I knew it was coming......

Maynard Ferguson, whose soaring trumpeting reached the instrument’s highest ranges and propelled a musical career of more than 60 years, died Wednesday in Ventura, Calif. He was 78.

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Maynard Ferguson at the Blue Note in New York last month.

The cause was kidney and liver failure, said his personal manager, Steve Schankman.

Mr. Ferguson had a stratospheric style all his own. He possessed “a tremendous breadth of sound and an incomparable tone,” said Lew Soloff, a prominent trumpeter who started out with Mr. Ferguson in the mid-1960’s. The writer Frank Conroy once noted, “He soared above everything, past high C, into the next octave and a half, where his tone and timbre became unique” — sometimes reaching, as Mr. Schankman said, “notes so high that only dogs could hear them.”

He pleased far more crowds than critics. John S. Wilson, reviewing Mr. Ferguson’s big band at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival for The New York Times, called it “screaming” and “strident.” Yet that same year the readers of Down Beat magazine voted the band the world’s second-best, outranked only by Count Basie’s.

Today, record collectors pay hundreds of dollars for rare Fergusons. “Very few rock superstars can command that kind of prices for used CD’s or records,” said John Himes, who runs the Maynard Ferguson Album Emporium in Cypress, Calif.

Mr. Ferguson’s bands toured ceaselessly, across Asia, Europe and the United States, stopping often at high schools and colleges, where he served as both entertainer and educator. At his last stand — a six-night booking at the Blue Note in New York, which ended July 23 — every show sold out. The next week, he completed the last of his roughly 100 recordings; it is to be released this fall.

Walter Maynard Ferguson was born on May 4, 1928, in Verdun, Canada, now part of the city of Montreal. Both his parents were teachers and school administrators. His mother, a former concert violinist, taught him to play at an early age. His father stored school orchestra instruments in the basement, and Mr. Ferguson schooled himself on woodwinds and brass. By 15, he was out of school and into nightclubs, seven days a week.

He came to national attention in 1950 with a four-minute televised cavalcade on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” backed by Stan Kenton’s big band. After three years with the brass-heavy Kenton band, he did studio work and then, in 1956, formed his own band, which he led for a decade.

After a trip or two to Timothy Leary’s consciousness-altering community in Millbrook, N.Y., Mr. Ferguson dissolved his band in 1967 and moved to India for a year. He began a new band in London in 1969, fusing rock and pop into its repertory. His stock with jazz purists fell as he played his versions of hits by the Beatles and Stevie Wonder. But his popularity skyrocketed.

Mr. Ferguson’s performance of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” an operatic warhorse turned into a disco anthem, was heard at the closing ceremony of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and seen by millions of television viewers. His version of “Gonna Fly Now,” the indelible theme from the movie “Rocky,” was nominated for a Grammy in 1977.

Mr. Ferguson won his homeland’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada, in 2005. His wife of 53 years, Flo Ferguson, died that year. He is survived by four daughters, Kim, Lisa, Corby and Wilder, and two grandchildren.

Unlike many bandleaders, Mr. Ferguson rode a bus from stage to stage with his musicians. His tour manager, Ed Sargent, said that he preferred to travel in “a million-dollar rock ’n’ roll coach” with his sidemen.

Mr. Schankman, his manager, said that Mr. Ferguson had a cross-country tour set to begin in a few weeks, and pleaded from his deathbed for the shows to go on.

 

 

 

 

 

He was one of the last living legends, I was blessed to open for him and the bop neuavo band in Abilene playing in the ACU jazz band. I don't know if I can really express how much this man means to me and I know all of my non jazz fan friends won't care but he was amazing. I deeply respect and admire the artistic genius that he was. But I knew it was coming. He could barely walk when he played with us in Abilene and had to leave the stage during the middle of the concert of a defibrillator treatment. On the stand next to him when he played was a cup of water and a cup of some sort of dark beer. and he couldn't stand up for too long, heck, I don't even think he played his trumpet for 10 minutes of the hour and a half they played. But when he did play it was good all things considered. He will be a great loss to the already small jazz community.

A song I wrote about Ruth......

Sung to the tune of: "he's got the whole world in his hands"

Well, Ruth was a moabite./ Well, Ruth was a Moabite./Well, Ruth was a Moabite./ She was a Moabite.

Naomi was her mother in Law. (repeat twice) She was Ruth's mother in law.

There was a big famine in the land (repeat twice) It killed Naomi's husband and sons.

So she left for Judah the very next day (repeat twice) and she told her daughter in laws to stay.

Well, Ruth went with Naomi, yes she did. (repeat twice) and Orpah stayed in Moab.

In Judah, Ruth collected grain. (repeat twice) In the fields of gracious Boaz.

And Ruth seduced Boaz at the threshing floor. (repeat twice) Some might say she was a......woman of unfavorable reputation.

Ruth and Boaz get married, yes they did (repeat twice) and they have a son named Obed.

Obed is the grandpa of ol' king David. (repeat twice) he was a man after God's own heart.

It could be a kids song if I left out a few things.....but I think I might sing it when I teach about Ruth in the college class. what do you think?

Birthday!

I am so glad my birthday is in early August, around this time is the best time to have a birthday because you start to get in this slump where you think people don't love you and then BAM! Birthday!!!! I have to say this has been the best one yet, but I am sure next year will top this one. I got so many facebook and myspace messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday and telling me the love me and that's always a good thing. So here is a low down of my day because I know you are dying to hear about it.

I got up at 8 to go to breakfast with Ann at Michel's kitchen, it was very yummy as always, we plan on going there more often so we can say "Oh, we will have the regular." I think that place has become like our place, we have had great conversations there, you know the 2 times we have been there, but they have been some of the best conversations I have had in a while.

I went home and cleaned a bit and changed into work clothes then I cashed the check from my grandmother. I went to best buy and got a memory card for my new camera. it was 24.99 and it had a $10 mail in rebate so I mailed that in. I ate my left overs from bennigans (I went there with the fam last night) for lunch and cut open a cantaloupe and ate some of that and put the rest in the fridge.

I went to work at 1 and learned a lot. I checked out a lot of people and learned what to do with checks and travelers checks and vouchers and stuff. I even stayed a little late because a ton of people were in my line and I checked them all out.

I went to sonic and got some mozzarella sticks and a vanilla Dr. pepper after work.

Crashed at the house, checked my mail and such.

then I went to church, it was awesome, the college group sang to me and it was not out of tune (because we are mostly church of Christ, it is a perk). I also got a present from Eric, which was some material I wanted over Ruth. For those of you that don't know sometime in late September/ early October I am speaking in class Sunday morning over Ruth, I am really excited but really scared at the same time but I have time to keep praying and looking at the book of Ruth so I think it should all be ok.

After church we went to Mr. Chopsticks and it was very yummy, I love that place. then Tyler and Katie had an Ice cream cake at their house for me, not everyone could come eat it but Justin, Kelly and I had some as well as the Dawsons.

All in all is was a great day, I feel really loved right now which is a big change from what I have been feeling. Not that I haven't been feeling loved but today was like mega love.

Thanks to Ann, Katie, Tyler, Nathan, Jordan, Kelly, Brandon, Justin, Sam (his name was on the card Justin and Brandon gave me) and really everyone but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head because they were with me tonight. But everyone made my birthday awesome so thank you so much.

Tuesday I looked at my bed and realized that I hadn't washed my sheets in a while and I like to have clean sheets, something kinda odd about me I guess, so I washed them. I went to my linen closet to pull out other sheets to put on my bed and I realized that I had no other sheets to put on my bed, I only brought the ones I was using to my apartment. So I went to walmart and bought some awesome new sheets. They are blue and have this cool paisley print on them, I think they look nice with my red curtains and underneath my denim quilt that I am not using because it is hot. Well, I got this new drying rack from my aunt on sunday to dry clothes because I don't have a dryer and thanks to the new rack I dried both my old pair of sheets and the new pair! It was very awesome.

My master plan to go on a date with everyone I know has not gone over too well. I figured this would be a good time to do it because it is summer and most people don't have to worry too much about school and work, but so far I have only gone out on "dates" with Katie and Ann. I had awesome times with them and I want to have awesome times with everyone else, but a few people do not seem too open to the idea. I think it's because I am calling it a  "date" it is not a romantic date, it is me just wanting to hang out with you and get to know you better. So please don't freak out when I call you asking you out because I am going to call you. 

Yeah.

The religion of the future....

Kristin posted this on myspace and I thought it was quite funny. read it, you will be glad you did.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

* An invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, starting with a mountain, trees and a midgit.

* All evidence pointing toward evolution was intentionally planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The FSM tests Pastafarians' faith by making things look older than they really are. "For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease."

* Pastafarian heaven includes at least one "beer volcano" and one stripper factory.

* "Ramen" is the official conclusion to prayers, certain sections of the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc., and is a combination of the Hebrew term "Amen" and Ramen, a type of noodles. While it is typically spelt with both a capital "R" and "A", it is also acceptable to spell it with only a capital R.

According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are "absolute divine beings" and the original Pastafarians. Their image as "thieves and outcasts" is all misinformation spread by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages. In reality, Pastafarianism says that they were "peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will" who would distribute candy to children.

The inclusion of pirates into Flying Spaghetti Monsterism was part of Henderson's original letter to the Kansas School Board, as a way of illustrating that correlation does not equal causation. In it, Henderson puts forth the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s."A chart accompanying the letter shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased, bringing attention to the fact that things with statistically significant correlations are nevertheless not necessarily related.

Henderson has stated that all proceeds from The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster sales will go towards the purchase of a pirate ship. "The plan, for some time now, has been to form a non-profit organization, and then purchase a pirate ship, for missionary work - tax free." Claimed as a task given to him directly by the FSM, Henderson contends that such a ship would help spread Pastafarianism to those without Internet access, as well as contributing to a decrease of global warming.

The Commandments

1. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Act Like a Sanctimonious Holier-Than-Thou Ass When Describing My Noodly Goodness. If Some People Don't Believe In Me, That's Okay. Really, I'm Not That Vain. Besides, This Isn't About Them So Don't Change The Subject.
2. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Use My Existence As A Means To Oppress, Subjugate, Punish, Eviscerate, And/Or, You Know, Be Mean To Others. I Don't Require Sacrifices, And Purity Is For Drinking Water, Not People.
3. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Judge People For The Way They Look, Or How They Dress, Or The Way They Talk, Or, Well, Just Play Nice, Okay? Oh, And Get This In Your Thick Heads: Woman = Person. Man = Person. Samey - Samey. One Is Not Better Than The Other, Unless We're Talking About Fashion And I'm Sorry, But I Gave That To Women And Some Guys Who Know The Difference Between Teal and Fuchsia.
4. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Indulge In Conduct That Offends Yourself, Or Your Willing, Consenting Partner Of Legal Age AND Mental Maturity. As For Anyone Who Might Object, I Think The Expression Is Go Fuck Yourself, Unless They Find That Offensive In Which Case They Can Turn Off the TV For Once And Go For A Walk For A Change.
5. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Challenge The Bigoted, Misogynist, Hateful Ideas Of Others On An Empty Stomach. Eat, Then Go After The Bastard
6. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Build Multimillion-Dollar Churches/Temples/Mosques/Shrines To My Noodly Goodness When The Money Could Be Better Spent (Take Your Pick):
1. Ending Poverty
2. Curing Diseases
3. Living In Peace, Loving With Passion, And Lowering The Cost Of Cable
I Might be a Complex-Carbohydrate Omniscient Being, But I Enjoy The Simple Things In Life. I Ought To Know. I AM the Creator.
7. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Go Around Telling People I Talk To You. You're Not That Interesting. Get Over Yourself. And I Told You To Love Your Fellow Man, Can't You Take A Hint?
8. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You If You Are Into, Um, Stuff That Uses A Lot of Leather/Lubricant/Las Vegas. If the Other Person Is Into It, However (Pursuant To ..4), Then Have At It, Take Pictures, And For The Love Of Mike, Wear a CONDOM! Honestly, It's A Piece of Rubber. If I Didn't Want It To Feel Good When You Did It I Would Have Added Spikes, Or Something.