Maynard Ferguson - The Best Of Maynard Ferguson (1980)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

Despite the album title, this is hardly Maynard's best, but it does include some of his best known work. Let's be honest, this is a bunch of big band disco music from the '70s that includes 4 soundtrack themes. However, it includes a lot of screaming trumpet playing, which is why we listen to Maynard in the first place. This album was my introduction to Maynard and it got a lot of playing time back in the early '80s. Not so much anymore.

Tracks: My favorites are Gonna Fly Now, MacArthur Park, and Birdland. Indeed, Maynard's Birdland may be my favorite version of that piece. The space theme music from TV and the movies (Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica) are all cheesy messes, especially Battlestar Galactica. The Star Trek cut has the highest trumpet note on the album, which I figure to be a concert Ab⁴. The most laughable track is the disco version of a famous aria from the opera Pagliacci. There is a decent big band bebop track, Airegin, and it is quite good, but they stuck at the end of the album where it seems like an afterthought, unfortunately.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Let me take you back to 1983. We had high school marching band practice in the early mornings and were allowed time to change clothes before moving on to our second period class. I kept my clothes in my car and would often just change shirts right there in the parking lot. Naturally, I would turn on the car stereo when I was there (the Markmobile had a fairly decent Pioneer deck). One morning, I had this tape playing loudly in the school parking lot, blaring Birdland. Students who were moving out of the band hall to the parking lot would come over, hear the music and, inexplicably, start dancing. Of course, I joined in. So we literally had dancing in the streets to outdated big band music. The band director eventually came out and put a stop to it. Buzzkill. Just another example of the man trying to stifle self-expression.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Hollywood (1982)