Maynard Ferguson....

Louis Armstrong opened the door, but for this twelve-year old trumpeter, Maynard Ferguson was clearly the man. Dizzy and Lee Morgan would soon follow, but Maynard was my first live concert, which was electrifying. That edition of his big band, back in 1964, introduced me to the excitement of live Jazz. I've always prized Maynard's Roulette recordings from that era and as fate would have it, I had the honor of writing the liner notes for Mosaic's reissue of the Complete Roulette Recordings in 1994.
Cut to 1998, when I finally caught up with the man himself, four days after 70th birthday, during a weeklong gig at the Blue Note in New York. We did an interview which appeared in JazzTimes magazine, and I brought along my High 8 camcorder. A couple of months ago, I rediscovered the video in my archives and have used the content as the basis for my own tribute to Maynard Ferguson.

This edition of my video blog includes Maynard's thoughts on turning seventy, Jazz education, Clark Terry, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Indian music and spirituality, as well as a rare clip from the mid-50s, trading stratospheric eights with Don Ellis.
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