Three Maestro Releases

Issue 356 – October 2017

Before I leave you this month, it’s worth noting the last few Maestro sequence dancing releases. I mentioned the two January ones earlier in the year with Ronnie Ross’s “Enjoy Yourself” at various keyboards and instruments (as well as vocals) and Larry Green’s “Rolling Round The World” at the Yamaha Tyros 4. Now here are the last three (minus the tracks as there are too many to list here)…

David Last – Aces High (CD) – Running Time 63 minutes – Price £12.95

March brought us a new one from David Last called “Aces High” at the Tyros 5. This is his fifth release on the T5 and he must be one of the few players who has released CDs on the Tyros 1,2,3,4 and 5. It comes pretty ‘hot on the heels’ of his Andrew Lloyd Webber themed “Music Of The Night” CD which was only released last September. With the title and aircraft (not sure if they are the Red Arrows or not) on the cover you may be expecting a  load of patriotic tunes and marches, but no, it contains David’s usual mix of varied tracks, although there are a few that match up with the title including the “ABC March,” the “RAF March Past” and of course “Aces High”.

Highlights include, “The Italian Theme,” “Turkey In The Straw,” “Singing Bells,” “Rosita Mia,” “Love Me Forever,” “Roses From The South” and “Aces High”.

Tony Gilbert Sound – Take Your Partners (CD) – Running Time 62 minutes – Price £12.95

April brought the new one from The Tony Gilbert Sound and “Take Your Partners”. This is his eleventh CD since 2009 and is again based around a Yamaha Motif ES sound module (which still sounds great). This is another mix of titles rather than a themed album he does from time to time. Tony always has lovely arrangements and together with his impressive playing and light drums and percussion courtesy by Tommy Sanderson, it makes this another fabulous CD

Highlights include, “Blaze Away,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverley,” “Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart,” The “Lili Marlene” medley, “Put On A Happy Face,” “April In Paris / C’est Magnifique” and “Dolores Waltz”.

Richard & Carole Keeling – Together (CD) – Running Time 58 minutes – Price £12.95

If you enjoy your sequence CDs with vocals, then the Keelings are here to oblige with “Together.” The keyboard used is Richard’s faithful Ketron SD1 Plus, but this is much more of a collaboration with his wife Carole getting joint billing and the cover showing both of them, well, “Together”. Carole has contributed the odd vocal to some of her husbands previous recordings as well as co-producing them, but this is their first release as a duo with her vocals on thirteen of the twenty tracks.

Carole has a lovely voice and I’m sure this will be a popular CD for sequence dancers and keyboard enthusiasts who are looking for something a little different.

Vocal highlights include, “Leaving On A Jet Plane,” “The Wedding,” “Together,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” while instrumental highlights include, “Black Bottom,” “Cecilia,” “A Walk In The Black Forest,” “Pennies From Heaven” and “Flowers in the Rain.”

That’s all for now, but if you have either (or both) of Jason Lee’s two “Lounge Organ” CDs, then you might like to know that volume three should be available in September. More details in the next issue…

Review by Ian King from Organ and Keyboard Cavalcade Magazine.