When the musicians of the Big Band Salute to Benny Goodman played “Let’s Dance” Wednesday night at the Maine Center for the Arts, a nearly full house was whisked back in time. It was the 1930s, and the room was filled with fast insistent rhythms and cool waves of brass. The band leader, Peanuts Hucko, stood informally, holding his clarinet with one hand and leading the small ensemble with a nimble snap of the other.

They played the era’s hit tunes, including “One O’Clock Jump,” “The King Porter Stomp,” and “Memories of You.” Between numbers, Hucko told fond stories about the King of Swing, how he traveled across the country and performed in ballrooms, what his favorite songs were, and how good life was in the glory days of Big Band.

After a set of splashy songs, Hucko asked the ladies and gentlemen of the audience to give a warm welcome to his singing wife, Louise Tobin, a bubbly alumna of the Benny Goodman Band. She entered bouncily, sparkling in a glittery blue dress and smiling broadly as she slid into her signature song ” `Deed I Do.”

She was delighted to be in Maine, she told the audience in a low, deep voice. She had been here once before and remembered that, back in the days when the fox trot and the rumba kept couples busy, Maine had good dancers.

“If anyone out there is over 55,” she said, and quickly added with a teasing smile, “which I doubt there is — we’d like to bring back some of those wonderful, wonderful memories.”

With a broad grin that made her eyes squint sweetly, Tobin recalled stories of working with Goodman. She also applauded the skills of the current musicians. “Isn’t it marvelous to see these young guys playing swing?” she said, leading the audience in a whooping cheer.

Missing the occasional high note and turning slightly flat on others, Tobin crooned more Benny Goodman favorites, such as “And The Angels Sing,” “There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” “The Man I Love,” and a call-answer duet with Hucko, “When You’re Smiling.”

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. She’s pretty isn’t she?” Hucko stated, as his wife blew kisses into the air and left the stage.

Then tap dancer Ardie Bryant made a percussive entrance with the rat-a-tat of his feet. Tipping his gray derby to the audience, Bryant said he wanted to “have a little fun,” and did so by instigating a swing-era version of what is popularly known in stadiums today as The Wave. Throughout his impressive performance, Bryant curled his arm in a come-along motion, and the audience bellowed, “Oh yeah,” in a long, massive chant.

The audience had a little fun with Bryant, too. With great gusto, he said how happy he was to be in “Orlon, Maine.” “I was afraid of that,” he admitted, after he was corrected en masse.

While Bryant loosened his ankles with tap dance moves, he spoke of his crusade to keep tap alive. During “S’Wonderful,” “Cheek to Cheek,” and “You Do Something to Me,” the 63-year-old dancer proved that the dance form was in no danger of leaving his limber bones.

Singer-pianist Buddy Greco’s supper-club music and one-liner jokes filled the second half of the evening. At the piano, he played “Misty” with tinkly trills and cascading embellishments.

“The best songs are the old songs,” Greco instructed during one of his friendly talks between numbers, which included a medley of Nat King Cole songs, an emotive rendition of “The Lady Is A Tramp,” and a snazzy instrumental version of “MacArthur Park.”

The audience gave a warm farewell to the entire ensemble during the finale, “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Trombones, horns, and saxophones rocked with a soulfulness that was missing from the rest of the concert. An immensely successful and chatty evening of nostalgia and swing, the salute to Benny Goodman was an unforgettable tribute to an unequalled American jazzman.