Montreal-born trumpeter known for Rocky theme dies at age 78

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(CP) – Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, known for his soaring high notes and for recording the hit theme song to the film Rocky, has died. He was 78.

The Montreal-born performer died Wednesday after suffering kidney and liver failure brought on by an abdominal infection. Ferguson’s four daughters, two sons-in-laws and two grandchildren were at his side when he died in hospital in Ventura, Calif., friend and manager Steve Shankman said Thursday.

“He’s a legend,” said Shankman, noting that news of the sudden death has generated widespread response in e-mails and posts on the Internet.

“One e-mail came in through today: ‘Gabriel will be playing second trumpet.’ I mean, that’s what people think of him.”

Ferguson played with some of the great big-band leaders of the 1940s including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Dorsey and Stan Kenton.

He was known as the “stratospheric” trumpet player who mastered the higher register of the instrument and was named Down Beat magazine’s “trumpeter of the year” three times.

“My instrument is a thing of pleasure, and I play it only because I enjoy it,” he once said, according to The Associated Press. “The most important thing is doing what feels right for me.”

The trumpeter, who credited yoga with enabling him to harness the full capacity of his lungs, became leader of his own big band in 1945 at age 17, and went on to record more than 60 albums.

He was an especially great inspiration to young people, and frequently travelled to India to teach students about western music, said Shankman.

Mainstream success largely eluded Ferguson, but he scored a Top-10 hit with his version of Gonna Fly Now from the first Rocky film. The Bill Conti composition brought him a gold album and a Grammy nomination in 1978.

“I knew it was going to be a hit,” AP quoted him as having said. “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.”

In 2004, Ferguson was awarded Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada.

Shankman said Ferguson, who moved to the United States at age 20, often spoke fondly of his days in Montreal and always maintained Canadian citizenship.

“He used to walk to school with Oscar Peterson, he tells the story all the time,” he said.

Most recently, Ferguson completed a string of sold-out performances with his Big Bop Nouveau band at the famed Blue Note club in New York. That was followed by a recording session at a New Jersey studio for a new album.

He’d only been home in Ojai, Calif., for a couple weeks when he fell ill.

“We thought he was just having a bout of stomach problems so we treated him for that on the road, and when he got home, immediately we got him to both of his doctors and specialists,” Shankman said.

“As of Monday, we thought he was going to be OK. As of Wednesday, we thought he was going to live for three to six months. And an hour later (on Wednesday) the doctor said he’s not going to live through the night.”

Shankman said Ferguson declared a year ago that he be allowed to die when the time came.

“He never wanted to be on machines,” said Shankman, who spoke with Ferguson by phone about an hour or two before he died. “And that would have been the only way. And it would only have been for a short week or two, and that’s not what he desired.”

One of two albums recorded in the last 18 months will likely be released in November, said Shankman.

Ferguson had been preparing for a fall tour beginning mid-September in Tokyo and was invited to play for the king of Thailand’s 80th birthday in January.

“He was at the top of his career – recording a new live album, recording a new studio album, and he had lost weight, he had given up some of the bad habits, he just was doing great and caught us by surprise.”

Ferguson’s body will be cremated in Ojai.

A memorial concert is to take place in St. Louis, Mo., in mid-to-late September.

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On the Web: www.maynardferguson.com/