Big band trumpeter S. Lipkins dies, 93

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 Berrigan 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.

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"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.

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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.