A decade after leaving Stan Kenton's band, trumpet virtuoso Maynard Ferguson was truly "ridin' high" as a solo artist. Released in 1966, Ridin' High (also known as Freaky) captures a pivotal moment in Ferguson's career during a turbulent time for big band jazz. While many ensembles were folding or turning to pop to survive, Ferguson was experimenting with new sounds. Recorded in 1967 and released on the Enterprise label, this album stands apart from his later work with his British band, offering a vintage, unique flavor. Ridin' High showcases a transitional phase, as Maynard navigated the challenges of the jazz scene before his move to England.

Maynard Ferguson - With His Own Bands: Early Years 1954-57 / 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 compositions, with a number by tenor saxophonist and arranger Bill Holman, along with arrangements of classic Songbook standards, with the musicians involved including Bud Shank, Shelly Manne, Milt Bernhart, Herb Geller, Georgie Auld, Red Callender, Nino Tempo, Ray Linn, Bill Holman, Ray Brown, Alvin Stoller, Bobby Timmons, Larry Bunker and many more. It's an intriguing and entertaining insight into his work as he leads his own bands on record for the first time

Jacques Casterede's distinguished career was centered in Paris, but with musical roots in the early twentieth-century traditions of neo-Classicism and Les Six- the wide variety of scope and intent in his work was never meant to compete with the radical avant-garde. The balletic Flutes en vacances has become one of his most popular pieces, while Ciels ('Skies') was a competition piece for the Conservatoire. The colors in Trois moments musicaux d'apres Corot depict paintings in sound while the Sonatine de Mai is more neo-Classical in mood.

In the late 1980s, Maynard Ferguson took a break from his highly successful fusion band, High Voltage, and returned to an all-star assemblage of horn players for his 60th Birthday Big Band Tour. Never one to rest on his laurels, MF and band entered the state of the art Sound Design Studios in Santa Barbara, California, throughout 1989, to record a new record. Big Bop Nouveau appeared at the end of that year, with a title coined by producer Jim Exon, whose love of art nouveau was taken in that direction to describe Maynard's new band. With 5 tracks recorded "as live as possible" to 48 track (24 track analog and 24 track digital) and "The Maynard Ferguson Hit Medley" (48 track analog during the 60th Birthday Big Band Tour in the fall of 1988 at WJCT studios at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival in Jacksonville, Florida), Big Bop Nouveau was an immediate favorite with fans old and new. With the original being out of print, and collecting top dollar in collectors circles, this reissue eclipses that version with new liner notes from MF alumnus and multiple Grammy® nominee Steve Wiest, as well as a previously unissued studio version of Wiest's composition, "Compared To You."

Digitally remastered two CD set containing three Maynard Ferguson albums dating from 1974, 1977 and 1978, originally released on Columbia. Conquistador featured 'Gonna Fly Now (Theme from "Rocky")' which was a US Top 30 hit, and the album spent 26 weeks on the Billboard album chart. Hot was also a Top 20 album. With Bob James producing, Ferguson's ‘70s albums were extremely commercially successful, no mean feat for a jazz trumpeter.

Finnish composer Jaakko Mantyjarvi (b. 1963) has written some of the finest choral music of the past 50 years. To date, this semi-professional musician, whose output consists mostly of choral works, has had over one hundred of them published. Founded in 2009, the chamber choir Cor Cantiamo’s mission objective is to perform and promote contemporary choral music and foster new composers for the art form. Eric A. Johnson D.M.A. is Cor Cantiamo’s Founding Artistic Director.

Digitally remastered two CD set containing a trio of late 1970s albums from ace trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson. Bob James produced Primal Scream which features musicians such as Stanley Clarke, Bob James and Steve Khan amongst others. Fergusons playing, vibrancy and arrangements have stood the test of time and, remastered, sound even better today! a reflection of Fergusons popularity was that New Vintage and Carnival both made the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Slipcased with extensive new notes.

First time on CD for this expanded edition of the 1981 compilation from the Jazz legend. Maynard Ferguson is one of the premier trumpet players of all time. His legacy leaves a wealth of highly regarded Jazz albums recorded over three decades. This edition adds two rare bonus tracks: 'Rocky II Disco' and 'Gabriel'.