StLJN Saturday at the Movies: A tribute to Maynard Ferguson, part 1

In the process of finding the clip of Maynard Ferguson playing "Round Midnight" that was posted here last week, I ran across a number of videos of Ferguson available online via the various video sharing sites. My plan had been to parcel them out over the weeks leading up to his next St. Louis appearance, but with Ferguson's passing this week it seem appropriate and timely to share them now instead as a way of remembering and paying tribute to the talented trumpeter.

The first video is from 1950, and it shows Ferguson at age 22 playing with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, the group that gave him his first big break after his move to the United States. The composition is entitled "Maynard Ferguson," and was written especially for him by Shorty Rogers. The second clip dates from sometime in the mid to late 1970s, and features Ferguson and his group performing "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," a pop hit for Elton John that serves as a fairly representative example of the way Ferguson treated this sort of material.

Media coverage of Ferguson's passing has been mostly of the usual celebrity-obit variety, with an emphais on his recording of the theme from the movie Rocky, but there are also some more personal tributes popping up in various newspapers. I especially enjoyed this piece from the Washington Post (free registration required, or use BugMeNot), in which staff writer David von Drehle explains what Ferguson meant to several generations of young trumpet players, as well as these short articles from the Saratoga Springs (NY) Saratogan and the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal.

In part 2 of StLJN's tribute, tomorrow we'll take a look at a couple more Ferguson videos, including one taped at a workshop for student musicians in which he discusses his famous high-note technique.