The Swing Era Returns in a Tribute to a Bandleader

By Roberta Hershenson
Published: October 23, 2009
Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

THE bandleader announced “a lovely ballad from the World War II era,” and the song “Waiting for the Train to Come In” emerged from the lips of a singer in a slinky black dress. The tune was a hit for the trumpet virtuoso and bandleader Harry James and the jazz singer Helen Forrest in the 1940s.

It was a Wednesday night at Swing 46 in Manhattan, and Stan Rubin and his 16-piece orchestra were playing their weekly gig. The oldies kept coming — tunes like “It’s Been a Long, Long Time,” “Goody Goody” and Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood,” which Mr. Rubin called “the Beethoven’s Fifth of the swing era.”

These were not simply contemporary versions of swing classics — they were virtually exact arrangements from the historic kings of swing — Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and a dozen others. Mr. Rubin, 76, a native of New Rochelle who now lives in Somers, is committed to preserving and performing the music as it sounded in its heyday — from 1935 to 1945.

He fell in love with big band music as a child, he said, when the sounds of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman could be heard live, wafting over the channel from what was then the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle. Inspired, he took up the clarinet at Daniel Webster Elementary School, where a teacher he still reveres, Harry Haigh, a former big band musician, had formed a swing band. He continued to play the clarinet at New Rochelle High School, and at Princeton organized a band, the Tigertown Five. It not only played the wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III in Monaco in 1956, but also sold out Carnegie Hall while Mr. Rubin was still in his early 20s.

He has a library of more than 800 of his original big band arrangements, transcribed by Bob Friedlander, a musician who, Mr. Rubin said, has an uncanny ability to write down what he hears on vintage recordings, including improvisational solos. Income to pay for new arrangements and to subsidize the orchestra’s performances at Swing 46 comes from Mr. Rubin’s work as a wedding and society bandleader, as well as from a long-running show devoted to Frank Sinatra at the Carnegie Club in Manhattan.

Mr. Rubin’s clarinet-playing days ended in 1984 after surgery for a benign tumor severed a facial nerve, and now the band sometimes performs without him, with Herb Gardner at the helm. When Mr. Rubin, slim and affable, does appear, he is apt to sprinkle his enthusiastic patter with lessons in classical jazz. He and the orchestra will play for an evening of dinner and dancing at the Glen Island Harbour Club — the former casino — on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m., when Mr. Rubin will be honored by the City of New Rochelle for his achievements in music. Proceeds after expenses will benefit the restoration fund for the Tiffany and Gorham windows of St. Gabriel’s Church in New Rochelle.

“You don’t find this music anyplace else,” said Peter Reardon, a young clarinetist who plays for Mr. Rubin. “It’s not the swing era anymore, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play this music. I’m drawn to this music over pop or rock.”
The Stan Rubin Orchestra will play on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Glen Island Harbor Club, Weyman Avenue,
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