Rhapsody in Blue

For those who found Barry White's various instrumental projects a little heavy-going, there was an answer. Composer and bandleader Walter Murphy steered that course and lightened that style across his various outings. Inestimable creator of one of disco's favorite dirty pleasures, 1976's "A Fifth of Beethoven," which was featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Murphy rode the heels of that success the following year with Rhapsody in Blue. The title track is a contemporary rehash of George Gershwin's classic tune, replete with disco breaks and backing vocals peppering the iconographic musical strains — a Murphy special, which is repeated again on another Gershwin number, "It Ain't Necessarily So," this time adding a tenor sax solo. Probably better appreciated at the time than it is in retrospect, it still seems somehow base to tamper with the classics. Where Murphy seems to take himself in better hands is across his own material. "Love Eyes" is pure sugar which ebbs and flows around sweeping strings, and on his "New York City Suite," the third movement, "Fish Legs (Getdown Town)" boasts an unexpected, blistering guitar solo. However, Murphy falters when he adds vocals to "Could It Be the Music," "The Only Two People in the World," and "You Are on My Mind." One never looked to him for that; the instrumentals are just fine. With almost no relevance to the 21st century, Murphy will only be remembered for his one shining moment. And perhaps that is best — for everyone because, ultimately, this music, this flux of strings and drivel, is rooted in the distant past, in a moment that only made sense at the time.