Hello Young Lovers - Richard Maltby

 

You And The Night And The Music

Hello Young Lovers

Richard Maltby and His Orchestra

Special Archives Series

Columbia Special Products

Columbia Records CSRP 8151

1959

From the back cover: The youngest of Mr. Maltby's five boys received his indoctrination into the underworld night life as a member of Fritz Miller's dance band when he was 16. His introduction to music-making came much earlier. Dick received his first taste of being a band-leader at the age of ten when he tooted a Montgomery Ward cornet in the grade school orchestra at Crandon School in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. (He "led" the orchestra in marching out of school at noon.) By the time he'd reached eighth grade, he'd written his first arrangement: a glorious bit of three-part harmony for saxophones on that all time hit, I Love You Truly. Then came the high school years when the Maltby living room was transformed into a regular after-school rehearsal hall for Dick's own five-piece ensemble. Then came Fritz Miller, a period at Chicago's Royal Frolica Club and then Dick packed his wife, baby son and dog into the family's Model A Ford to start touring the country as a trumpeter with Little Jack Little.

In the years since he barnstormed the country playing for dancers under the baton of Little Jack Little, Dick Maltby has covered every phase of the conducting-arranging business there is to cover. As staff arranger at WBBM in Chicago, he wrote everything from background music for dramatic shows to fanfares for commercials. In his spare time, he squeezed in extra-curricular compositions such as the big Benny Goodman classic, Six Flats Unfurnished, not to mention special clarinet-and-symphony arrangements used in concert appearances by both Goodman and Artie Shaw. Transferring his base of musical operations to New York in 1945, he started his own musical series on radio while, in a multitude of record sessions, he provided the orchestral backing for a dozen or so of the nation's top vocalists. (One noteworthy example: Sarah Vaughan's memorable It's Magic.) There were jazz transcriptions, the best-selling St. Louis Blues Mambo and then an attack of homesickness for the music of his barnstorming-at-dances days. Says Dick: "There seemed suddenly to be a revival of interest in young people for dancing and I wanted to be a part of it." The success of Maltby's dance albums resulted in so many requests to see the band in action that in 1955, Dick organized a traveling band and hit the road again. He's been at it ever since.

There've been some changes since the days when Dick played his first college dates with Little Jack Little. The traveling Maltby group tours via station wagons, sedans and a huge truck-van for wardrobe, library, instruments, etc. The baby who barnstormed in the Model A is now a Senior at Yale. But there are some things which haven't changed. Mrs. Maltby still troupes with her husband when he takes to the road; the college kids still love to dance; and Dick Maltby still loves to play for them.

There Will Never Be Another You

You And The Night And The Music

Fools Rush In

The Touch Of Your Lips

It's A Pity To Say Goodnight

A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening

Hello, Young Lovers

Let's Fall In Love

The Night Is Young And You're So Beautiful

You Are My Lucky Star

I'll Get By

Stay As Sweet As You Are