Band Is Still in the Swing : Music: The leader of the Harry James Orchestra, which plays Sunday in Irvine, says the trumpeter’s sound is timeless.

Few people grow up to realize their dreams in the way Art Depew has. Since the first time he heard trumpeter Harry James, Depew wanted to become part of the band.

“I first heard Harry when I was 12 or 13 and immediately fell in love with the style and began to imitate it,” the 66-year-old trumpeter recently said in a phone conversation from his home in Los Angeles. He’ll direct the late bandleader’s orchestra at the Irvine Marriott on Sunday.

Depew says the James trumpet sound is “an amalgamation of Bix Beiderbecke and Louis (Armstrong). Bix was a giant. Like Louis, he did something so new that nobody had ever heard anything like it before.”

While gaining a reputation as a swing trumpeter in the James style, Depew paid dues free-lancing in New York theater orchestras and with the bands of Glenn Miller, Tex Beneke and Tommy Dorsey. It was a move to Los Angeles, after a visit with the Dorsey band in 1952, that led to his association with James.

“I’d had it in New York. I wanted a yard, and a car, and a garage to keep it in. So I bought a house in Toluca Lake and started looking around for work. I even worked at Lockheed for a while to make ends meet. But after a few months, I heard of an opening in the James band and went down and auditioned, and he hired me. The band went on tour a couple weeks later, and I went with them.”

Depew spent four years with James and developed a deep respect for the bandleader’s music. He is outspoken on the importance of the swing leader’s place in history. “You might say, why should the music of Beethoven live on or George Gershwin, or Cole Porter? It’s all part and parcel of our musical heritage. The Harry James sound, it’s timeless. There are so many interesting things going on harmonically and rhythmically to enjoy. His music will be looked on as art a hundred, a thousand years from now.”

He cites James’ most important years as those between 1935 and 1945. “That was the era the music reached its highest sophistication, the era the James band came into being. During this time, the public taste coincided with quality music, something that hasn’t happened much before or since. You can’t say that about rock music. Most rock ‘n’ roll is laughable by comparison. Why should Elvis live on--that’s the one I haven’t figured out yet.”

“We’re dealing with a time now when the taste of the public has been made by media people. They just don’t know anything about (our) music. But you play ‘In the Mood’ at a high-school prom, and the floor fills up; they go crazy for it.”

He says the recent success of pianist-singer Harry Connick Jr. is an encouraging sign for swing-era musicians. “I don’t think Harry Connick Jr. would exist if people didn’t react positively to this stuff. Ultimately, people come around to appreciate something truly good, something truly artistic. They get bored of the cheap and trite. That’s the brightest thing on the horizon for bringing good music back to the American public.”

After James died in 1983, Depew was asked by the bandleader’s managers to direct the orchestra. “It’s good art to re-create something of value,” he said, “the sincerest form of flattery. We have the original library, and the band is run by the same management that’s been with it since the ‘40s. We play the music because we love it.”

Depew cites a number of the band’s members who were there with James--trumpeter Clyde Reisingerist, alto saxophonist Benny Davis, bassist Ira Westley--but says the band also includes musicians not old enough to have seen James during the heyday. “We bring in young people. They join our band to learn our style. They know it’s good music.”

Depew, who’s looking forward to playing the Hollywood Bowl in July with the bands of Count Basie and Artie Shaw, said Sunday’s appearance of the 17-piece ensemble will include a pair of vocalists (Depew himself sometimes takes a vocal turn) and some new material during four sets. “We’ll touch all the hits, older tunes, new arrangements and some new tunes that fit our type of band. You can’t be static in this business. You have to look forward.”

“The James Orchestra--it’s like buying a Chevy. You know just what you’re going to get. We don’t play like the Kenton band did; that wouldn’t be appropriate. We may play a cha-cha, but we don’t play the (Xavier) Cugat library. Our sound is our own.”

* The Harry James Orchestra directed by Art Depew plays the Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Rendezvous Ballroom at the Irvine Marriott hotel, 1800 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. Admission: $15. Information: (714) 553-9449.