Famed trumpet player Maynard Ferguson says he doesn’t let long road trips get to him
The CD was the latest in a long line of hits for Ferguson. Born in Quebec, Canada, Ferguson made his debut in the jazz world in 1950 with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. He could play higher than any other trumpeter in the history of jazz up to that point, and since then he has kept that range in becoming one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world. After playing several years with Kenton, he formed his own big band from 1957 to 1965. When economics forced him to give up the band, Ferguson took some time off and moved around to England and India. He came back to the U.S. in the mid-1970s and struck gold with “Gonna Fly Now,’ which became the theme song for the hit movie “Rocky.’ One of the most instantly recognizable movie themes in history, it quickly won Ferguson a legion of new fans.After several years of playing more commercial music, Ferguson formed a funk band called High Voltage in the 1980s before returning to mainstream jazz with his current band, Big Bop Nouveau Band.
For Ferguson, it was like coming back home.
“I like doing different things, and I tried some different types of music,” he said. “There’s so much you can do with computers now, but after I did the electric thing for a while then I thought well that’s enough and I got back into big band jazz and this is what I really like the most.”