Posted on 08/24/2006 11:55:51 AM PDT by lunarbicep
Jazz trumpeter and big-band leader Walter "Maynard" Ferguson, famed for his screaming solos and ability to hit blisteringly high notes, has died at age 78, associates said on Thursday. The Montreal-born Ferguson died on Wednesday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, of kidney and liver failure brought on by an abdominal infection.
His four daughters and other family members were at his side when he died.
Ferguson started his career at 13 when he performed as a featured soloist with the Canadian Broadcasting Co. Orchestra.
He played with several of the great big-band leaders of the 1940s and '50s, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Dorsey and Stan Kenton, with whom he was a featured performer.
He became known with the Kenton band for being able to hit "ridiculous high notes with ease," according to jazz critic Scott Yarnow.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz says of Ferguson: "There are few sights more impressive in animal physiology than the muscles in Maynard Ferguson's upper thorax straining for a top C.
"... Putting a Ferguson disc on the turntable evokes sensations ranging from walking into a high wind to being run down by a truck," according to the Penguin Guide.
Among Ferguson's best known and most commercially successful recordings were "MacArthur Park" and the "Rocky" movie theme, "Gonna Fly Now."
In 1957, Ferguson formed a regular big band that lasted until 1965. It included a Who's Who of jazz greats as sidemen, including Slide Hampton, Don Ellis, Don Sebesky, Willie Maiden, John Bunch, Joe Zawinul, Joe Farrell and Jaki Byard.
After the band broke up, Ferguson spent time in India and Britain, where he formed a new ensemble. He returned to the United States in 1974 with yet another group often panned by jazz critics for its commercialism.
His later work was praised for its return to the jazz mainstream.
My college roommate played trumpet in the marching band; he idolized Ferguson - I give a great deal of my love for jazz to that time I listened to it. Anytime an artist dies we do lose a little something.
Exactly the same with me. My roomie turned me on to Maynard. Brilliant musician
Total bummer. I was a trumpet player and in HS we would bust our guts trying to do the high MF part on "Rocky."
When I got the whole thing down it was one of the proudest days of my life.
Sleep well friend. You influenced an entire generation.
And prayers for the family and friends.
There was one Maynard.
Everyone else was a wanna be.
La Fiesta and Malaguena... (sigh) Thanks Maynard. You will be missed.
RIP Maynard. Thanks for the tips....
-Yossarian the sax player
The world of music is diminished by his loss. God rest M. Ferguson.
That's sad. I remember guys in the band back in high school trying to play some of Ferguson's high notes. They didn't succeed too well.
I used to freak them out by grabbing a trumpet and doing lip slurs and glisses way up high on the instrument, an octave or more above their highest notes. They couldn't figure out how I could do that, since I didn't even play the trumpet.
I never told them that oboist's embouchures are really strong. It was easy. But I never could get the hang of playing an instrument with only three valves.
RIP, Maynard. Thanks for all your music, as it made our country richer.
I saw him play around 20 years ago and the high notes were amazing. At point they were so high I could not hear them.
RIP Maynard...
This news reminds me of a joke that everyone knew back in the days when Leon Breedon was the leader of the One O'Clock Jazz Band: A jazz musician dies and goes to Heaven. An angel is showing him around and takes him into a beautiful theater where an amazing band is playing jazz. Charlie Parker is on sax, Benny Goodman is on clarinet, Louis Armstrong is playing trumpet. The musician points at the man leading the band and asks in an awestruck voice, "That person leading the band...Is...Is that Leon Breedon?!"
The angel replies, "No, that's God. He just thinks He's Leon Breedon."
Huge cokehead back in the day.
I saw Ferguson in concert back in 1979. He did a screaming show, then did "Rocky" as the encore (which is what I came to see).
There was a story once that an instrument maker wanted to market a line of trumpet cases with Maynard's name on them. He said he didn't want to put anything out there with his name on it that would be shoddy merchandise. The instrument maker said that was fine, but what did Mr. Ferguson have in mind. He then took his own trumpet, put it in one of the cases, and without a word grabbed the case, walked out of the office, over to the staircase that led up to the office, and threw the case down the stairs.
He went after the case, opened it up, found his horn to be in perfect order, and said "Okay with me".
"Huge cokehead back in the day."
And so? I'm listening to the music, not wondering what drugs the musician is taking.
I'd guess that most of our major jazz musicians have used some illegal drugs. Does that make me appreciate their music any less? Not a chance.
I heard pretty much the same joke about Lee Iaccoca. Henry Ford II dies and goes to heaven. At the gate he says, "Is Lee Iaccoca here? I'm not coming in if Lee Iaccoca's here." St. Peter assures him that Iaccoca isn't there. As they walk down the street of heaven, a giant Chrysler New Yorker limo passes. "I thought you said Lee Iaccoca wasn't here." "That's God. He just thinks he's Lee Iaccoca."
I saw him play at a local high school almost 20 years ago...
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