Gabriel, Time To Move Over To Second Trumpet

"As A Well-Spent Day Brings Happy Sleep, So Life Well Used Brings Happy Death."
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)


One of the most influential jazz trumpeters passed away last evening. He was a childhood idol for me whom I got to meet on 2 occasions, Maynard Ferguson. He was commercially famous for the Rocky theme song. "I knew it was going to be a hit," he once said of the Bill Conti composition. "Sylvester Stallone was in the studio when we recorded it," punching a speed bag to the rhythm of the song. "If you listen very close to the original recording, you can hear in the mix the sound of him hitting the small bag" said Ferguson.
He was born in Montreal 78 years ago. He has been performing for packed houses for decades now. Maynard’s face is one of the most recognizable faces to people who know nothing of jazz. His puffy cheeks and scrunched, bright red face. A truly great man who loved playing music with all of his heart. He had the privilege of playing with the greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton and many more. A friend/role model of mine that I used to jam with in St.Pete, Rich Willey had the privilege of playing with him for 4 years.

http://maynard.ferguson.net/willey.htm

It is hard to age sometimes and lose those people who you look up to as heroes, idols, icons. Yet you find something in death that makes you realize life is real. You have to go out there and live it like Maynard did every single freakin' day. He was someone who found his calling and pursued it with the force of a locomotive.

Ferguson started his proffesional music career at age 11 with the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He then dropped out of school at 15 to pursue his music career later becoming the leader of his own big band in 1945 at age 17, and went on to record more than 60 albums, receiving numerous honors including 3 Grammy nominations...DownBeats Trumpeter of the year 3 times
In 2005, Ferguson was awarded Canada's highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada.

There will be a memorial concert in St. Louis, MO.

God Rest His Soul
05/04/1928-08/23/2006

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

"He Who Desires Is Always Poor"
-Cicero(106BC-43BC)
"Let Your Desires Be Ruled By Reason"
-Cicero(106BC-43BC)

From Mountain Wings-
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, the world would look something like the following: There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans--
52 would be female48 would be male-
70 would be non-white30 would be white-
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian-
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual-
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth.
All 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education1 would own a computer. You own a computer or at the very least have consistent access to one. You are among the world's wealthiest 1%
With all of the bills and the stress, life doesn't feel that way does it? Maybe that's just because you don't know how blessed you are.
Wake Up!

Now please don’t misconstrue this for what it is not. The problem with dreams is the reality that you’ll never get what you dream for without a reason.
There is a story of an incredible golfer Tom Watson. The final morning while at the U.S. Open he was approached by one of his admiring fans. He had shot an awful game this tournament and was extremely frustrated with himself because of it. When the spectator approached Tom the guy said, “I would do anything to be able to hit a golf ball like you.” Well Tom turned to him and just lashed out by saying “You would, would you? Would you wake up every morning at the crack of dawn and hit 500 golf balls until your hands bleed, then go hit 18 holes then return to range to hit 500 more? Everyday for 10 years?”
Of course we all would like to do nothing and become skilled and talented and wealthy. The reality is without hard dedication, determination, discipline, and a reason to, whatever desire you have for more will never happen. That is why Cicero says “He who desires is ALWAYS poor” I included the story from mountain wings to show you that you are very fortunate already just by being born in the great country as it is. If you want more than what you are already blessed with then you have to get out there and do it. Figure out what deep down burning desire motivates you to change something about this world.