I grew up in a time when recorded music was characterized by scarcity. Us young Maynard fans would get excited about a particular album and then have to wait six months to a year before getting the next offering. We were like kids in a candy store when that next album came out. Maynard himself was always overly optimistic about when it would happen. "Six months" he'd say about the timetable for the next vinyl product. This is etched in my mind for the period after his "M.F. Horn 2" album. But we waited a full year.
I had my copy of "M.F. Horn 3" mailed to me. It was anticlimactic. Rabid fans of particular artists could sometimes be let down by a new offering. Was it a case of overly high expectations? Problem was, I think, we were too often starved for the kind of music that excited us. Like I said: scarcity.
It has been said we are nowhere close to being through the "digital revolution." One thing we have realized to date: All the music in the world from all time seems easily accessible, for free and with top-notch sound quality, on YouTube. I don't even have volume control on my new laptop. I just click around and listen. As with all blessings of this kind, we can begin to take it for granted.
We must never take this music accessibility for granted. As someone who once browsed the vinyl records at the Crossroads Center "Musicland" (St. Cloud), I see the new arrangement as nothing short of Nirvana. Maynard's whole career is there, a career that can be divided into two periods.
First he was the esoteric jazz guy fitting in with all the bebop and cool musicians. His albums were artistically brilliant but were never going to be good enough to make him a household name. The '60s were terrible for big band music which was Maynard's niche. Maynard ended up in England where Keith Mansfield discovered to his delight that MF was not under contract.
Mansfield was 100 percent essential in creating Maynard's second career as a pop music master with the jazz element tamped down. Gone was the rough-sounding sax section of the type we'd associate with the 1940s. The saxes were still there along with the other standard band elements. But Mansfield cleaned up the sound substantially so that it would captivate the young crowd that existed around the year 1970. We all know how rambunctious and demanding the young generation of this nation was in 1970! Mansfield had his own orchestra ready to go, to merge with Maynard. The rest is history. Mansfield and Ferguson partnered for four albums. The second of those, "M.F. Horn," was the one that instantly mesmerized the generation of young high school band musicians. John Woell at our Morris High School had a copy ready for anyone to play who was interested.
There were two more albums after that, presenting the Mansfield flair with its distinctive appeal, very deep, clean and tight. The stage was set for everything that came later. Maynard even got into the disco phase heavily. After years of riding a popularity wave, he left Columbia Records (which had been generous to him) so he might drift back more to his jazz roots with smaller labels. His long-time fans, having been attracted into the fold by that first "M.F. Horn" album, were happy to follow and were able to appreciate the pure jazz better than they would have as kids.
You can listen to Maynard all day on YouTube now. I'm sure he's smiling up in heaven. I saw him in Dawson MN not long before his death. MF and the band did gigs in small towns as well as in the more famous places. Years earlier I heard the great Maynard at Orchestra Hall. I heard him at the (now razed) Met Sports Center for a date that was an experiment to see if MF could fill an arena. That experiment failed. But MF did a fine (if short) concert there that night. I remember him pointing up with his thumb just before hitting his high note at the end of "Stella by Starlight."
But my richest memories of Maynard go back to the St. Paul Prom Center (or Ballroom). What an atmosphere at that place. The newly attracted young fans of Maynard behaved like a rabid cult there. Remember the old Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood? The Prom had an atmosphere just like that - it was just much larger. I guess boxing matches were held there. Pat Boone played there in the 1950s.
A gang of us would head to St. Paul supervised by an adult like Doug Garberick (who was like a kid with his music enthusiasm), and we'd have our evening meal at the Bridgeman's Restaurant. Then it was on to the Prom, where the mere sight of the "Prom" sign would give me goosebumps. Kids stood outside in line waiting for the doors to open. The adults might drift across the street to have a cocktail or two at Denny's Loft. The kids saved seats for them. Upon getting inside the Prom, us kids grabbed the little plastic ashtrays and instantly made them into frisbees!
About 20 minutes before the concert started, we'd hear Maynard play warm-up notes from a little room off to the side. We grew silent to appreciate the notes, then roared when he was done with his little "exercise." He came out of the room to great fanfare when he was announced. The band would be playing his lazy theme, "Blue Birdland." Goosebumps there too. I will never have another musical experience like this.
I have written a song in tribute to the late MF. The lyrics are for a melody that I originally used with different lyrics, the title of the original being "Las Vegas Town." The new title: "M.F. That Trumpet Man." This is not a three-chord song! The way I hear it in my mind, there are chords I might associate with Frank Sinatra. These chords are funky to the point where I'm not sure I can accurately notate them. I might need some consultation.
I have written many songs and have gotten only a small number recorded. I'll consider the MF song along with all the others. At any rate, I'm most happy to share the lyrics for my song "M.F. That Trumpet Man." "Stan" is a reference to Stan Kenton. "Miles" is a reference to Miles Davis. Get on YouTube sometime and call up Maynard's "Message from Newport" album material.
"M.F. That Trumpet Man"
by Brian Williams
That trumpet man who had his awesome band
He played that brass like no one ever could
That trumpet man who got his start with Stan
He gave us jazz that Miles understood
But what we liked most
Was how he would reach for those high notes
We stood up and cheered for each new dose
Let's raise a toast
That trumpet man with such adoring fans
He made us feel enraptured by his tone
That trumpet man who played with such command
He was the greatest brasser ever known
We called him Maynard
The man was the absolute last word
We all should have heard the great Maynard Ferguson
That M.F. sound would leave us all unwound
We played those vinyl records day and night
That M.F. sound that made us all so proud
Of instrumental music done just right
His band just wowed us
The talent it had was a surplus
I felt like a kid at the circus
Oh such a rush
That M.F. sound would bring him such renown
To hear his theme "Blue Birdland" blows my mind
That M.F. sound would never let us down
The high school jazz bands worship at his shrine
All hail that M.F.
He left us too soon with his trumpet
And jazz is in debt to that Maynard Ferguson
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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