Marnard Ferguson.....Dead at 78

[Dennis Gardner]

Gabriel.... you'll have to play 2nd now.........................Maynard has passed.

http://www.maynardferguson.com/


Few will deny that he was the most influential trumpet player of the 20th century for young trumpet players throughout the world. So much energy, and passion for music and brought it to every small town auditorium and shared with young people everywhere...............quite the showman, if you ever got to see him live.

He'll be missed by young jazz musicians and educators everywhere.

[polkatese]

Sad news indeed, he can blow his trumpet and reach out those upper octaves like no one else.

RIP. The best of his was with Diane Schuur - Swingin' with Schuur and Big Bop Noveau.

[ahorvitz]

I had the pleasure of opening for Maynard in high school. He played a couple of solos with my HS jazz band before his band took the stage. Amazing!

RIP Maynard.

[seo]

I saw MF in 1977 ( I think) Was absolutely quite a showman

[schwarcw]

This is very sad news! Great trumpet player and showman. RIP:(

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Looks like he finally made that trip to Birdland...

RIP

[George Grand]

Birdland and The Theme From Shaft are two hot ones. MF Horn and MF Horn II are albums to own. The one with Birdland on it also had an okay Theme From Star Trek. I didn't like the Rocky thing.

Vaya con dios Maynard.

You can also credit him, Woody Herman, and Buddy Rich for maintaining big bands well into the 80's, giving a lot of young people their first taste of REAL big band jazz, live and in person. Big on the college circuits. They had to be close to just breaking even on a lot of those tours.

[dkg999]

Maynard, Bill Chase, and Don Cherry ....... the horn section is alive and swinging up above:cool:

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I saw him several times when he came to visit UNT. In fact, he recruited Scott Englebright from our One O'Clock...wanna say that album was 'One More Trip to Birdland'

[jcaut]

My roommate in college was a trumpet player and a Maynard fanatic, so I became very familiar with his music. Truly one of the greats. RIP.

[Dennis Gardner]

60 albums, and the most freakish "lip" in the business, but his real legacy will be the sheer amount of time over the last 40 years of his life that he spent with jazz bands in clinics, teaching and inspiring young musicians when most kids were really steering away from band and orchestras.

His concerts with his "wall of sound" and the whole trumpet section taking to the crowd for the finale duels, made many rock concerts seem lifeless.

He was larger than life. Here is a cool image of one of his later concerts...

[Normanality]

Sad sad indeed.

I saw Maynard many times in the late 60's and early 70's.
Agree with George....MF Horn is a jazz classic.

I'd also mention Frame for the Blues and of course Ole', where Maynard stings that triple C. Chops that never quit and a true love for performing.

RIP :(

[Normanality]

For any true Maynard fans, I have a 4mb wmv file of Maynard playing live on the Ed Sullivan show with the Stan Kenton band. Obviously, picture quality is bad, but it shows Maynard doing what he did best.

PM me if you would like me to email you a copy :)

[madmax]

I saw him live in 78 or 79 on his HOT tour. Man, what an awesome musician! I was very sad to hear of his passing. He was very much up to date with his music. No boring long winded nothing songs. His playing always had a lot of excitement to it.
madmax

[rskarvan]

I own a Holton MF trumpet. X-Large bore. Very free blowing. Easy to hit the high notes. The secret to Maynard's success was both his lips AND his absolutely freakishly large chest. With that kind of air-supply supporting his sound, its no wonder he could do what very few other Trumpeters can accomplish.