by Walter White

I answered the phone one afternoon in 1989 and the voice on the other end said, “Hi, this is Maynard Ferguson… uh, who's this?” Hi, Maynard, it's Walter White, I replied. “Oh, Walter!! (Ha-ha) That's my name, too! Must be some kind of Freudian thing! (Ha-ha-ha!).” Thus began my formal invitation to join the Big Bop Nouveau Band. I met the band in Ojai a few weeks later to begin rehearsals. I was pretty keyed up when he walked in on the first day ready to run down the tunes for the tour including a duet with me , The Fox Hunt , an up-tempo trumpet battle by Mike Abene based on the changes to Lady Be Good . (The band would later unofficially dub it, “The Two Walter's.”) Maynard put everyone at ease with a joke and we settled into playing together for the first time.

Besides his contagious laugh and great sense of humor, there are many things I'll remember about Maynard; his powerful, triumphant trumpet sound, his love of Indian culture and philosophy, and his penchant for telling rich stories (sometimes more than once!). I'll remember his generosity on the bandstand and his unmatched ability to transmit energy to an audience and get the band to play beyond their own expectations, no matter how tired we were. His spirit was so immense, confident, and truly joyful, that the better you played, the more excited he got. I'll never forget the thrilling experience of standing shoulder to shoulder with him night after night playing The Fox Hunt and learning through osmosis, breath for breath.

I met Maynard in 1988 through Ed Sargent, who I'd become acquainted with earlier through saxophonist and recent M.F. alum Rick Margitza, also a buddy of mine from Detroit. Ed arranged for Rick and I to sit with the band (along with Lew Soloff and Chuck Mangione) at Maynard's 60 th birthday party at the Blue Note in New York.

              One story Maynard enjoyed telling was about playing opposite of Miles Davis' group at Birdland in the late 50s during the Christmas holiday. Maynard and his “Birdland Dream Band” had just finished their set with a seasonal medley, complete with band vocals on Silent Night . When Maynard approached the bar he found Miles standing with well-known radio personality, “Symphony Sid” Torin, who proceeded to loudly dismiss the Christmas medley. Without hesitating, Miles cold-cocked Sid, knocking him off the barstool, and said calmly to Maynard in his raspy voice, ”I liked it.”

Another one he loved to tell was about himself as a kid playing a concert with the Scottish Regiment band in Montreal. His parents and teacher were in attendance. When he missed the high C at the end of a piece he smashed his horn against the wall. His teacher leaned over to his folks and told them, “He's going to be a hell of a trumpet player.”

We shared many fabulous meals at Indian restaurants across the states and in the UK, most notably, Gaylord's, in Chicago and London, where we would always order Lamb Vindaloo, our favorite dish, and a healthy sampling of Tandoori Chicken. To this day, I still think about Maynard every time I whip up a batch of Vindaloo. Maynard was a devoted follower of guru Satya Sai Baba of Bangalore, India, and had fun stealthily sticking Baba stickers on our cases (and other places) when we weren't looking. We talked about ragas and of working on a piece together.

While the public will most likely remember Maynard for the high notes, those who knew about his days recording for Paramount Pictures ( The Ten Commandments ) know he possessed great technical skill on the trumpet and could play anything he wanted to. Knowing I was classically trained, he would wait until I was outside his dressing room before a show and play purposely-hideous examples of double-tongued scales. Then he would stick his head out the dressing room door and ask in mock seriousness, “Was that alright, Walter? Too-Koo-Too-Koo-Tooo! (Hahahaha!!).”