Solid!

Born

• June 26, 1914
• Chicago, IL

Died

• August 19, 1991
• Santa Monica, CA

Richard Maltby

Arranger and conductor Richard Maltby led a very popular and very talented dance band during the 1950s. The youngest of five children, Maltby began writing arrangements in the eight grade. By the time he was in high school he had his own five-piece ensemble. At age 16 he went to work as a trumpeter for Fritz Miller's dance band at Chicago's Royal Frolics Club. In the early 1930s he played with Little Jack Little.

Maltby eventually returned to Chicago, working as staff arranger at radio station WBBM before orchestra leader Paul Whiteman hired him in the late 1930s. In the 1940s he worked for Benny Goodman, writing the hit song ''Six Flats Unfurnished.'' In 1945 he left Goodman and spent eight years working for New York radio stations, writing and recording his own music as well as arranging. One of his most popular transcriptions was the ''St. Louis Blues Mambo.'' He also conducted orchestras for several top vocalists of the era, including Sarah Vaughan.

In the early 1950s Maltby began to record albums of dance music, first on RCA's X and Vik budget labels and then on Columbia. These albums proved popular with the public, and he decided to take his band on the road in 1955. A blend of older swing styles and the newer big band sound, the orchestra was a favorite of the dance crowd.

Maltby also began to work in television during the mid-1950s. He became conductor on The Vaughan Monroe Show and worked as an arranger for Lawrence Welk. He began to spend less and less time with his own orchestra and eventually gave it up in the late 1950s to work full-time for Welk, for whom he often conducted the orchestra on recordings. Richard Maltby passed away in 1991. His son, Richard Maltby, Jr., is a successful lyricist and director on Broadway.