Maynard Ferguson - With His Own Bands: Early Years 1954-57 (CD)

The recordings featured here represent his first forays into recording leading his own bands. Canadian jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson was something of a prodigy as a youngster, playing solos with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra broadcasts when he was 13 years old, and was always destined for a career in music, training at the Conservatoire in Montreal until 1948. He moved to the USA and played with the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet before joining Stan Kenton for an extended stint in the early '50s. The recordings featured here represent his first forays into recording leading his own bands. This 43-track 2-CD collection comprises all the titles (excluding one which could not be included for reasons of space) from his albums on the Emarcy label 'The Maynard Ferguson Octet', 'Dimensions', 'Around the Horn with Maynard Ferguson' and 'Boy with Lots of Brass', with line-ups ranging from an octet to a 13-piece big band. It features many original com