LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jazz trumpeter and big-band leader Walter "Maynard" Ferguson, famed for his screaming solos and ability to hit blisteringly high notes, has died at age 78, associates said on Thursday, Aug. 24th.

The Montreal-born Ferguson died on Wednesday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, of kidney and liver failure brought on by an abdominal infection.

His four daughters and other family members were at his side when he died.

Ferguson started his career at 13 when he performed as a featured soloist with the Canadian Broadcasting Co. Orchestra.


He played with several of the great big-band leaders of the 1940s and '50s, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Dorsey and Stan Kenton, with whom he was a featured performer.

He became known with the Kenton band for being able to hit "ridiculous high notes with ease," according to jazz critic Scott Yarnow.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz says of Ferguson: "There are few sights more impressive in animal physiology than the muscles in Maynard Ferguson's upper thorax straining for a top C.

"... Putting a Ferguson disc on the turntable evokes sensations ranging from walking into a high wind to being run down by a truck," according to the Penguin Guide.

Among Ferguson's best known and most commercially successful recordings were "MacArthur Park" and the "Rocky" movie theme, "Gonna Fly Now."
In 1957, Ferguson formed a regular big band that lasted until 1965. It included a Who's Who of jazz greats as sidemen, including Slide Hampton, Don Ellis, Don Sebesky, Willie Maiden, John Bunch, Joe Zawinul, Joe Farrell and Jaki Byard.

After the band broke up, Ferguson spent time in India and Britain, where he formed a new ensemble. He returned to the United States in 1974 with yet another group often panned by jazz critics for its

 

I have seen Maynard several times in my lifetime and what an amazing player. he did our Jazz Festival at Sam Houston. Saw him a couple times in a club called La Bastille in Houston on the square.

Last time i saw him was 3 years ago in Carrollton where i live at the high school. one of my tuba students gave me 2 free tickets and my son and I went. even in his 70s he could wail.

what was funny about that concert is at the last number everyone hauled to get out before the crowd. we stayed and he did an encore and played the longest piece and solo of the night playing Birdland, awesome band and concert.

 

That is very saddening indeed...

 

As a trumpet player, and music fan, I am saddened.
Thanks for alerting us.

I guess I'll ask now if Herb Albert is still with us?
For better or worse Chuck Mangione is

 

Both still very much alive

 

Maynard was great. I had a clinic with him in my High School jazz band. It must have been around 1985. Also played a concert that night. Heck of a nice guy, and very talented.

Somewhere I have an autographed cassette of one of his concerts.

 

I'm not that much of a Maynard fan, I liked him but he's not my fav, but I have a place in my soul for horn players. I played coronet in grade school and high school. The first album I bought by a horn player was "*****es Brew" by Miles Davis, a double album set, in about 1970 or so. I was in the army and at that time at a place where I could have a stereo, at least for a short time, and that was as far from the army as I could get for a little temporary escape, soring with Miles....

Here's a photo I did a couple of years ago as a tribute to horn players
I'm sure Maynard is Horn Heaven.

 

wow, this system automatically edited the name of the album.... hey, its only an album name?? oh well...

It was Bit_hes or you could say Bitc_es or, on and on.