[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Steve Lipkins

[Geoff Power]

I had the good fortune to play with Steve Lipkins, Zeke Zarchy and Johnny
Best when they came to Sydney in 1994 with the surviving members of the
Glenn Miller Orchestra(I was in the trombone section - they used a few
locals)

If memory serves me correctly, Steve was in the trumpet section on the
classic Bunny Berigan "I Can't Get Started" (I think Artie Shaw played lead
alto)

Regards to all

Geoff Power


On 26/02/11 6:23 AM, "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> Stephen Lipkins, 93, Big Band Era Trumpeter
> by Nicholas Spangler
> Newsday, February 24, 2011
> Stephen Lipkins, a trumpeter in orchestras of the big band era until he
> pursued a
> career as a stone craftsman, died Jan. 29 in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 93.
> The cause was Parkinson's disease, said his son, Jonathan Lipkins.
> Beginning in the 1930s, when he was barely out of high school, Stephen Lipkins
> played
> and recorded as lead trumpet with Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Bunny Berigan and
> the
> Dorsey brothers.
> "A really good lead player would be harder to find than a good soloist," said
> Dan
> Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
> Playing lead, Morgenstern said, took power and faultless feel for tune --
> whether
> the band was in a soundproof recording studio or a crowded, noisy ballroom.
> Lipkins, a Great Neck resident for 47 years, cut one record as a soloist, a
> promotional
> 45 for Atco, in 1958, recorded under the name Stevie Layne.
> In the '50s, after the popularity of the big band sound waned, Lipkins worked
> on
> Broadway and at the NBC studio in New York, playing musical accompaniment for
> Sid
> Caesar's "Show of Shows," "The Steve Allen Show" and "The Tonight Show" with
> Jack
> Paar.
> "Studio work was well paid," Morgenstern said. "Better than being on road --
> you
> don't have to go on bus and sleep in some flea bag."
> Dependable, precise musicians like Lipkins were in demand, said Bill Crow, a
> jazz
> bassist and musicians' union official. The most popular musicians were
> "running from
> one studio to another."
> When the television business moved to the West Coast, and electronic
> synthesizers
> replaced live musicians in jingles and soundtracks, Lipkins turned to stone
> crafting.
> "My uncle owned a precision optics factory and was polishing some stones in
> his factory,"
> said Jonathan Lipkins. After watching the process, his father began to
> experiment
> and was soon making cuff links and jewelry.
> That interest grew into a business, SJ Lipkins Inc., that opened in the 1970s
> and
> specialized in inlays and parts for custom furniture. Father and son worked
> together
> there for 25 years.
> Lipkins is survived by his wife, Ruth, 92, of Boca Raton; and by sons,
> Jonathan Lipkins,
> 55, of Syosset and Robert Lipkins, 67, of Westchester; and a grandson.
> Services were held at the Star of David Memorial Gardens Cemetery and Funeral
> Chapel
> in North Lauderdale, Fla.
> 
> 
> --Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> 530/ 642-9551 Office
> 916/ 806-9551 Cell
> Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV
> 
> 
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