It’s My Time:
1. It’s My Time
2. Dance To Your Heart
3. Everybody Loves The Blues
4. An Offering Of Love – Part 1
5. Star
6. You Can Have Me Anytime
7. Red Creek
8. The Spirit Of St. Frederick
Hollywood:
1. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
2. Déjà Vu
3. Hollywood
4. Nine To Five
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. Here Today
7. Portuguese Love
8. Touch And Go
Fiery Canadian high-note maestro Maynard Ferguson really tore the rug from under the feet of even some of his diehard admirers with these two LPs. It’s My Time offers eight tracks that veer from disco funk to, well, disco funk. That’s not quite true. The modish simmering groove of the title
track, complete with female chorus, is so of its time it’s almost an out-of-body experience to hear it. The slow burner Dance to Your Heart
features a Ferguson high C held for what seems like the complete Book of Job, though it’s actually only – only! – 16 seconds. The virtuosic chores veer
toward stratospheric squealing so it’s a relief to turn to Everybody Loves the Blues, with acoustic guitar by Tom Rizzo and thoughtful alto
courtesy of Mike Migliore. Nick Lane arranged this as he did An Offering of Love, Part 1, a short Indian-based tune with Ferguson brandishing the
warmer Flugelhorn. Soon though we’re off to Earth, Wind and Fire territory for Star. Much of this suggests programmatic jittering about, a feeling
reinforced by You Can Have Me Anytime, a generously titled opus, that features Migliore once again alongside a strutting Ferguson. Elsewhere funk
fusion and showboating brass solos over funky but faceless backing is the order of the day.
Hollywood
followed in 1982. Opening with Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough it progresses to take on a raft of up-to-the-minute popular hits,
Isaac Hayes included. The glutinous trumpet reverb on Déjà Vu is undoubtedly neither Ferguson’s nor the arranger’s finest hour, even with an
admiring Stanley Clarke playing bass, though when David Sanborn turns up his muscular chops on the title track he at least brings some butch swagger to
this piece of utter kitsch. Banjo pickin’ on Dolly Parton’s Nine to Five – well, I suppose you had to be there. I like Dolly but not Fergusoned
Dolly. For Your Eyes Only has Lee Ritenour and Clarke on their respective instruments, guitar and bass, but they can make little real impression.
It’s welcome to hear Todd Cochran’s keyboards on the ballad Here Today. The chunky bossa theatricals of Portuguese Love, with overdubbed
trumpets and wispy vocals fail to impress.
The MF aggregation for these recordings featured a vast array of musicians including a large string section with some famous name ensconced on what must
have been a boring but lucrative piece of session work.
One thing to note. BGO is excellent at remastering, splendid at providing fine documentation, and absolutely useless at providing easily located original
dates of recording.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
BGOCD1202
