This song, published in 1955 during the warmest part of the Cold War, is a true Soviet anthem and also, after it escaped the Iron Curtain, a modern jazz standard. When composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi and his poet-lyrcist partner, Mikhail Matusovsky put the song together, they titled it "Leningrad Nights" (which today would be the very unpoetic "St. Petersburg Nights." For some reason the Soviet Ministry of Culture "asked" them to rename it, roughly, "Evenings In The Moscow Suburbs." Thankfully, the official name didn't stick. The song provided break music for a Soviet music and news station and also for Radio Moscow. I heard it performed by a small band on the steps of the Katerina Palace, the "Summer Palace," outside St. Petersburg and was inspired to give it a shot when I got home.
This accessible arrangement, which features a Dixieland break, is for two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba.
Score and parts are available for a modest price at sheetmusicdirect.com. Search on my name (Will Corbin) for the entire collection.

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