Sadly, Maynard Ferguson does not get nearly enough credit for being a bandleader and brass player of the highest order. Though somewhat commercially successful in his latter years and increasingly excitable on stage, Ferguson struggled to create a sound in the rock and disco eras that made sense. He found it in material that scorched everything he touched and that today is largely forgettable.
But back in the late '50s and '60s, Ferguson was at the top of his game just as big band jazz was becoming more sophisticated with a growing number of music-school grads seeking employment. Sadly, too many people today link his name to blow-torch interpretations of Shaft, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Rocky and Star Wars rather than the impatient grace of Great Guns or Fox Hunt.
Last week I was in Kansas City on assignment and in my hotel room spent a little time before turning in noodling around on YouTube. I stumbled across these four fine Ferguson clips. Give a listen:
Here's Maynard Ferguson in 1959 on Great Guns for Canadian TV, playing four different instruments brilliantly...
Here's Maynard Ferguson in 1969 in Yugoslavia playing Mike Abene's The Fox Hunt...
Here's Ferguson on the same song, but this time overdubbing himself on four different instruments for British television in 1970. (They won't let me embed the clip, so click on the link.)
And even though this is an example of Ferguson already off the deep end in the '70s, it's still worth seeing for Sarah Vaughan and Lou Rawls...
Thanks for the Maynard clips, Marc. Just more evidence (as though we really needed it) that he was much more than a screecher!
Love that baritone horn!
Mel
Posted by: mel house | January 25, 2011 at 08:42 AM
One of my all-time favorite musicians and trumpet players. I grew out of my "I wanna play like Maynard" phase early -- it was obvious I was never going to play up high like that. But the man was a constant inspiration to me as a youth and a young man. Without him, I wouldn't be a trumpet player today. And I think I can safely say that there are thousands of people out there like me.
keith
Posted by: Keith Hedger | January 25, 2011 at 08:56 AM
Love "Great Guns", but my favorite track from the Canadian TV show was the recording of "Round Midnight", which is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHpMIbcEBvY
For my money, that clip has almost everything -- the obligatory high notes, but also some nice middle-register work at the top of the tune, and his characteristic showmanship conducting the band. The only thing missing is him blowing over some changes, at skill at which he was much more adept than 99% of most "high note specialists".
Posted by: Jeff Helgesen | January 25, 2011 at 09:35 AM
Maynard certainly proves the axiom that one man's pleasure is another's poison. Many jazz fans find his trumpet playing thrilling. Quite a few others find it about as ingratiating as a dentist's drill. Had he stuck to baritone, I might be a fan.
Posted by: David | January 25, 2011 at 11:25 AM
That clip of Maynard with Mike Douglas, Sarah Vaughan, Lou Rawls, and Jerry Lewis (in the trumpet section!) is high camp at its finest. In Maynard's band are my old friends Mike Migliore (on alto saxophone) and Joe Mosello and Ron Tooley on trumpets (Mosello on the left end, Tooley on the right end).
Mike Douglas, BTW, featured a lot of jazz on his long-running syndicated talk show. He deserves to be better-remembered by jazz fans.
Posted by: Bill Kirchner | January 25, 2011 at 02:21 PM
I love jazz music and I tried listening to Maynard F. He is really good! I admire his contribution to the music industry because there are not so many jazz artist. His music will live on for a long period of time.
Posted by: Brad Fallon | January 25, 2011 at 09:16 PM
Maynard made over 60 albums in his own name. Only five or six aren't at least good-those beiong the last few Columbia albums of the last half of the 70's.
And almost everything he did in the last two decades in his career (the Big Bop Nouveau years) was solid, straight ahead jazz. It's simply not true that MF did no good music after the mid 60's-though I agree that his absolutely best work (the Roulette years) was the period Marc refers to.
Posted by: John Salmon | January 26, 2011 at 03:39 PM
Always love seeing blurbs on Maynard, an underrated jazz artist known mostly for his chops alone. There are numerous recorded examples of the man blowing great ideas in mid register that are far removed from his stratospheric gymnastics.
Let's remember Maynard for more than just his high notes.
Posted by: Jery Rowan | January 27, 2011 at 11:35 AM