I have an addiction. And that addiction has a name: Maynard Ferguson. What am I talking about? Why, the music of Maynard Ferguson, of course. For those of you who do not know who the heck this character is, well, pop over to the official Maynard Ferguson site. Maynard has been blowing his horn for over half a century, and, sadly, that historic run came to an end on August 23, 2006, when Maynard passed away at the age of 78.
I have Kelly Berdahl to thank for introducing me to MF (and other great trumpet players as well) and starting my musical addiction, I suppose. And I thank him for that, really I do. Maynard’s bands have always held top notch musicians and they play nothing but the best arrangements (except for a few years in the 70’s, but hey, it was the 70’s). The music they were doing in the 1950’s and 1960’s sounds just as fresh today. And his playing, look out! Powerful, but not (always) in your face. The man has total control of his horn.
So, over the past ten or so years, I have been gathering a collection of Maynard Ferguson recordings. Mostly, though, in the past two or three years, thanks to eBay. My collection is so demonstrated below:
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