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".
Sad news. I saw him live, right after "New Vintage" was released; awesome show.
Back in the late 70's, you were ultra cool if you had a Jet Tone mouthpiece, made famous by Maynard.
I lost interest in his later music, as he became more commercialized. However, no one could hit the high notes like Maynard.