In Concert February 15, 2002

Jazz legend Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau Band will appear in concert in Ada Friday, February 15, 2002, at the Ada Middle School Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now from Doug Laramore, 580-310-5391. The cost is $20 general admission or $10 for full-time students with ID and members of the Ada Arts and Humanities Council.

The concert begins at 8 p.m.

“We’re really excited to have such a legendary member of the jazz community perform in Ada,” Laramore, president of the Ada Arts and Humanities Council, said. “This should be a great concert.”

The concert is being presented by the Ada Arts and Humanities Council with financial assistance of the Oklahoma Arts Council.

Ferguson is an internationally renowned big band leader and one of the world’s greatest trumpet and brass instrument players. He is now in his fifth decade as a band leader and, with his Big Bop Nouveau Band, has redefined big band jazz for the millennium. While many other bands recreate music of bygone eras, Ferguson and company draw upon bebop, straight-ahead jazz, funk, swing, classical and contemporary music to create a fresh sound within the classic big band form.

An instrument designer, record producer, composer, educator/clinician, symphonic guest artist and film soundtrack artist, this three-time Grammy nominee and consistent Down Beat and Playboy Jazz poll winner is a diverse and energetic musician whose multifarious talents extend far beyond “trumpet player.”

Born in Montreal, Quebec on May 4, 1928, Ferguson’s innate musical talents were exhibited at an early age. Encouraged by his mother and father, he was playing piano and violin by the age of four. At nine years of age he discovered the trumpet. He won a scholarship to the French Conservatory of Music where he received formal training and in 1941, at age 13, Ferguson soloed as a child prodigy with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Orchestra. At the age of 16, he first came to the attention of the great band leaders of the big band era.

“I led the warm-up band in Canada for all the great orchestras when they passed through Montreal, including Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman, Kenton, Dizzy and both Dorsey brothers,” recalls Ferguson. “I received a lot of different offers.”

In 1949, while still a teen, Ferguson dissolved his Canadian band and moved to the United States, planning to accept a standing offer from Stan Kenton to join his orchestra. Kenton, however, had decided to take a year off. It turned out to be a valuable year for Ferguson nonetheless, as he gained experience playing in the Boyd Rayburn, Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnett bands. Then came his very visible three-year stint with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, where Ferguson’s virtuosic technique and phenomenal upper-register catapulted him to stardom.

After leaving Kenton’s orchestra, Ferguson worked as a first-call studio musician for some three years, recording numerous film soundtracks for Paramount Pictures, including The Ten Commandments. He was also featured (in 1955) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, performing William Russo’s composition The Titans, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In 1956 he put together an all-star big band for a very successful engagement at Birdland, “Birdland Dream Band”, and recorded two albums with the group. He then formed a more permanent orchestra and for the next 10 years he kept busy with a rigorous touring and recording schedule, becoming very popular at colleges and universities and winning numerous awards.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ferguson lived overseas, spending time in Spain, England and India while leading a band comprised of British musicians. His recorded version of MacArthur Park became a hit and his touring schedule became so busy in America that, in 1974, he decided to move back to the U.S.

Ferguson’s recording of Gonna Fly Now on Columbia — the theme from the motion picture Rocky — rocketed him to “pop” fame with a top 10 single, a gold album (Conquistador), and a Grammy nomination in 1978. More commercial-sounding recordings followed, featuring movie themes with studio bands. In a 1990 interview with Down Beat magazine, Ferguson reflected on this “commercial” period.

“I did enjoy the ‘Rocky’ chart, but I can now look back at some of the other recordings I did in the 1970s and have to admit that I don’t like some of them … I’m very proud that those albums were not my hits.”

After leaving Columbia he started recording his own band on smaller labels. Now he could use the talented young musicians he had solicited to tour with him on his recordings. By constant touring and with encouragement to compose and arrange, the music is perfected for recording and creates Ferguson’s signature bands — young, great, enthusiastic, talented and happy musicians, a band leader’s dream.

The 1980s found Ferguson fronting the fusion-funk band High Voltage, which recorded two albums. He came full circle in the late 1980s with the formation of his little big band — Big Bop Nouveau. He started producing his own albums with Footpath Café and continues to do so. Ferguson signed with Concord Records in 1995 to record and produce. His Concord debut — appropriately titled These Cats Can Swing — features Ferguson with his roaring band of young lions, Big Bop Nouveau … a band chock full of tomorrow’s jazz stars.

“Stan Kenton used to introduce me every night when I did my feature by saying, ‘Here’s a guy who will someday have his own big band here as he did in Canada.’ I try to be that way with all the young guys in my band, encouraging them in their careers. I always say that I’m only mad with people that leave my band if they are not successful afterwards; I learned that from Stan,” said Ferguson.

Given the successes of Ferguson’s alumni — including Don Ellis, Chuck Mangione, Bill Chase, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Bob James, Joe Zawinul, Slide Hampton, Greg Bissonnette, Willie Maiden and Peter Erskine — it’s safe to conclude that he has had very little cause to be “mad” with his musicians. In his position as producer, Ferguson is doing a series of “Maynard Presents” introducing current or former band members on the Concord label. This is in addition to producing one of his own albums each year. His current release is Brass Attitude.

Thankfully, Father Time has yet to frown on Maynard Ferguson. His enthusiasm remains infectious for both his musicians and audiences. Fortunately, it is also self-perpetuating. At the age of 71 the word retirement has not yet entered into his vocabulary. He is on the road almost nine months out of the year and, like his stage presence, is a jovial, engaging fellow — very much at home in his seventh decade.

“I feel good and enjoy the music,” he explained. “In fact, I enjoy my work now more perhaps because of the great young players in my band.”

Currently most of Ferguson’s years is spent touring with his Big Bop Nouveau Band. With a heavy on-the-road concert itinerary, he shows no sign of slowing down. He is also a potent force in the world of music education and always makes time in his rigorous schedule to personally encourage young musicians.

When I was young I listened to as many different trumpeters as possible and tried to learn from each of them,” Ferguson said in an interview with Scott Yanow. “If a student is a Maynard Ferguson freak, I immediately tell him to go out and buy some records by Dizzy, Miles, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis and Louis Armstrong. I try to teach them that one of the funnest rewards of playing music is when you start to sound like yourself.”