Maynard Ferguson Biography
Canadian-born trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (1928-2006) was one of the few bandleaders to survive the passing of the big band era and continue to thrive in the age of rock. As a trumpet player, he was known for his rich, powerful sound, and an uncanny ability to hit high notes that was imitated by countless younger horn players. Ferguson’s bands also served as launching pads for many young musicians who would go on to later fame, and his renowned Master Classes helped to educate many young professional and amateur players.
Ferguson was a teenaged musical prodigy, making numerous appearances on Canadian radio with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. He dropped out of high school at 15 to pursue a musical career, and won a scholarship to the French Conservatory of Music, where he studied for five years. He led his own big band in Montreal, before coming to the U.S. in 1949 to accept a standing offer to join Stan Kenton’s orchestra. As it happened, Kenton had just disbanded his group, so Ferguson found work playing with the big bands of Jimmy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn. He finally got his chance to work with Kenton in 1950, when Kenton hired Ferguson for his new Innovations Orchestra. Ferguson’s style was a perfect fit for the forceful approach of Kenton’s horn section, and the resulting exposure won Ferguson considerable notoriety; he was voted best trumpeter in Down Beat’s readers poll for three consecutive years.
In 1953, Ferguson left Kenton to work as a session player for Paramount Pictures, playing on 46 film soundtracks. But his Paramount contract kept him from performing live, and he quit Paramount in 1956 to accept an offer from Morris Levy, owner of New York’s legendary jazz club Birdland, to lead the all-star 14-piece Birdland Dream Band. After a year, Ferguson moved on to launch his own group, which over the next nine years included such stellar players as Jaki Byard, Don Ellis, Peter Erskine, Joe Farrell, Slide Hampton, Don Sebesky and Joe Zawinul. That outfit recorded and performed prolifically, until the cost of maintaining such a large group forced Ferguson to disband it.
Ferguson then spent several years overseas, moving his family to India, where he taught music and studied Eastern religion. In 1969, he relocated to Manchester, England, where he formed a new jazz-rock big band that specialized in rearranging contemporary rock and pop hits. After returning to America in 1973, Ferguson recorded a series of commercially successful albums for Columbia Records. In the ’80s, he recorded some bop-style sessions and formed the funk outfit High Voltage before returning to a large band format with Big Bop Nouveau Band.
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