Maynard

One of my trumpet idols passed away this week, Maynard Ferguson. Like most young trumpet players, I discovered his musicwhen I was in high school. My parents had an old record with Maynard's biggest hit, "Gonna Fly Now", the theme from Rocky. I made a tape from it and listened to it a lot for a while. His music wasn't exactly refined (OK, not refined at all), but it was always a lot of fun. As I got older, I found out that most trumpet players went through a Maynard phase at about the same age. I think what was appealing to most of us was that Maynard's playing evoked the kind of feelings that got most of us interested in the trumpet in the first place. He sounded like you felt when you were having a good day with the horn.

There's an excellent article about him on the Washington Post website that describes what I'm talking about much better that I can. "Triumph" is an appropriate word. I remember that's what I felt when listening to "Conquistador" (the title track on my parents' album) for the first time.

I had the opportunity to watch him in concert a few years ago; it was in a local high school auditorium. The place was filled mostly with high school-aged boys. Maynard's band was full of a bunch of younger guys too, probably just out of college; it must have been quite an experience for them to tour with someone like Maynard. The concert was pretty much as I expected; Maynard delivered even though he was obviously getting over a cold. My friend remarked that he'd hate to be a high school band director on the next Monday; I'm sure Maynard inspired a lot of kids that night.

I think I'll go dig out some of my Maynard CD's and listen for a while...