Track Listing

1. Teonova
2. MacArthur Park
3. Left Bank Express
4. I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You
5. Two for Otis
6. Stay Loose with Bruce
7. Nice 'N Juicy
8. Fox Hunt
9. Got the Spirit
10. Blue Birdland

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11534 in Music
• Released on: 2007-02-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .19 pounds

Album Description
This 1974 release from this legendary Jazz trumpeter, reached #40 on The Billboard Jazz Albums chart. This was originally a two record set, now contained on a single disc. The best of his Jazz-oriented recordings for the Columbia label, Live At Jimmy's features Ferguson ably assisted bay Lin Biviano, Andy MacIntish, Ferdinand Povel, Pete Jackson and Bruce Johnstone. Wounded Bird. 2007.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely one of the best live sets ever recorded!!!
Maynard Ferguson, Live at Jimmy's. First, let me say, It's about flippin' time they released this on CD!. I had just about worn out the vinyl record that I bought 30 years ago.

Maynard always had the knack of attracting some of the strongest jazz players available. This version of the orchestra, with Bruce Johnston on baritone sax and Randy Jones on keyboards to name a few, was one of his strongest. This set was recorded during a mid-day concert in front of a packed house of Columbia Record exec's. The reason was when the idea arose to record at Jimmy's there wasn't enough time to arrange it before the group headed off to another gig up in New England. So the afternoon concert was arranged so that the group could return to New York for the recording and still get back to their nighttime concert.

The music here is some of his best. "MacArthur's Park" is a great rendition, much better than the version recorded a couple years earlier on his Live at the Great American Music Hall pair of CD's. It's followed by my personnel favorite "Left Bank Express." Other top numbers are "Two for Otis", "Nice & Juicy" and the final piece, "Got the Spirit." But pretty much all the listing here is great, with maybe the first piece "Teonova" being the weakest.

Again, I just can not express how happy I am that this is finally out on CD. If you are a Maynard fanatic or just a fan of Big Band jazz, do not hesitate to buy this. It's well worth it.

The Best of the MF Horn / Columbia releases
It's interesting that Maynard took a page out of the Rich book in recording this album live rather than in the studio. I was privileged to see this band live more than once during this period of time, even attended a clinic or two, and this is really the only Ferguson Big Band release that does justice to the band. This band had a loose, flowing nature, not as mechanistic as the Rich or even the Herman outfits; certainly more of a 'bop' inspired big band in the mold of say, the Clarke Boland Big Band or even somewhat the Don Ellis outfit. This is, to my mind, the definitive Maynard Ferguson Big Band release. While Biviano is an added attraction, he pales in significance to The Man himself, and Maynard always fielded an excellent roster of young musicians. Stay Loose With Bruce, Left Bank Express and the evergreen (for Maynard, anyway) Fox Hunt are some of the highlights from this recording.

An underrated and long overdue release!!!!
Prior to going into a phase of attempting to mesh more commercial disco sensibilities with his sound, Maynard made music along these lines.

Now I know that there are many who relish hearing and buy Maynard for his virtuosity on trumpet but the real treasure here is the band.

By that I mean, this band has some marvelous soloists. The arrangments are outstanding and this band swings. At the time of the release there was some grumblings about the use of some electric piano on these pieces, but to my ear it works and is well in context.

The soloists I mentioned earlier are Bob Summers, Ferdinand Povel and Bruce Johnstone. Trumpet, Alto and Baritone saxes respectively. The tune that you you might consider commercial is "MacArthur Park" which is so maligned that it's almost gutsy to do the song. I liked their treatment of it. Maynard is Maynard on it. High up in the stratosphere near the satellites. Bruce Johnstone's solo is outstanding here even introducing a little Latin run.

"I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You" is startling. All Ferdinand Povel in a marvelous display of what jazz ballad soloing is all about. He improvises beautifully, with excellent tone, literally redefining and modernizing it. I can listen to this one over and over again.

"Got the Spirit" starts out with Bruce Johnstone in blues mode on Baritone and then segues to a wonderfully up-tempo display of virtuosity tenor saxophone virtuosity - by Ferdinand Povel, that section ending with Maynard and him trading licks.


"Stay Loose With Bruce" - is a swinging vehicle for Bruce Johnstone who plays it for all it's worth. Cool, imaginative, expansive and as I said, swinging.

"Left Bank Express" is solid, driving modern jazz orchestra that gets the blood going. Very nice soprano saxophone sol

"The Fox Hunt" is a tour de force featuring Bob Summer and Maynard playing at full throttle. An amazing display of virtuosity, fire and drive by both.

"Two For Otis" is jazz orchestra at it's highest form. It just brings the house down.

I could go on and on. This album is a winner and it's amazing that it took this long for this recording to come out on CD. That's a shame since this one's up there, for me. An excellent Maynard Ferguson recording.