THE COMPLETE ROULETTE RECORDINGS OF THE MAYNARD FERGUSON ORCHESTRA
(Mosaic 10-156 © 1999)

REVIEW
This 10-CD box set features all of the music that Maynard recorded for the Roulette label during 1958-1962 (save but the album he did with Chris Connor). Included are the three albums where Don is featured in the trumpet section (A Message From Birdland, Plays Jazz For Dancing, Newport Suite) complete with deleted songs from those sessions. Most interesting of the unissued material is a live version of "Three More Foxes" (featuring solos by Jerry Tyree, Don, and Maynard) that I feel is superior to the better-known studio recording.

For this review I am concentrating on the pieces Don contributes to since this IS a Don Ellis site, But the truth is that all of the music in this set is good. A great collection from MF's finest hour.