to Lansing, Michigan in the late 1950s to attend Michigan State University. Around that time he began drumming close to Detroit in Wyandotte, Michigan, where he played his first gigs with saxophonist Dick Lozon. He also performed locally while attending school, and through the Stan Kenton Summer Jazz Workshops at Michigan State met New Yorkers like trumpeter Marvin Stamm and saxophonist Charlie Mariano. He played gigs with both of them locally and in nearby Saugatuck.
During the mid-’60s he connected with veteran saxophonist Benny Poole of Michigan, and started drumming for a number of jazz groups. He encountered a young Paul Motian, a percussionist who introduced him to Mose Allison. Other jazz musicians Spangler collaborated with include Larry Nozero, Lyman Woodard, Ron English, Teddy Harris, Jr., and Leonard King. He performed with trumpeter Eddie Henderson, organist Gene Ludwig, pianist Jessica Williams, saxophonist Archie Shepp, and a single gig with Stan Getz. He began work as a studio recording engineer for a number of R&B, blues, and funk-oriented bands.
Throughout the 1970s Spangler was active within the Detroit musical co-operative Strata Records, notably as the drummer for Kenny Cox’s Contemporary Jazz Quintet (aka CJQ) on the Blue Note label. In CJQ Spangler was a dual drummer with Danny Spencer, creating an unusual sound for the era. Also in the 1970s he was the drummer for a Detroit band called Tribe, an artistic cooperative run by Phil Ranelin, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, and Wendell Harrison.
Spangler/Peron Quartet
Spangler moved to California in the 1970s. For years Spangler co-led and drummed in the Tom Peron-Bud Spangler Interplay Quartet, a California-based modern jazz ensemble that also Tom Peron on trumpets. Peron and Spangler became musical partners in 1982, when they were introduced by pianist Jessica Williams.
Jessica Williams went on to play piano on the first Peron/Spangler album in 1994, Interplay, which was released on the San Francisco-based Monarch label. The group also came to consist of bassist Scott Steed and pianist Joe Gilman (later replaced by pianist Jacob Semetko). The group’s second album on the Monarch label, Dedication, mixed well-known modern-jazz pieces with originals, mostly by Peron. Spangler has stated about the ensemble’s method, “We believe in taking a piece of music and treating it as a vehicle for improvisation. We expand things sometimes well beyond the parameters of the original song, but with great respect for the tune and its form and the traditions of jazz.”
Production
Spangler produced Grammy-nominated recordings for jazz artists such as Mark Levine and Cedar Walton, and has also produced music for Anton Schwartz, Taylor Eigsti, Kitty Margolis, Joe Gilman, Mimi Fox, Dave Ellis, Clairdee, Ellen Robinson, Ed Reed, Nicolas Bearde, Kristen Miranda, and several dozen others.
Concerts
Jazz at Filoli concert series
From 1991 to 2007 Spangler helped create and produce the concert series Jazz at Filoli at Woodside, California According to Spangler, “I’d gotten to know Chuck Huggins, who was CEO of See’s Candies, through musician Turk Murphy…Chuck called me one day and asked, ‘Do you know Filoli?’ I said I’d never heard of it. He replied that was the problem — many Bay Area residents had never heard of what was a real local treasure. Being a jazz aficionado, it occurred to him that a series of jazz concerts on the grounds might introduce Filoli to more people.” Spangler was brought on as producer, and the first concert, a tribute to Duke Ellington, occurred on Father’s Day in June, 1991
Salute to Bud Spangler
On July 13, 2011, the live jazz show “A Salute to Bud Spangler” was held in Oakland. Among the performers were Khalil Shaheed & The Oaktown Jazz Workshop, The Ellen Robinson Band, Mimi Fox, Kitty Margolis, Mark Levine & The Latin Tinge, and the Bobby Hutcherson Band.
During the late 1950s Spangler was a student DJ on Michigan State University’s radio station WKAR-FM. Later he became a DJ on the public radio station WDET-FM in Detroit, presenting the show Jazz Today in the 1960s. He was producer and director of the Wayne State University TV Department from 1967 to 1971, and after that was the program director for jazz at WDET from 1971 to 1975.
For a short period of time he worked at WJCT-FM and the TV station WJCT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, and after that, he did a year in Orlando at the radio station WMFE-FM.
After moving to Northern California in the 1970s, Spangler joined the radio station KCSM (FM) in San Mateo and KJAZ (FM) (now KREV) in San Francisco as a host-producer, and he has remained a radio personality in Oakland, California for several decades. By the early 1980s Spangler was hosting “The Turk Murphy Show” and the live jazz performance show “Sunday Sunday Night” on KCSM. He also hosted “See’s Sunday Night Jazz Show” on KJAZ, and has done hosting and producing for National Public Radio.
Personal life and death
As of 2013 Bud Spangler lived in Oakland, California. His nephew is drummer RJ Spangler of Eastlawn Records in Detroit. He died of lung cancer on January 16, 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Spangler