专辑简介

When you attend a ‘Maltby Dance Date,’ you have every reason to expect something different. That something is the energetic drive and subtle taste that stem from Richard Maltby’s many years as a conductor, composer and arranger. Here then, from blues to beguine, from jump to jazz novelty, is music you can dance or listen to, whatever you desire, on a ‘Maltby Dance Date.’ The first one’s a shouter… a rocking Mayhem In Minor that rends the air with rumbling bass notes, trumpet riffs and a riotous interpretation. Purple Shadows which follows, is the exact opposite. It’s a sentimental blues with a drag-along beat that features Toots Mondello on sax. The orchestra literally tunes up again in the next, fast-moving selection, Sound Your ‘A’:’ In this jazz novelty, the piano sounds the pitch, as the drums sneak in softly with a shuffle beat, and the woodwinds, brasses and strings come in for some practice scales. From the strictly modern sounds we switch to the nostalgia-scented romance-in-the-moonlight theme. This provocative melody is fashioned in the pulsating rhythms of a beguine and enhanced by all the instruments of this symphony-sized orchestra. Flutes, brasses and strings blend their vari-colored voices to weave this musical picture of a dream – a dream never to be forgotten. The Maltby Orchestra’s beguine rendition then leads to a fair exchange, as North America sends one of its own dance rhythms south of the border. No passports or visas are needed for this musical leap across territorial boundaries called Jumping The Border. Gay blade Maltby etches a new musical figure in the ice with the jazz treatment of Waldteufel’s renowned ‘Skater’s Waltz.’ It’s a sleek, smart and streamlined rhythmic novelty that races around the rink on a Skater’s Holiday. Ballad For Trumpet changes the mood to blues, as the famed jazz trumpeter, Billy Butterfield is featured soloist in this mellow melody that pictures the loneliness of the big city at night – the wordless poetry of empty man-made canyons, deserted by daytime crowds and left alone in the shadows. Another old favorite takes on a new look in an upbeat version of a melody from Bizet’s ‘Carmen.’ It’s a swing habanera, arranged by Maltby and called Cigarette Song. From the torrid atmosphere of Spain, the music turns to a cool January in lover’s lane, but the rhythm is relaxed and easygoing as the orchestra tells about the Snow In Lover’s Lane. The album ends just as it began, with a hard-rocking jump number. This one reaches down to Davy Jones’s locker to serenade King Neptune and the Mermaids in an extra-special Richard Maltby arrangement that’s titled Rockin’ The Cradle Of The Deep.