Maynard Ferguson Orchestra - The Complete Roulette Recordings - [10CD Set] - Limited Edition of 5000 Copies (1994)

Limited Edition 10 CD set of only 5,000 copies worldwide.After immersing yourself in nine hours and 141 tracks of the Ferguson orchestra of the late 1950s and early sixties, Double high Cs will be ringing in your brain for months.
Ferguson gave the orchestra a signature sound and much of its drive, but this was an arrangers’ band.
The high-note trumpeter had charts from established writers like Marty Paich, Bill Holman, Ernie Wilkins and Benny Golson. He also encouraged arrangements from band members, and launched the arranging careers of Slide Hampton, Don Menza, Mike Abene and Don Sebesky. Willie Maiden had been a journeyman arranger for Ferguson since 1952. The uniqueness and command of the idiom in Jaki Byard’s few arrangements for the band emphasize the mystery of why his writing skills didn’t put him in wide demand. It was a remarkable stable of arrangers, many of them writing for a group of musicians with whom they played every night.
The resourcefulness of the arrangers made Ferguson’s ensemble sound bigger than its 13 pieces. Some of the charts experimented with keys and voicings in ways quite daring for the period, or any other. The 141 tracks of this 10-CD set include many standards in addition to the original compositions generated by the arrangers. For the most part, the arrangers fashioned standards for the dance jobs Ferguson frequently played, but they produced some of the most interesting writing in the album, much of it by Hampton, Sebesky and Maiden. Hampton’s version of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and Sebesky’s “I’m Beginning To See The Light” are two examples of innovation applied to familiar material.
As for the straight-ahead jazz charts, the “Fox” series, “Three Little Foxes,” “Three More Foxes” and “Fox Hunt” contains exciting workouts for the trumpets. “Oleo” and “The Mark Of Jazz” have some of Hampton’s best early writing. The ingenuity of Byard’s section-against-section scoring and stretched blues harmonies in “X Stream” (aka “Ode To Bird’s Mother”) underscores lost opportunities when Ferguson failed to make greater use of the pianist’s talent for orchestration.
To emphasize the importance of the arranging staff is not to downplay the importance of the band’s soloists. Maiden’s tenor saxophone was central to the excitement, as were Menza’s and Joe Farrell’s during their time with Ferguson. Also important were the young Slide Hampton’s trombone work, the alto solos of Jimmy Ford, Lanny Morgan and Carmen Leggio, the idiosyncratic range of Byard’s piano and the drive of Joe Zawinul’s. Drummers Frankie Dunlop, Rufus Jones and Jake Hanna swung the band while meeting the book’s complex challenges.
The enthusiasm Ferguson transmitted to his young musicians made it one of the most exhilarating bands of the period. The force and range of his horn dominated the trumpet section, especially when he doubled the lead an octave or two higher. Still, these recordings have important ensemble and occasional solo contributions by Bill Chase, Clyde Reasinger, Chet Ferretti, Don Ellis and Jerry Tyree.
The freshness and joy of playing that marked the Ferguson band come across with impact in this collection. As usual in Mosaic sets, the accompanying documentation is part of the pleasure. The helpful essay and play-by-play description by Bret Primack includes the reconstruction of a night at Birdland that will stimulate amusement and recognition in anyone who ever endured Pee Wee Marquette and sat in an audience walloped by the power of the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra.


TRACK LIST:

Disc 1

1 And We Listened (5:45)
2 The Fugue (3:27)
3 Humbug (3:31)
4 Slide's Derangement (7:56)
5 Frame for the Blues (6:54)
6 The Waltz (4:04)
7 Three Little Foxes (4:05)
8 Tag Team (5:08)
9 Fan It, Janet (3:14)
10 Don'cha Go 'Way Mad (2:46)
11 Bye Bye Blackbird (3:02)
12 Tenderly (3:42)

Disc 2

1 It's a Pity To Say Goodnight (2:29)
2 BJ's Back in Town (3:11)
3 Bittersweet (3:11)
4 They Can't Take That Away From Me (3:09)
5 Love Walked In (3:19)
6 Dancing in the Dark (2:07)
7 What's New (3:12)
8 Can't We Be Friends (4:06)
9 That Old Feeling (3:28)
10 Secret Love (2:25)
11 Full Moon and Empty Arms (3:19)
12 Tis Autumn (3:12)
13 You Took Advantage of Me (2:49)
14 Soft Winds (3:31)
15 It's Only a Paper Moon (2:43)

Disc 3

1 Aren't You Glad You're You (2:38)
2 Round Midnight (3:16)
3 She's Funny That Way (2:44)
4 Lonely Town (3:33)
5 I'm Beginning To See the Light (2:52)
6 Do Nothin Till You Hear from Me (2:23)
7 Stompin at the Savoy (2:30)
8 It Might as Well Be Spring (3:35)
9 I'll Be Seeing You (2:27)
10 If I Should Lose You (3:35)
11 Don't Take Your Love from Me (3:03)
12 Let's Fall in Love (2:22)
13 Where's Teddy (2:41)
14 This Is Always (2:55)
15 Hey There (3:01)

Disc 4

1 Newport (8:41)
2 Motherless Child (2:56)
3 Old Man River (7:05)
4 Three More Foxes (7:12)
5 Jazz Bary (4:28)
6 Foxy (5:10)
7 Got the Spirit (3:56)
8 Doin' the Madison (Part I) (2:55)
9 Doin' the Madison (Part II) (2:54)
10 Mangos (4:06)

Disc 5

1 Don't Take Your Love from Me (2:56)
2 My Foolish Heart (2:56)
3 Let's Face the Music and Dance (1:59)
4 You Don't Know What Love Is (2:53)
5 It's Only a Paper Moon (2:46)
6 The Party's Over (3:46)
7 The Masquerade Is Over (3:36)
8 Let's Do It (3:10)
9 Spring Is Here (4:02)
10 It Could Happen to You (2:23)
11 Teach Me Tonight (3:32)
12 Olé (6:31)
13 Christmas for Moderns (7:07)
14 New Blue (5:43)

Disc 6

1 The Pharaoh (7:44)
2 Ultimate Rejection (6:18)
3 G o East, Young Man (4:34)
4 Saturday Night (2:51)
5 Blues for Kapp (5:13)
6 This Is My Lucky Day (3:03)
7 Goodbye (4:49)
8 Straight Away (2:22)
9 Stroking (5:59)
10 Melancholy (2:25)
11 Mambo Le Mans (5:12)
12 'Round About the Blues (4:21)

Disc 7

1 Apprehensions (4:16)
2 Cocky Scott (3:44)
3 Up Shift (2:45)
4 Last Lap (3:53)
5 Pit Stop (2:03)
6 After the Race (2:08)
7 Lazy Afternoon (4:21)
8 Ain't Life Grand (2:56)
9 Have You Met Miss Jones (2:31)
10 Four (3:35)
11 Maria (3:06)
12 "X" Stream (3:19)
13 Go East, Young Man (5:52)
14 Pretty Little Nieda (5:49)
15 This Is My Lucky Day (2:27)
16 Hip Twist (2:15)

Disc 8

1 Almost Like Being in Love (2:03)
2 Born To Be Blue (3:38)
3 A Soulful Moment (4:58)
4 My Sweetie Went Away, She Didn't Say Where, When or Why (2:55)
5 Straight Out (3:36)
6 Si! Si! M.F. (6:15)
7 Mimi (5:19)
8 Morgan's Organ (4:24)
9 What'll I Do (2:42)
10 Early Hours (3:57)
11 Great Guns (5:22)
12 Easy Chair (4:02)
13 New Bag Blues (3:10)
14 September Moan (4:05)
15 Sin Blues (2:51)
16 Hate Notes (2:33)
17 Overcoat Stomp (2:39)

Disc 9

1 Nude Mood (2:48)
2 In Retrospect (3:08)
3 For the Cats (2:48)
4 L & M (3:09)
5 Lament for Susan (3:46)
6 Antibes (2:56)
7 One for Otis (2:47)
8 Animated Suspension (2:24)
9 Knarf (4:41)
10 Head Hunter (3:02)
11 Fox Hunt (3:17)
12 Let's Try (4:37)
13 Guess Again (3:32)
14 Reflection (2:53)
15 Spookin' (3:16)
16 Vignette (2:56)
17 Jennifer's Bounce (2:23)
18 Statement (6:13)

Disc 10

1 Oleo (9:11)
2 Starfire (4:50)
3 The Mark of Jazz (6:46)
4 Night Life (4:39)
5 Stella by Starlight (6:10)
6 Lonely Time (4:47)
7 Back in the Satellite Again (2:54)
8 Three More Foxes (7:21)
9 Sea Isle Stomp (8:02)
10 Night Life (alternate take) (4:59)
11 The Mark of Jazz (alternate take) (8:08)
12 Blue Birdland (1:54)