I can’t believe I’m the first to post this.
Legendary trumpeter Maynard Ferguson has passed away at the age of 78:
Wow, back when I was in band, I listened to all of his music. I can’t even imagine the number of high school trumpet players that listened to him.
RIP
I saw he and his band play at the La Bastille club in Houston in 1975. They played a 2 hour and 20 min set that wailed. He was great, but so was the everyone else. It was a night I’ll never forget and magnitudes better than his best recordings.
Thanks Maynard.
That guy could make even MacArthur Park sound cool.
Check.
Man that guy could blow.
Not just trumpet players. (I played trombone.) Maynard Ferguson’s music, in addition to getting me through the 9th grade, introduced me to my lifelong love of jazz. Thanks, Maynard.
Sax player chiming in here to agree wholeheartedly.
And his music got me through the 80’s entire.
I first heard him in a live performance at a local community college. I was 15, and went with a bunch of friends from band. I had no idea who he was at the time.
It was pretty amazing.
Wow I can’t believe you were the first to post that either.
My best friend is a trumpet player (me, trombone). Maynard is his idol. I just told him, he’s very angry he didn’t go see Maynard in February.
Big loss 
I saw him, maybe 25 years ago, doing a small concert at a local college. I was disappointed.
Live, he left the “nice” playing to the trumpeter in the band and just did the really high (what I think of as screaming) notes. He might have been drunk, too… just didn’t really seem to be part of what was happening on stage.
I think I’ll miss Mangione more when he goes.
-Belrix (former sax player)
Sax player checking in, and I did jazz band throughout high school and into college. He was a BEAST of a trumpet player, and he will be missed.
I was a sax player too, and I didn’t really listen to Maynard all that much, but Gonna Fly Now was pretty much ubiquitous on the radio during the time I was playing alto sax in my junior high school jazz band. I do think I’ve got one of his cassette tapes around here somewhere. I’d dig it out, but I don’t have a cassette player anymore
But even though I wouldn’t really call myself a fan, I figured I’d post it when I saw nobody else had done so.