| I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked into my new school at the beginning of 9th grade. I'd been playing the trumpet for a while, always first chair, but I'd never really played any jazz and had no interest or exposure to it.
We were allowed to store our instruments in the band room during classes, so first thing in the morning, everybody in the band headed there to leave their horns. My new band director (one of the hippest people I've ever known) often played records on the band room system at this time.
So, during about the second week of school I walked in and heard something I'd never heard before...it was the brand new Maynard Ferguson record, MF Horn Two, and the tune was 'Give It One'. I literally walked up to the band director and asked what instrument that was. I had no idea a trumpet could be played like that!!! I quickly became a huge Maynard fan, seeing 7 or 8 live shows over the next 12 years or so, and even writing a fan letter at one point (which he answered on Holiday Inn stationary from OshKosh Wisconsin!)
Anyway, I'm 48 now, I recently hung up the horn for good, but Maynard Ferguson was one of many musicians who were seminal influences on me as a musican and a human being. I would have given my left arm to have played with his band, but that was never in the cards. Godspeed.
bigtiny |