Maynard Ferguson

So like you said, he d- was discharged in '58.

He played briefly with Horace Silver and then Maynard Ferguson.

I wanna stitch two, kind of stitch two quotes together, which is one from Downbeat and another from Wire about how he came to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

This is, uh, they're both from, uh, they're both from Wayne Shorter.

Yeah

...

the names that were thrown around, Horace Silver, Maynard Ferguson, Art Blakey, those are fucking-

Huge

Please note, the following words are Ryan's and Ryan's alone.

Maynard Ferguson, born 1928, quickly rose to fame as an unmatched talent on the trumpet.

so much so that he dropped out of high school at age 15 to pursue a career touring with Canadian dance bands.

Soon after, Ferguson moved to the United States, where he toured with such big band legends as Jimmy Dorsey, Doc Severinsen, and Stan Kenton, and ultimately leading his own successful group, the Birdland Dream Band.

But unfortunately for Maynard, the popularity of big bands was waning in the 1960s, leaving him no choice but to break up the band as they were no longer financially viable.

About a decade later, upon his return to the United States, he began working with Bob James, who aimed to put his talent back in the public eye with some more commercial hits like the theme from Rocky, the theme from Star Trek, the theme from Star Wars, and the theme from Battlestar Galactica.

While successful at their time, one wonders if the true talent of Maynard Ferguson was tarnished a bit by superimposing his operatic trumpeting over disco dance numbers, and for a fad that would quickly leave.

And so, it is also true of Santana on this album, Supernatural.

Maybe because he lived out his wimpier fantasies on last year's EP, here he's free to mastermind his own piece of multi-platinum potential.

Sure, he covers That's Life, but he also assembles a metal band that'll cut old buddies, Maynard Ferguson's drummer, cult heaven bassist, and on guitar, former Zappa and Linden sideman, Steve Vai, who splits the difference between parody and virtuosity.

I think that's a good point.

I mean, Vai is funny without opening his mouth.

She says, "It's doing really well." I says, "Oh, good.

I hope it's there when I come back." I come back from Germany, I find out that Maynard Ferguson has a hit record with it, and then I go up to United Artists and I said, "Does anybody want the original?" Because the movie w- was a $25,000 package deal to me, and I had to pay for everything.

Wow.

They wouldn't p- they wouldn't pay my fee.

Oh, wow.

And, a- and right.

So three months later, and after Maynard Ferguson had the hit, I said, "Anybody care about the original?" So then I put that together, meaning I had the, the, the tapes.

We mixed it to do a record.

Um, he would be at Altoona High or somewhere in Somerset, PA, so we all had a ch- chance to check him out.

Um, but in addition to, you know, listening to Maynard Ferguson, um, my brother brought home the first Miles Davis album that I remember hearing.

Whoa.

Um, and the cool thing for me was it was not Sketches of Spain or Miles Smiles.

Yeah

... really ever, ever since I picked up the trumpet, um, I was really focused on what I, making a career in music.

And my first goal, of course, was to be either Maynard Ferguson or to be in Maynard Ferguson's band.

[laughs]

Played with some great bands.

You know, in my younger years, of course, I got to play with Maynard Ferguson and toured with him.

And we got to be friends with him, actually.

So we were colleagues, and I did a lot of things for him, even after I left the band.

Oh my goodness.

But we have a good

pool of young You know, it's a great band because it's kind of like Maynard Ferguson's band.

Yeah.

you know,

Having said that, Maynard Ferguson didn't especially play a very small mouthpiece.

He could play anywhere on the horn.

The great Cuban trombone player, Black Hand is named, who's possibly the greatest, you know, technician on the instrument we've ever seen.