MAYNARD FERGUSON - The Lost Tapes (Vol 3)
Sleepy Night Records SNR 004CD
Maynard Ferguson (tpt) with various line-up's from his US and British big bands of the seventies.
The ex Kenton high note trumpet man is best known to British audiences from his appearances on the Saturday night Simon Dee show some forty years ago. Blessed with an engaging personality and the ability to still sound tuneful at stratospheric levels Maynard Ferguson's popularity with the TV viewing public was almost equal to his genial host before he (Simon Dee) fell out of favour with the broadcasting authorities. So popular was this giant of the instrument that he took up residence in a fine Thames side property near Windsor for over three years so as to be on tap for his dedicated UK followers. The band leader had a massive recording output of some seventy plus albums under his own name before his death in Ventura USA at the age of 78 ten years ago. He was inaugurated into The Downbeat Jazz Hall Of Fame in 1992, being one of the very few big band leaders to have survived Rock & Roll almost unscathed.
The musical impresario Ernie Garside, over a period in excess of a decade, is largely responsible for the release of the three volumes that contain both live and studio recordings from the original "lost" archives. This album has some wonderful highlights although many of the numbers pay a little too much homage to the popular culture of the time. Thing's kick off with "Opening Cadenza" and the signature tune "Blue Birdland" both of which only remind us just how high a trumpet can be played, but little more. At the other end of the scale Strayhorn's "A Train" with a superb arrangement by Don Sebesky is full of atmosphere, drive and no little subtlety with the reeds all playing magnificently behind the leaders horn. Jule Styne and Bob Merrills "People" from Funny Girl is given the lush treatment, building tension gradually, but never releasing it, featuring the leader and Andy Macintosh on alto, both at their very best. "Geller's Cellar" with Maynard on valve trombone is another piece given the Sebesky magic to great effect. A good number of the other tracks serve only as a showcase for high note trumpet pyrotechnics, entertaining at the time, but perhaps showing their age at this distance. A re-writing of "Tommy" a rock opera by The Who is given over thirteen minutes of energetic big band treatment with another telling solo from the high note trumpet, frantic excursions from tenor and alto, all over a largely electronic rhythm section and culminating in a number of false endings leaving the listener on the edge of their seat to the very last. The recording draws to a close on an entirely different note with a trumpet rendering of an aria from "Pagliacci" full of beauty, romance and calm offering a fitting antidote to much of the high energy roller coaster ride this album offers over it's generous seventy eight minutes.
In summary a must for the many Maynard Ferguson fans, but with enough worthwhile content to lend balance to any comprehensive collection of big band jazz.
Reviewed by Jim Burlong
Sleepy Night Records SNR 004CD
Maynard Ferguson (tpt) with various line-up's from his US and British big bands of the seventies.
The ex Kenton high note trumpet man is best known to British audiences from his appearances on the Saturday night Simon Dee show some forty years ago. Blessed with an engaging personality and the ability to still sound tuneful at stratospheric levels Maynard Ferguson's popularity with the TV viewing public was almost equal to his genial host before he (Simon Dee) fell out of favour with the broadcasting authorities. So popular was this giant of the instrument that he took up residence in a fine Thames side property near Windsor for over three years so as to be on tap for his dedicated UK followers. The band leader had a massive recording output of some seventy plus albums under his own name before his death in Ventura USA at the age of 78 ten years ago. He was inaugurated into The Downbeat Jazz Hall Of Fame in 1992, being one of the very few big band leaders to have survived Rock & Roll almost unscathed.
The musical impresario Ernie Garside, over a period in excess of a decade, is largely responsible for the release of the three volumes that contain both live and studio recordings from the original "lost" archives. This album has some wonderful highlights although many of the numbers pay a little too much homage to the popular culture of the time. Thing's kick off with "Opening Cadenza" and the signature tune "Blue Birdland" both of which only remind us just how high a trumpet can be played, but little more. At the other end of the scale Strayhorn's "A Train" with a superb arrangement by Don Sebesky is full of atmosphere, drive and no little subtlety with the reeds all playing magnificently behind the leaders horn. Jule Styne and Bob Merrills "People" from Funny Girl is given the lush treatment, building tension gradually, but never releasing it, featuring the leader and Andy Macintosh on alto, both at their very best. "Geller's Cellar" with Maynard on valve trombone is another piece given the Sebesky magic to great effect. A good number of the other tracks serve only as a showcase for high note trumpet pyrotechnics, entertaining at the time, but perhaps showing their age at this distance. A re-writing of "Tommy" a rock opera by The Who is given over thirteen minutes of energetic big band treatment with another telling solo from the high note trumpet, frantic excursions from tenor and alto, all over a largely electronic rhythm section and culminating in a number of false endings leaving the listener on the edge of their seat to the very last. The recording draws to a close on an entirely different note with a trumpet rendering of an aria from "Pagliacci" full of beauty, romance and calm offering a fitting antidote to much of the high energy roller coaster ride this album offers over it's generous seventy eight minutes.
In summary a must for the many Maynard Ferguson fans, but with enough worthwhile content to lend balance to any comprehensive collection of big band jazz.
Reviewed by Jim Burlong
