While serving as a staff sergeant in the World War II era, Musiker led the 669th Army Air Force Band.
In later life Musiker moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he taught clarinet and saxophones and continued to write and arrange music, albeit with little professional recognition as both swing and klezmer had fallen from fashion and were yet to be revived.
Musiker's life, career and family history embody the transition of klezmer music from its European roots to a new and distinctive American style over the course of the 20th Century.
Musiker remained with the Gene Krupa Orchestra, playing saxophone and clarinet, until its breakup in 1944 and performed on most of the band's recordings, including solos on "Blue Rhythm Fantasy," "Full Dress Hop," and "Let Me Off Uptown."
As well as his own band, the Sam Musiker Orchestra, he played and recorded with numerous other klezmer musicians in the busy and fertile New York Jewish musical community of the 1930s and '40s.
[10] Musiker's arrangements in surviving recordings have a distinct sound with a rhythm described as "bustling" and "propulsive", with the drummer accenting the first, fourth and seventh quaver of each 4/4 bar, the double bass providing a steady pulse on the beat and either piano or accordion playing chords on the off-beats.