1. Diz Duz Everything
2. Body And Soul
3. All the Things You Are
4. Maynard Ferguson
5. Take the "A" Train
6. Short Wave
7. Love Locked Out
8. The Band Ain't Draggin'
9. The Hot Canary
10. What's New?
11. King's Riff
12. Wow!
13. The Way You Look Tonight
14. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
15. Over the Rainbow
16. Hymn to Her
17. Wonder Why
18. C'est la Blues
19. Miss Pitlack Regrets
20. Maynard the Fox
21. The Wailing Boat
22. Say it with Trumpets
23. Everybody Moan
24. You Said It
Maynard Ferguson – Trumpet, bass trumpet, valve
trombone
With his Orchestra (tracks 5-8, 12, 17-19),
his Octet (tracks 13-16) and The Birdland Dreamband
(tracks 20-24)
Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra (tracks 1, 2)
Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra (track 3)
Stan Kenton and his Orchestra (tracks 4, 9,
10)
Ben Webster and his Sextet (track 11)
A
trumpeter reaching up to the stratosphere,
playing notes which seem to reach the areas
that only dogs hear, can be very exhilarating
- but also rather painful. Maynard Ferguson,
who died last August, made his name as one
of these high-note trumpeters. He could also
play sweetly (in Harry James style) in the
trumpet’s lower register, as he does here
on Body and Soul, although he still
breaks away from the mellow sound to explore
the upper reaches.
This
album is subtitled "The Formative Years"
and contains recordings made between 1949
and 1956, but it displays Maynard already
fully formed in his ability to push the trumpet
to its upper limits. He was one of the young
lions who made the Stan Kenton band so remarkable
in the early fifties. His eponymous party
piece with that band (track 4) is certainly
impressive, and Shorty Rogers’ arrangement
spotlights Ferguson’s brilliance.
The
trouble is that, once you’ve played the highest
notes you can, the only way is down. And a
whole album in which most tracks include some
of these piercing sounds becomes not only
repetitive but tiresome, especially with shrieking
noises such as those on The Hot Canary
(which Maynard himself apparently disliked).
By the time I reached the third track, I was
already wearied by this showing-off, which
even taints lovely melodies like All the
Things You Are.
Some
of the small-group tracks show more restraint
- like King’s Riff, which has attractive
solos from saxists Ben Webster and Benny Carter.
Miss Pitlack Regrets is also bearable,
but only because it is a feature for trombonist
Bob Burgess. The Band Ain’t Draggin’
gets by because of its good humour (and jolly
band vocals) but Maynard still forces out
those high notes. At least he plays them in
tune more consistently than (say) Cat Anderson,
whose piercing trumpet often sounded like
a flight of berserk mosquitoes overdosing
on helium. Maynard Ferguson’s virtuosic ability
is undoubted but perhaps he was to be preferred
when acting as a bandleader rather than as
a featured soloist. Those screeching top notes
remind me of a sign I saw in a jeweller’s
shop window, which said "Ear piercing
while you wait"!
Tony Augarde
see
also review
by Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
Living
Era CD AJA 5659
