Career
He plays woodwinds and tenor sax. Gardner started playing music at the age of seven by taking piano lessons. When he was a teenager he started playing the tenor sax.
In 1959 he played with Bud Wattles & his Orchestra"s album Themes from the Hip.
Later he played with Joanna & the Playboys in 1962. By late 1966 Gardner had joined Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, playing woodwinds and tenor sax.
Success came along for the Mothers with top chart albums and Gardner played with Menage A Trois with Buzz and John Balkin.
In 1980, Gardner and some of the members from the Mothers of Invention reunited to form the Grandmothers, recording a few albums and reuniting again in 2002.
Gardner also plays flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and bass and soprano saxes. In 2010 he recorded his autobiography (audiobook) "The Bunk Gardner Story" (featuring Don Preston), in Arthur Barrow"s lotek studio, produced by Jon Larsen for Zonic Entertainment.
