Louis Rubin: How a daughter brought her father's long-forgotten New York love songs back to life with style

He wrote more than 200 songs but few of them were recorded - until now

If there was one thing to which New Yorker Louis Rubin was even more dedicated than his beloved music and writing of songs, it was his family.

So when the Brooklyn-born fan of jazz, lindy and rhumba, returned to the US after being stationed in Britain during the Second World War, it was his wife, Beatrice, and his two daughters, on whom he focussed.

It was not that he gave up song-writing entirely – indeed, one of his compositions, Silly Silhouette, was performed in 1951 on an early TV talent show by George Clooney’s aunt, Rosemary, along with the Ray Block Orchestra. But the music took a backseat to his training to become an optician and raising his family.

Ms Felton said hearing her father’s music after so many years was ‘beyond special’ (Suzan Felton ) (Suzan Felton)

Mr Rubin, whose parents were Russian Jews, was one of nine children and was raised in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn in the 1930s. He lost both parents by the time he was 17. He died himself, from cancer, in 1984 at the age of 64. Ms Felton's sister, Jill, still lives in the Queens borough of New York.

Their father's songs, more than 200 in total, may have simply yellowed with age and been forgotten about, but for his youngest daughter, Suzan Felton. Earlier this year, she decided to try and do something her father was never able to do – produce an album of his songs, properly recorded and performed by professional musicians. She drew extra determination to do so, after being told she was suffering from cancer.

“There are times in your life when things hit you and you think ‘If I don’t do it now, I never will’,” said Ms Felton, 67, who lives in Hertfordshire. “I had been ill, and I decided ‘I will do this’.”

Ms Felton set about contacting musicians and asking if they would become involved in the project, which is helping raise money for two British charities. She also set up her own record label, Subway Serenade.

One of the artists who became central to the project was Liane Carroll, a celebrated British jazz singer and pianist, who was recently nominated for Jazz FM’s Vocalist of the Year award. Ms Felton is one of her biggest fans and frequently attends her concerts.

“It’s a beautiful story,” said Ms Carroll, who said she had come to know Ms Felton as a result of their shared love of music. She said she told her about the collection of songs she had in her house and her wish to try and record them.

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One evening, Ms Carroll went to Ms Felton’s home, sat at the piano and started to play and sing. “I like the fact that he was a gentle soul,” she said of Ms Felton’s father.

“You know when you hear these war-time songs – well, these were just like those. It was utterly authentic and just divine.”

Conscripted into the US Army, Louis Rubin spent three years in Britain at RAF Burtonwood near Warrington (Suzan Felton ) (Suzan Felton)

The album, titled Silly Silhouette, was recorded over four days at the Hastings studio of Grammy-nominated producer and musician James McMillan. Along with Ms Carroll, it features Alice Zawadzki, who has also been nominated by Jazz FM for its Vocalist of the Year award, Ian Shaw, Karl Charity, Brendan Reilly, Roger Carey and Russell Field. Ms Felton was a producer for the album.

Mr McMillan, who has previously recorded music for Sade, Amy Dickson, Whitney Houston and Van Morrison, said he had been trying to achieve a “classic jazz recording feel – open and natural as possible”.

He said the fact the artists were able to interpret Mr Rubin’s songs in a modern, meaningful way, underscored the timeless nature of music. “A great song, especially from this melody-led style, always has longevity,” he said.

Ms Carroll said there were so many songs that had not yet been touched, there was potential for a second recording, or even something as ambitious as a musical.

“It’s a music I love, because my mother sang those songs to me, but but it was not an area of I knew much about,” she said.

Having had a launch concert last month at Ronnie Scott”s Jazz Club in London’s Soho, Ms Felton is trying to sell as many copies of the 13-track recording as possible to raise money for two charities - Side by Side Refugees, which supports people recently arrived in Britain, and London’s Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

Ms Felton heaped praise on the musicians who made the project happen, especially her friend, Ms Carroll. She said that to listen to her father’s music, played so many years after she first heard it, was “beyond special”.

She said both her mother and father sang to her when she was a child. The fact the album was recorded and produced in Britain also had significance; many of her father's songs were written in the UK during his wartime deployment.

“My dad shared his love of music with me and now, more than half a century later, to be able to bring it back to life is a wonderful dream come true,” she said. “To hear it performed by some of the country’s top jazz musicians is truly amazing and brings a tear now and then. I just wish he was here to share the experience.”