East Meadow veterans honored with concert and art show

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Seconds after Steve Shaiman struck up a 20-piece swing band, men extended their hands to their partners and couples began swaying to the rhythm of music that surely brought back memories.

Dozens of veterans and their families celebrated Veterans Day at the East Meadow Public Library’s Veteran’s Concert and Art Show.

Each year, the library, on Front Street, hosts both annual events. But because the facility is being renovated and open only for limited use, Program Director Jude Schanzer arranged for them to be held at the Samanea New York Market in Westbury last Sunday.

The Swingtime Big Band transported celebrants to 1944 in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. As another way to honor the “Greatest Generation,” the band featured the music of performers who would have turned 100 this year, including Marion Hutton, Anita O’Day and Nat King Cole.

“It’s our privilege to do it,” said Shaiman, of Salisbury, the band’s director. “We want to have a celebration for these people who sacrificed and dedicated their lives for us.”

The Swingtime Big Band has played at venues around the tristate area since it was founded as the Star Dusters in 1972. Shaiman became its director in 2005, and renamed the group, whose mission has never changed. “It’s about . . . capturing the style of the ’30s and ’40s,” he said.

Shaiman “caught the Big Band bug,” he added, while playing the saxophone at Stuyvesant High School. The Manhattan school has a renowned music program that gives students the chance to lead a band. Shaiman went on to study music at Oberlin College, in Ohio, before moving to Salisbury.

While some patrons danced and swayed to swing classics, others made their way through an art exhibit of 22 pieces created by 10 active military personnel and veterans from across Long Island.

The Veterans Art Show, held in cooperation with the Nassau/Babylon Veterans Center, is one of many art displays and installations the library holds throughout the year. Jerry Cohen, 82, of East Meadow, has been a frequent contributor to the shows since he moved to the community eight years ago. A veteran of the National Guard, Cohen has been sketching since he was a child in the South Bronx. “I always remember having a pencil, chalk or a crayon in my hand,” he said.

Cohen graduated from the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan, now known as the High School of Art and Design, in 1955. He began taking college courses, but dropped out three years later to enlist in the National Guard. He was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he took part in the testing of the Nike Ajax, the world’s first operational surface-to-air missile.

Cohen’s role was to create a computer simulation of the potential results of the missile’s launch. “We learned how to launch the missile — God forbid we should have to,” he said.

Cohen was to be discharged by 1962, but his plans changed when the U.S. military discovered that the Soviet Union had 36 intercontinental missiles ready for deployment in Cuba. “It was very nerve-wracking, and we had no idea what would happen,” Cohen said of the 13-day Cuban missile crisis. He remained in the service for another year, and was honorably discharged in 1963.

After his service, Cohen began taking classes in graphic design, and he eventually became an independent printing broker and graphic designer who contributed to J.C. Penny, Avis and a number of Long Island printing companies.

Cohen showcased seven pieces at the art show, most of them pen-and-ink depictions of places, animals or objects that had caught his eye. He prides himself on sketching what he sees almost daily, and always carries a sketchpad with him.

To show his admiration of the library and its programs, in 2017 he created a collage of sketches of some of the events he attended that year, including performances by the jazz band the Guy Mintus Trio, pianist Fei Fei Dong and the Swingtime Big Band. The library staff bought the work from him and presented it to Schanzer, who has it hanging in her office.

Cohen encourages his artist friends across Long Island to contribute to the library’s art shows. “Not all of them have the kind of library we do in East Meadow,” he said, noting the activities and opportunities Schanzer brings to East Meadow patrons, “so I brought them here.”