New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Omnivore Recordings continues its Maynard Ferguson reissue initiative with two new packages for the three-time Grammy Award nominee and Downbeat magazine award winner.
Deluxe reissues of Body & Soul (1986) and Big Bop Nouveau (1989) are slated for March 11, 2016 release.
After the release of 1983�s Storm, and the following year�s Live From San Francisco, the trumpeter was on a creative roll. When Body & Soul appeared in 1986, Ferguson himself said, �It�s my best album in many years! Bear in mind, this is music we�ve worked on for some time, re-designing it and changing it � the tunes are not something we just hatched for a studio session.�
And re-design he did, removing some brass from the band�s lineup and replacing them with guitar and percussion. Combining newly written material with the chestnut title track from 1930, Body & Soul�s original six tracks were a revelation for fans old and new, with the MF band reaching heights higher than Ferguson�s trademark ionospheric double high �Cs.�
Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with the Maynard Ferguson Trust, is happy to reintroduce this classic to the masses. To make it even more special, three previously unissued tracks from the original sessions have been added. With new liner notes from two MF band alumni, Denis DiBlasio and multiple Grammy nominee Steve Wiest, Body & Soul�s audio story is augmented by tales from the people who were there during its creation.
Thirty years later, Body & Soul has lost none of its power and influence.
In the late 1980s, 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, Calif., 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 inspired the name of MF�s new band. With five 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, Fla.), Big Bop Nouveau was an immediate favorite with fans old and new.
While the out-of-print original collects top dollar in collectors� circles, this reissue eclipses that version with new liner notes from Wiest, as well as a previously unissued studio version of Wiest�s composition �Compared To You,� with vocals by Luther Kent.
With Ferguson pushing jazz to new levels throughout his career, Big Bop Nouveau is a great place to start for those new to the MF experience, and for everyone else � it�s home.
�I�m a person of change and I must be honest to my artistry and my creativity. That�s part of the word �jazz� ... it�s an adventure.� �Maynard Ferguson
Body & Soul track listing:
1. Expresso
2. Body & Soul
3. M.O.T.
4. Mira Mira
5. Last Dive
6. Beautiful Hearts
7. Central Park
Previously Unissued Bonus Tracks
8. Flight 108
9. Blues From Space
10. M.O.T.(Live)
Big Bop Noveau track listing:
1. Blue Birdland
2. Cherokee
3. Caught In The Current
4. But Beautiful
5. Crusin� For A Bluesin�
6. The Maynard Ferguson Hit Medley:
Chameleon/Macarthur Park
Frame For The Blues/Maria/Birdland
Previously Unissued Bonus Track:
7. Compared To You
