When I first heard Maynard Ferguson play the trumpet, he was already fronting his own band. He had flashed to jazz stardom playing in the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Kenton featured him on a piece simply titled "Maynard Ferguson." When you listen to it, you can hear some incredible pyrotechnics culminating in what would become Maynard’s trademark: hitting double-high C.
We used to sit on the steps outside Johnny Williams Luncheonette at Ninth and Wolf and listen to great jazz like Ferguson’s on a big old FM radio owned by one of the guys, Bobby DiDio. We were transported by the music, the "sounds" we called it. Maynard would hit double-high C and Bobby would smile knowingly, while the rest of us would smile in disbelief. Maynard was only 5-feet-9. How the hell could he hit that note? Those were the days when college kids could name every member of the Modern Jazz Quartet or the lead alto with Basie or the 10-best Ellington tunes of all time.
Sid Mark used Maynard Ferguson’s signature piece to open his "Mark of Jazz" on WHAT-FM in the late ’50s and early ’60s and then ended it with Ferguson’s "Frame for the Blues." "Maynard, take us on home," is the way Sid put it. When I became privileged to work on WHAT-FM playing jazz, Sid took me to Pep’s Musical Bar at Broad and South to see Maynard and his band. Pep’s was barely large enough to house the sound of Maynard Ferguson and that night made an indelible impression on my eardrums. Sid viewed Maynard as a brother and often referred to him as his "brother" on the air.
There was a kid in basic training at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base in my Air Force Reserve unit, Rich Longitano. He had taken his trumpet with him to basic training. He called it his "axe." Rich dreamed of playing like Maynard Ferguson and every time we had a bit of free time, he would take his "axe" with him, off where no one could see him, and he would wail like Maynard and play mournful taps like Prew in "From Here to Eternity," the notes finding the loneliness deep inside the homesickness each of us felt. It seemed as if Maynard Ferguson was everywhere back then.
Times change. So do musical tastes. I’d lost track of Maynard. It was July 2004 when I heard he was going to be back in the area, playing at Zanzibar Blue. We made reservations in great anticipation of seeing Maynard and hearing him play again. That night we were just getting ready to leave when the phone rang. My Mom had been rushed to the hospital. We never made it to the show. She never made it out of the hospital.
Two years would pass before we got our next opportunity. Maynard Ferguson was back at Zanzibar Blue. Six weeks ago, we stood in the bar area listening to him play. The "Band" was now five guys and Maynard. He sat on a stool, wearing one of those island-type shirts, maybe twice the size he was when I last saw him. Maynard did not feature himself in every number. He took time off while some of the younger guys hit the notes he used to hit. But, every once in awhile, Maynard would cut loose and, if it wasn’t double-C he was hitting, it was close enough to make all of the intervening years fade away. He seemed to be having a great time, laughing and joking on stage, snapping his fingers to the rhythm.
When the set ended, Maynard and another member of the band were going up the steps leading out of the basement jazz club into the Hyatt Hotel. Someone stopped him and he turned and laughed at something the fan said. I had the urge to run up and tell him how great it was to see him playing on tour, tell him about those years sitting on the steps of the luncheonette listening to him blow that horn, tell him about the kid in basic training and how I heard he had wound up playing for Woody Herman’s Third Herd, tell him how I used to follow Sid Mark on the air right after Maynard’s last notes of "Frame for the Blues" had died away. But I didn’t. He walked away, a big smile on his face.
Maynard Ferguson died Aug. 24 in Ventura, Calif., at the age of 78. The obituary said he was famous for playing the trumpet in the "Rocky" theme. He meant a helluva lot more.
