Maynard Ferguson is dead. Read the obituary here.
Maynard was the coolest jazz trumpet player with the weirdest name in the jazz universe of me and my friends in high school. He could hit higher notes than anybody and proved a perpetual source of inspiration to my trumpet-playing friend Dan. He did a great cover of "Birdland," and his "Gonna Fly Now" was the sound of defiance for the Rocky movies until "Eye of the Tiger" came out.
Eras end with the death of jazz giants. I was in college studying jazz when Sarah Vaughn and Miles Davis died. I never play anymore, but I still feel a sense of loss today, probably mostly because I'm not sure who will take the place of Maynard in the imagination of adolescent trumpet players.
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2 comments:
Wow, that's sad. I loved Maynard's music growing up.
One of my first concerts I'd ever went to, in fact, was Maynard Ferguson when he played our podunk town back in the 80's. It was so great, we stayed up till midnight and there was just this thick haze over the air (mostly from the smoke) and it was just heavenly sitting there listening to him play.
You studied Jazz in college. You're really topping out the cool factor.... how do you have so much time for so many diverse interests?
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