I say “to my astonishment” for Maynard had, without hesitation, pulled up a memory from some 54 years earlier. The recording date for Paul Villepigue’s arrangement of Love Locked Out was September 13, 1950. The session was Maynard’s debut as bandleader on the Capitol Records label. He was then

22 years old.

Ferguson had planned to launch his own dance orchestra and had already signed an individual contract to record for Capitol early in September. He assembled a

17-piece swinging orchestra that, with the only exception of pianist Joe Rotondi, was recruited largely from Kenton’s band. The arrangers employed on these performances were two regular contributors to the Kenton book, Gene Roland

and Shorty Rogers, plus Paul Villepigue, well known for his brilliant writing for Charlie Barnet’s orchestra.

(Jordi Pujol, liner notes for Maynard Ferguson: His Orchestra and Octet,

1950–1954, Band Ain’t Draggin’, Fresh Sound Records, 2005)

The liner notes above are somewhat misleading in that one might think Maynard had left Kenton’s band in order to strike out on his own. But according to Richard (“Duke”) Anderson, a friend of Villepigue's who attended the recording date:

As I remember, Paul told me that Stan had loaned his band to Maynard and had popped for it all to give Maynard a boost.

(Duke Anderson, email to Villepigue's daughter Desne, May 2009)

The extraordinary talent assembled for this recording session also included Jimmy Giuffre on tenor saxophone, filling the spot of Kenton’s tenor man, Bart Caldarell. And on trombone was Milt Bernhart, who had played his first Villepigue chart as a teenager subbing on Boyd Raeburn’s band in Chicago, back in 1942.

I didn’t actually meet Paul until around 1949 or so out here on the Coast. . . .

In the early 50’s, I played his arrangements in studios—though not often enough. He was possibly my favorite arranger at that time. Maynard knew him from Barnet and used him on the Capitol dates. Love Locked Out was a pleasure.

(Milt Bernhart, post on the Jazz West Coast mailing list, August 31, 2000)

Duke Anderson adds a fascinating bit of trivia about that recording session:

And a fun thing: I was with Paul at Capitol on Melrose when Maynard did his beautiful arrangement of Love Locked Out. The band did another side during that session, called Band Ain’t Draggin’. This was a tune penned by Joe Greene who

had also done Across The Alley From The Alamo and Soothe Me, amongst others. Anyway, the “handclappers” on the side included Paul Villepigue,

Stan Kenton, Joe Greene, and Duke Anderson. Have you ever heard better handclapping?

(Anderson, email to Villepigue's daughter Desne, May 2009)

I spoke to Maynard at greater length a few months after the LA Jazz Institute festival. He was understandably wistful about that recording session—nearly all the musicians had passed on. He was also saddened to see that the Unique Jazz LP I brought to show him had given no credit for the arrangement of Love Locked Out. I asked him if Paul had been at the session. Oh yes, he replied—Paul always came whenever his charts were being recorded. I asked, where was the music now? Maynard didn’t know—perhaps in the Capitol archives. One thing he didn’t tell me about, though—at the time of our talk in early 2005, Maynard was in the process of working with Jordi Pujol to re-release his recordings from the early 1950s on the Fresh Sound label. To my delighted surprise a few months later, an envelope arrived in the mail with the Fresh Sound CD enclosed. Pujol’s liner notes give credit for Love Locked Out as “arranged by the talented Paul Villepigue, one of the most innovative arrangers and composers of that period.”

Later, when I discussed Paul’s writing with Jeff Sultanof, an arranger himself and a music historian, he had these comments: 

For me, Villepigue’s masterpiece was an arrangement for Maynard Ferguson of

the Ray Noble song Love Locked Out. Once again, beautiful writing for all of the sections, sensitive orchestration (Villepigue’s writing for tuba is particularly lovely), a mastery of counterpoint, and a subtle, effective modulation are highlighted.

This is one of the high points of Ferguson’s entire recorded output. I consider

this arrangement one of the finest big band settings written by an American.