Mining Past for the Future : Former Stray Cat Brian Setzer Hits a Chord in ‘80s by Putting New Twist on Rockabilly, and Hopes to Do Same With Big-Band Swing

It would seem that Brian Setzer was born in the wrong era.

The former front man of rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats lately has been mining even deeper into America’s musical past with the 17-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra, which is introducing big-band swing to a new generation.

Setzer, who performs to a sold-out crowd tonight at the Coach House, confesses that leading a big band has been a long-time dream.

“I always seem to go back and find this great music that’s not been done, or not been done (the way I hear it),” he said in a recent phone interview from the road.

“I like a lot of new music too, but I always seem to parallel it with the older stuff. Rockabilly, I paralleled with punk. I thought it had that power and drive. This, of course, is a whole different thing, but it occurred to me what a great idea it would be to lead a big band with an electric guitar and a rock foundation. . . . People are ready for it.”

Setzer, 34, grew up on New York’s Long Island, with access to the eclectic variety of live music offered up nightly in New York City. Big-band jazz was a part of that scene that stayed with him.

“When I was a kid, I’d spend one night going to the Village Vanguard to catch the Gil Evans Band, and the next night going to CBGB’s to see (rock band) Television,” he said.

“Also, a lot of my guitar teachers were jazz players,” he said. “I guess that’s where this all started, but one way or another, I would have discovered it eventually, because it’s such great music.”

The Setzer orchestra’s new album (released by Hollywood Records) runs the stylistic gamut from Wynonie Harris’ jump blues classic, “Sittin’ On It All The Time,” to the jazz standards “Route 66” and “Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” to four swinging originals, including the finger-popping, Bobby Darin-esque “Lady Luck.”

“When I listen to this record, I really think I pulled off something that’s unique,” Setzer said. “At the very least, I led a big band with a guitar. I like the way it sounds. It’s really clean.”

Setzer could also be leading the way to another roots-music explosion, much as the Stray Cats had done a dozen years earlier when the hits “Stray Cat Strut” and “Rock This Town” hit the top of the charts.

A number of performers are playing their own versions of revitalized jump blues and swing: Buster Poindexter has completed his third album in the genre, Canadian singer-guitarist Colin James has just put out one for Virgin Records and other lesser-known acts have releases on various indie labels.

The Derby, a popular club in Hollywood, books jump, swing and jazz exclusively, and has been the subject of profiles on CNN and a slew of newspaper and magazine articles.

But due to the critical and popular backlash against the overnight success of the Stray Cats, Setzer’s not sure if a full-scale revival is such a healthy thing for big-band music.

“I almost kind of dread that happening, because it stung--and it still stings--that rockabilly became a trend and a fashion and a fad, and then everybody hates it and it’s over with,” he said.

Millions jumped on the rockabilly bandwagon in the early ‘80s, then turned on the Stray Cats, grumbling that Setzer, bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom had become rockabilly caricatures.

“OK, so the Stray Cats had a lot of hair, and we had tattoos and earrings, but that’s the way I (expletive) like to look!” Setzer said. “I don’t think it would have changed anything if we had been less flamboyant. Things go under--that’s the natural course of things in this business, and that’s the part I don’t like.”

While Setzer said he doesn’t rule out a Stray Cats reunion, he is happy with the more adult-oriented music he’s making--for now.

“I definitely see a couple more records in this,” he said. “I can say absolutely at least one more, because I’m already starting to get ideas. But do I want to do this the rest of my life? All I know is that I want to play guitar for the rest of my life.

“But I look at people’s faces out there in the front tables at the shows, see their expressions and say, ‘Yeah! I’m onto something again.’ ”

* The Brian Setzer Orchestra plays rock and swing tonightat 8 at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. SOLD OUT. (714) 496-8930.