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.
The heavens were playing "Gospel John" when Maynard arrived today!
"You Ain't No Street Walker Mama, Honey But I Do Love They Way You Strut"
:-)
What drives the pitch of a trumpet? Is it the blowers lips? Its clearly not fixed by the fingering...
I am an old...old Taj fan.
"I'm gonna move out to the country and paint my mailbox blue..."
Ooooh...oooooh...Me. Me.
Too long to explain in the forum. Go here.
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/brassacoustics.html
Greatness.
Being able to play high notes takes more air, more pressure, more muscle ("chops") and a combination of talent, conditioning, and the good fortune of natural phisical attributes that make it possible.
99% of the top trumeters from jazz and classical can not play the high notes like Maynard did.
I've known trumpet players who never got braces because of being afraid of the process changing their embouchure too much.
I also knew another trumpet player who took his own trumpet teacher to the orthodontist with him to explain just how they wanted the teeth aligned for optimum playing.
Dear NotJustAnotherPrettyFace,
Are you married?
Your friend,
Bubba the Heel
Great musician! Did a lot of coke according to my friend who toured with him. 78 is a ripe old age for that kind of abuse.
I saw him in concert in '78 as part of a high school band "treat". And "treat", it was.
RIP Maynard.
Playing "Gonna Fly" and "Birdland" in tribute here.
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