" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Leitch has been through in the last eight years, it's little wonder he named the ensemble he now leads the New Life Jazz Orchestra. Diagnosed in 2012 with stage 4 lung cancer, Leitch faced the choice of throwing in the proverbial towel or undergoing career-ending cancer treatment. He chose the latter, reluctantly setting aside his instrument of choice and continuing his musical career as a composer, arranger and conductor of an orchestra whose library consists largely of Leitch's smooth and genial compositions. Eight years on, Leitch's decision to set aside the guitar and focus solely on writing seems more sensible and well-advised with each passing day.

So is the pen mightier than the strings? That's hard to say; what can be affirmed is that Leitch is an able tunesmith who knows how to make a big band glisten and hum. Fourteen of the seventeen numbers on this splendid two-CD set are his, and their common denominators include Leitch's keen ear for an engaging melody and his ability to enliven said melodies and adapt them to a big-band format. Having advanced that opinion, it should be noted that Leitch's tunes are for the most part long on elegance but short on exuberance. Of the fourteen, ten might best be described as mellow or even-tempered. Not that there's anything wrong with that—but listeners shouldn't anticipate rampant fireworks on the order of, say,