An upcoming concert may be the liveliest tribute possible for late jazz legend Maynard Ferguson and his body of work.

Ferguson, who died in 2006, was a jazz trumpet player and bandleader, with more than 50 years of work contained in the 400-piece Maynard Ferguson Music Library, which the University of North Texas acquired in August after efforts from a group of donors.

“The way I like to speak of Maynard is that he was like a planet,” said drummer Stockton Helbing, who played with Ferguson during the last four years of his life and will perform during the tribute concert. “He had a polarity; he would pull you towards him. You wanted to play your best to complement what he was doing and it was such a fun ride.”

DRC file photo/Candace Carlisle

Steve Wiest, an associate professor of music at the University of North Texas and the interim director of the school's One O'clock Lab Band, sifts through some of the 400 pieces that compose the recently donated Maynard Ferguson Music Library. The lab band will perform selections from the collection Friday, Oct. 17. Wiest was once a member of Furgeson’s band.

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The Dreaming of Birdland concert, which is set for Oct. 17 in Fort Worth, features the UNT One O’clock Lab Band performing selections from the collection.

The lineup includes seldom-heard music from Ferguson’s days of leading the Birdland Dream Band, a 14-piece jazz group that began in 1956 and lasted in various incarnations until the late 1960s. The Birdland pieces will include contribution from Craig Johnson, who played lead trumpet with Ferguson in the 1990s and in the lab band in the 1980s. Also, former lab band lead trumpet soloist Pete DeSiena will play during a few cuts, including the 1995 lab band arrangement “Tenderly.”

Ferguson hired Helbing, another one-time One O’clock Lab Band drummer, roughly a month after he graduated from UNT.

“We toured all around the world several times,” Helbing said. “It was a constant learning experience and constant inspirational experience.”

Trombonist and lab band interim director Steve Wiest also played with Ferguson for five years during the 1980s. He called Ferguson’s work ahead of its time and described him as a leader in the best sense — nurturing creativity and allowing fellow musicians to experiment how they wanted to.

“To work with him was a daily exciting adventure in music,” Wiest said. “It was 24/7 playing the music, writing it, practicing it, talking about it.”

Video clips of Ferguson show a man who didn’t make morose business of jazz music.

“He had essentially one gear and that was full blast — happy, exuberant, full of life,” Wiest said, adding that Ferguson could take a mournful piece and give it joy’s energy.

“He never played a single moment on the trumpet as if it were the last moment he would ever get to play … He worked real hard for his happiness. And he was seriously happy all the time.”

GREG RUSSELL can be reached at 940-566-6861. His e-mail address is grussell@dentonrc.com.

Dreaming of birdland

What: A musical tribute to Maynard Ferguson

When: 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17

Where: McDavid Studio, next to Bass Performance Hall, 301 E. Fifth St. in Fort Worth.

Details: Tickets cost $30. Visit www.basshall.com.