by Adrian Drover My favourite Maynard Ferguson on-the-road reminiscence is this one. The London based band was due to fly to Boston the following morning, but as yet, no one had a travel itinerary. Eventually, my phone rang at about midnight. It's the band manager. He says "We leave at 8 am tomorrow". I said "OK, which airport, Heathrow or Gatwick?". He said "Liverpool Street rail terminal". I said "Now, let me get this straight, Boston is west of London, the trains from Liverpool Street go east". He said "trust me, it's correct". So this is how we got to Boston. The train from Liverpool Street is a slow, stop at every station thing that takes about an hour and a half to transport us about 60 miles east to Southend. There, we wait on a cold open platform for a bus to take us to the local airfield. Eventually a small Sabena plane comes in which carries us across the British channel to Ostend in Belgium. We wait to board another Sabena flight that is on route from Brussels to Montreal. On arriving at the Montreal terminal, I thought we were still in Belgium, as everyone spoke only in French. From Montreal we board a bus, that is stopped at a remote customs post on the border with Vermont. We are stuck there for about 2 hours while they check that everyone has a proper entry visa, work permit and none of the scruffy bus load of long-haired musicians is carrying any happy weed. We eventually arrive in Boston at 4am, 25 hours after leaving London. Rather than drop us at the hotel door, the bus pulls into a bus terminal. I see the hotel about 2 blocks away. Really, really tired, I grab my suitcase and trombone and run to the hotel with a couple of other guys so we can be first to check in. We tell the desk clerk we are with the Maynard Ferguson band and have rooms booked. The clerk says "Maynard who?" Adrian Drover began his musical career as a youngster by taking cornet lessons from his father, a long serving soldier-musician in the Grenadier Guards. He has since been self taught on many other instruments including Saxophone, Clarinet, Oboe, Trombone & Vibraphone before settling on the Bass Trombone & Tuba as his main instruments. He is also a self taught arranger-composer and has made his name internationally recognised in this field. In the early '70s he wrote hit arrangements for the Maynard Ferguson (British) Big Band, later joining the band as bass-trombonist to tour Europe and the United States & Canada. He was later to take up a post as staff bass-trombonist & arranger with the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra. Now a freelance arranger-composer he still enjoys playing and has recently been a member of about five different Scottish big bands including the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, as well as the Glasgow chapter of the British Trombone Society Trombone Ensemble. Adrian currently guests with the BBC Radio Big Band as composer/director and directs his own string orchestra to accompany top jazz singer, Carol Kidd. He is also a specialist instructor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama for Big Band Arranging and is co-director of the recently formed Adrian Drover/Dave Hankin Big Band a 23 piece ensemble which includes French Horn section and Tuba. Visit Adrian's website! Return to Story Archive Menu Send this SJO page to a friend! HISTORY | THE MUSICIANS | OUR MUSIC | PAST CLIENTS | MEMBERSHIP LISTS & LINKS | ANECDOTES | CONTACT US | PHOTO GALLERY SCHEDULE | BOOKING | SOUND FILES | RESOURCES | ANECDOTE ARCHIVE COPYRIGHT© 2003 SJO, INC.