http://www.discogs.com/Maynard-Ferguson-Stratospheric/release/1422021
My favorite Maynard record of all time. At the peak of his powers, not encumbered by big band duties. Small bands, from the 50s, arrangements by Bill Holman, along with a few Holman originals. I've never seen this on CD. I also have the Clifford Brown version of this Emarcy reissue series. Mastering is better than the resissue CDs, some of which were taken from LPs. There is a Dizzy Gillespie volume also, which I listened to a lot in HS, but it walked.
The mastering and music quality on these EmArcy Jazz Series double album sets is excellent. I have seen other artists volumes in the bins over the years, but can't remember who.
EDIT: I started playing this when it was released in 76, on a ceramic cartridge all in one player set to auto repeat for hours at a time, the treble response is ruined. But I just found a (supposedly) mint version on EBay and snagged it. It will be really fun to hear this with good sound quality again.
Rich, thanks for the heads up on this one. I was up visiting my mother in Amherst, MA yesterday and of course had to stop into the local used record shop before departing for home (Amherst is a big college town so there is usually lots of good stuff to be found in their record stores). Walked intot he sore and in the very first browser I stated thumbing through I came across this album.
A lot of the stuff in this store is in kind of rough condition, but in this case both LPs and the cover were in mint shape. All they wanted for is was $4.
Listened to it when I got home. Nice sound, nice performance. Nice find.
