Maynard Ferguson's Horn, Vol. 6: Live at Ronnie's

Maynard Ferguson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 26, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bcd Music Group
• ASIN: B000FTAVU0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,695 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Last One, February 17, 2007

By 

Florida MF Fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maynard Ferguson's Horn, Vol. 6: Live at Ronnie's (Audio CD)

It's Maynard Ferguson's last CD...so that makes it special all by itself. Certainly the Boss continued to amaze all right up to the end. And much has been made of his "resurgence" in recent months with the new horn and all.

But candidly, this recording was too late. The band is not the top line it could have been.

Patrick Hession does a great job on lead trumpet and plays some wild notes in the Hit Medley covering the Boss's old parts. Stockton Helbing is a fine and gifted drummer who has matured nicely as part of the band over the years, graduating to music director this go round.

But otherwise, not the greatest performance turned in.

Still, a worthwhile buy because it was the final new recording of one of the all time great impact trumpeters.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Collectors / serious fans only, February 12, 2007

By 

Steve Frazier (Seattle) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Maynard Ferguson's Horn, Vol. 6: Live at Ronnie's (Audio CD)

It's amazing that Maynard Ferguson, well into his mid-70's at the time of this recording, was still able to play trumpet with the power and precision that he displays on this CD. It's even more impressive knowing that by 2005 (when this was recorded) he had survived more than 55 years of touring and traveling with various bands. Truly he was a force of nature, and there are some snippets here that hint at this virtuosity.

However, when compared with other work from Maynard's career, this is not one of his better efforts. Maynard's playing on this CD includes a few forays into the upper register, but in general he lacks the real physical ability and creative spark that so many of his early CD's display. And even though earlier in his career Maynard was a more-than-acceptable soloist and improviser, you don't get to hear a lot of lower-register Maynard on this disc, either. If this were the first MF album you'd ever heard, I think you'd walk away wondering how he built the career and devoted fan following that he (still) has.

As usual Maynard is fronting an eager band of talented young musicians. And there are a couple of good arrangements and entertaining songs here. But the overall quality of the arrangements and the band does not make it stand alone as a top-notch big band album; Maynard aside, the performances and the arrangements are just OK, and not up to par with a long list of other current big band CD's on the market. Particularly painful is the "MF Hit Medley": this worked well to appease live audiences who wanted to hear a bit of everything from Maynard's career, but on CD it's a choppy, disjointed collection of phrases and melodies that doesn't hang together. If you're enough of a Maynard Ferguson plan to recognize all these "greatest hits" from his career, you'd rather hear the originals.

So -- kudos to Maynard for years of inspiration and dedication, and for recording some licks on this CD that would put many younger players to shame. Unfortunately for this CD, it doesn't meet the standards of so many other albums of his work that are still available on the market. If you're an extremely dedicated fan, you may want to pick this up, but there are easily another dozen MF CD's you ought to own before exploring this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Live Albums Are the Best, January 26, 2010

By 

George Jetson "gator hater" (on top of it) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Maynard Ferguson's Horn, Vol. 6: Live at Ronnie's (Audio CD)

Maynard and his band always sound better live. And this album is Maynard's last live recording. Honestly, Maynard sounds a bit tired at times, but when he soars into the stratosphere he sounds like the Maynard of old. I enjoy all the tracks on this CD, and have listened to them all at least a half-dozen times in the past month.