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Maynard Ferguson has never been known to be the most subtle of musicians, admired by young trumpet students around the world for his ability to hit high notes with ease, Ferguson is often derided by serious jazz fans who consider his music to be shallow and overly flashy. When the 70s rolled around Ferguson further distanced himself from the critics when he jumped on the lucrative jazz-rock phenomena. His self titled LP, “Maynard Ferguson”, does not contain any big surprises for that time period, it consists mostly of pop and rock tunes done up in a huge way Maynard Ferguson big band style. Despite his tendencies towards the bombastic, or maybe because of them, this is a good album filled with imaginative arrangements played with high energy enthusiasm. For a possible reference, this is somewhat similar to Don Ellis’ exotic big band pop covers, but the more straight forward Ferguson lacks Ellis’ sly sense of irony.
This album was recorded while Ferguson was working in England for a five year period, which helps explain a couple interesting surprises. One surprise is the presence of British artsy avant-garde trumpeter Kenny Wheeler who contributes a couple of arrangements and more than likely some playing too (there are no musician credits on here). The other oddity is a cover of Ian Anderson’s “Living in the Past”, not your usual jazz-pop cover. Despite the overall glib cheezyness, some of these songs really rock with intense free solos, particularly “My Sweet Lord” and “The Serpent”. Kenny Wheeler uses “Fire and Rain” to build avant-Euro style intense repeating phrases which Ferguson tops with a screaming solo. There’s some good tunes, but then there are some others that get tedious and having tedium promoted with a screaming big band is not pleasant.
I’m not sure who the target audience is here, this isn’t jazzy enough for the jazz fans, and possibly not witty enough for the exotica fans. Still, if high energy rockin 70s big band pop covers is your idea of a good time, then here you go. Ferguson’s loud clothes and big smile on the album cover say it all.