Maynard Ferguson died Thursday night at the age of 78.
For those that don't know Ferguson was one of the greatest jazz trumpet players who ever lived. He could play ridiculous high notes. He quit school at 15 to start his own big band and played with a lot of other big bands in the '50s. He gave the Stan Kenton Orchestra its signature sound (screaming high, screaming loud).
He scored a big hit in the 1970s with his cover of Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky and almost instantly made the big band a viable art form again only this time fusing rock, jazz, bop and anything else that caught his fancy (like Indian classical music).
I got to see him in concert once.
It was the end of my freshman year and he and his band, Big Bop Nouveau, came to play at a church in Kansas City. 2 others and I made the trek from Saint Joseph to south Kansas City for the concert. One of the guys, Kevin, was also a bop trumpet player (an extraordinarily talented one with an ego to match) who had heard Maynard play so many times that the road manager recognised him and he eventually earned a tour jacket...which you couldn't actually buy. We got to the church and I realised I was about $15 short. Kevin paid for my ticket for which I will be eternally grateful.
Move over, Gabriel, you're playing second trumpet now.
