I'm excited to finally have Maynard Ferguson's NEW VINTAGE on CD, because growing up in the 1970s I discovered Maynard's trumpet virtuosity from his albums coming out at that time, and this one was my favorite. It's great to hear it without inner groove distortion, surface noise, and all the other irritations we used to tolerate on LP records! Still, NEW VINTAGE had terrific sound quality for an LP, and the CD sound is even better.
When this album came out in 1977, Maynard was in the middle of his jazz-pop fusion phase that some jazz purists fuss about, but I like the best of it that much of NEW VINTAGE represents. Unlike other reviewers here, my favorite track on this has always been "Oasis," not only for the music itself but also because I love the mellow sound of Maynard playing flugelhorn on that one. As some have pointed out, the "Main Title" from "Star Wars" does sound like it's striving to be another hit to copy Maynard's success with "Gonna Fly Now," but WOW it's exciting nonetheless. And although I love Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral piece "Scheherazade," I feel like the arrangement of it on here is just not very good, and I don't like the raspy flute there either. I've always found it humorous that the album ends with the straight jazz number "Airegin," which is an exciting up tempo piece. It's as if Maynard missed his earlier career when he was playing straight jazz.
As other reviewers have rhapsodized about, Maynard's horn playing on this whole album is thrilling. In fact, all the musicians on here sound terrific. Another that stands out is Mark Colby on saxophones, partly because I love the "Oasis" piece that he's prominent on. I should also note the beautiful cover of the trumpet in ice - I may frame my original LP cover. Incidentally, most of the text and photos that are reproduced from the original LP are absurdly small on a CD and should have been re-done. For that carelessness, as well as some excesses on NEW VINTAGE such as "Scheherazade," I gave this CD 4 stars instead of 5.
In sum, NEW VINTAGE is not the best of Maynard Ferguson's recordings, and it's not straight jazz if you want that, but I highly recommend it for the great performances and as a good example of jazz-pop fusion.
This offering represents some of Maynard Fergusons finest work. The crisp, clean high notes are there, especially on the classic "Maria". New Vintage delivers the goods.