Maynard Ferguson Orchestra
British Rail Sports & Social Club
Wellingborough, Northants, UK
November 19, 1970


Master reel-to-reel tape > unknown digital recorder > .wave > TLH Level 8

Disc 1
01 Take the A Train
02 Shop at the Co-op (aka Stay Loose with Bruce, etc)
03 Somewhere
04 Eli�s Coming
05 Whisper Not
06 After You�ve Gone
07 El Dopa

Disc 2
01 Blue Birdland
02 Airegin
03 Ballad For Max
04 Chicago
05 Round Midnight
06 Band Intro
07 MacArthur Park
09 Blue Birdland
07 Maria

Maynard Ferguson, Trumpet & Leader
Trumpets: Martin Drover, Ernie Garside, John Donnelly, John Huckridge
Bones: Billy Graham, Reg Brookes, Adrian Drover
Saxes: John Holbrooke (a), Brian Smith (t), Bob Watson (B)
Piano: Pete Jackson, Bass: Dave Lynane, Drums: Randy Jones


I maintain a website archive of Maynard Ferguson's tour dates, www.MFTourDates.net.

I was contacted by a gentlemen from England who had booked MF at a club for several dates in the early 1970s.
During the course of our corresponence, he mentioned that he had a soundboard recording of the first date,
and wondered if I was interested in hearing it! It had been recorded with permission of Maynard and manager
Ernie Garside, and other than a copy sent to Ernie afterwards, it was uncirculated. This was the only date
that he recorded.

He also provided copies of the correspondence with Ernie Garside regarding the dates, along with a newspaper
clipping and promo photos of MF. He also put together a basic list of personnel and track listing, which
had the incorrect date of 11 November 1970 due to a typo. I had previously shared this with some friends before
posting here, and as a result there may be copies of this recording floating around with the incorrect date.
19 November 1970 is the correct date, and I have corrected the enclosed track listing to reflect that.

Relevant excerpts from the email correspondence follow:


-------------------


I'm just compiling some archives of jazz shows I used to help promote in the early 1970's at The British Rail Sports & Social Club,
Wellingborough, Northants. UK.

I have records of 5 appearances by Maynard Ferguson at the Club:
19 Nov 1970 ; 28 Jan 1971 ; 10 Jun 1971 ; 30 Dec 1971 ; 28 Dec 1972.

Attached pdf of all the paperwork I had left from the early 1970�s, plus scans of two photographs that were in the folder.

All this brings back great memories of evenings with Maynard�s raw but hugely exciting British Big Band.

Also stored somewhere I have a mono reel-to-reel tape of one of the shows � quality not great, but I�d be happy to
forward a digital copy if anyone�s interested.

The wav files are direct recordings straight from tape to digital recorder � no edits or eq applied at this stage.
I hope you can do some editing to get rid of some of the distortion, although this may be difficult.
Maynard�s microphone was set up for vocal announcements, but I remember he had a habit of placing the bell of the trumpet over the
mike when he was blowing! A major problem for the sound man (me).

End of part one is where I fade up a �play-off� from vinyl LP, and the band start playing at the same time � you�ll hear MF�s comments
on that one.

The tape ran out just before the end of Part 2, so an abrupt cut off there.

You�re right about the price � we couldn�t believe that we could hire a 15 piece band of this calibre for 200 GBP ( I make that less than
$500 at that time).

Not circulated as far as I know, but I think I may have sent Ernie Garside a copy as one of my letters to him says �I hope you received
the tape�. In any case, the quality is not really good enough for �circulation�. Mono only & quite distorted in places. It was �tapped�
off the house PA speaker output & at the time I seem to remember we had only 4 mikes � 1 for Maynard, 1 on the piano & 2 in front of the band.




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