LP-617

Seymour And His "Heartbeat Trumpet" - Time on my Hands

Released June 1959

Recording and Session Information

Chicago, 1958
Seymour Schwartz, trumpet; Harold Turner, organ

9311 I'll See You in My Dreams
9312 Tea for Two
9313 Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
9314 Sleepy Time Gal
9315 My Blue Heaven
9316 It Had to Be You
9317 Pennies from Heaven
9319 Peg o' My Heart
9318 Moon Glow [sic]
9320 Anniversary Song
9321 Harbor Lights
9322 I Love You Truly
9323 It Must Be True
9324 Time on My Hands

I'll See You In My Dreams	Jones, Kahn	1958
Tea For Two	Caesar, Yomans	February 1958
Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen	Cahn, Chaplin, Secunda	1958
Sleepy Time Gal	Arden, Egan, Lorenzo, Whiting	1958
My Blue Heaven	Whiting, Donaldson	1958
It Had To Be You	Kahn, Jones	1958
Pennies From Heaven	Burke, Johnston	1958
Peg O' My Heart	Bryan, Fisher	February 1958
Moon Glow	Hudson, DeLange, Mills	1958
Anniversary Song	Jolson, Chaplin	1958
Harbor Lights	Williams, Kennedy	1958
I Love You Truly	Carrie Jacobs Bond	1958
It Must Be True	Barris, Arnheim, Clifford	1958
Time On My Hands	Adams, Gordon, Youmans	1958

Liner Notes

Well, maybe I'm getting older, but...Seymour and His Hearbeat Trumpet seem to strike a responsive chord to a man whose legs are just a bit weary of mambo, cha-cha-cha and rock 'n roll.

At any rate, this trumpet and organ combination makes for easy listening ... the trumpet's good and sweet and commercial, and the cunes are all old standards that wear like an old shoe. And Harold Turner, staff organist for WGN in Chicago, affords no mean backing. The music is oh, so danceable, too!

Seymour, himself, is as likeable as his music and he has an interesting story to tell. Born in Chicago in 1917, he was orphaned at an early age, spending most of his formative years at a boys' home. At age eleven, he started to learn trumpet while at school, under a tutor who gave him an eminently fine background.

Later, he attended Hyde Park High School on Chicago's South Side, where he found himself in trouble from time to time because of his desire to sneak off to play dates at the University of Chicago or hang around other, older musicians. At eighteen, he joined a "carny" show, experiencing his first taste of the disillusionment that comes of being on the road. There was light and joy, too, in the years that followed; but more important, a growing awareness that his music and his trumpet were his life.

Yet, with it all came the decision eventually, to put down his horn in favor of the interests of home and family. Seymour entered the record business, establishing a shop in Chicago. He soon gained a reputation for stocking good jazz and being able to pick up collector's items.

For some years he did well in his chosen field, and yet he still missed his trumpet. He always kept it in the back of the shop, near at hand. After awhile, he got into the habit of picking up the horn when business was slow, just picking it up ... he was afraid to do more. He was afraid that he'd lost his touch, afraid that he might get involved again, in something that spelled good-bye to his security. So he'd just kind of fondle the horn at first, fingering the valves a little, wondering whether he still was any good.

One day, finally, he blew a few notes ... the temptation had beaten him down. Sure, he was rusty and the sound that came out was little like the Seymour of old but something had happened. A thrill had run through him like an electric shock, and suddenly, he knew what it was he'd been missing all these years.

He practiced every day for months until, as he tells me, customers dropped in just to hear him play, forgetting to buy records. Bad for business, sure, but great for his morale. His wife, who has always been everything a helpmate should be and then some, encouraged him to sell the shop and do what he wanted. In short order, Seymour issued two sides couched in the idiom with which he was most familiar. The records sold.

Seymour has been playing ever since and his "lip" is better than ever. And he is happy, doing the things he loves to do best. And here is his first LP for your listening pleasure. We at Argo are happy. And we hope you'll be happy, too!

Manro Van Sweringen

COVER PHOTO & DESIGN — DON BRONSTEIN
RECORDING ENGINEER — ED. WEBB
ALBUM PRODUCTION — DAVE USHER Stereo recording made on an Ampex-300S.
Monaural recording made on an Ampex-350.
Frequency response of equipment ± 15 kc.

Masters are made with little or no limiting of dynamic range, and are cut at a level of not more than 5 cm per second, to avoid overloading pickup cartridges. Masters are in all cases made to duplicate, as closely as possible, what was heard in the control room during the session.
For best results use RIAA playback equalization. On this recording, use a microgroove stylus only.

Other Stuff

Background information on Seymour Schwartz and the Heartbeat Label - and excellent resource: http://campber.people.clemson.edu/seymour.html

From that site:
Most tracks actually saw their first release on an Argo LP, after Seymour made a deal with Leonard and Phil Chess; there was also an Argo single off the LP. Jerry Allan had left Heartbeat; he was now running Allan Records (Cash Box, February 14, 1959, p. 26). Seymour closed the deal with Argo the week befor he sold his store (Billboard, March 23, 1959, p. 4). The Chess brothers licensed both sides off the two existing Heartbeat singles, plus 11 additional tracks. One side from H-11, "Some of These Days," was given a matrix number on Argo (9327) but not reissued. Knowing that Seymour was keeping playing times down to what jukebox operators wanted, Argo put 14 tracks on the LP; for readability these are listed separately, in the order in which they appeared on the LP. Matrix numbers are those that Argo applied, in March or April 1959, on getting the tapes. For reasons not known to us, the Chess brothers reused the release number on the LP: Argo LP-617 had once been a 1957 release by David Paul. An up-to-date release number for June or July 1959 would have been LP-641 or LP-642. Billboard reviewed the new Argo LP-617 on July 20, 1959 (p. 23).

Seymour Records
Also, from https://campber.people.clemson.edu/rsrf.html

Seymour Records was the brainchild of Seymour Schwartz (1917-2008). Born in Chicago and orphaned at the age of 10, Schwartz was taught the cornet by the band instructor at the orphanage. He began in business as a reseller of used 78s from jukeboxes. In 1947, after accumulating a huge stock of used jazz 78s, he opened Seymour's Record Mart at 439 South Wabash in Chicago. For over a decade, the Mart was the number 1 specialty store for jazz records in Chicago. After running both traditional and modern jam sessions in the store's loft for 2 years, Schwartz decided to record some of the artists he had featured; another objective, as with many a small label, was to put some of the songs he had written on record. Seymour Records was launched in August 1950. The company recorded just five known sessions, featuring the Jimmy James Jas Band (a Dixieland unit, live in the loft), the Johnny Young Trio, bop tenor saxophonist Kenny Mann, and singer Lurlean Hunter. Seymour 78s were pressed in editions of 1000 copies and sold out of the store. Lacking wider distribution, Seymour sought a pact with a bigger label, and on December 2, 1950, Billboard announced that the Lurlean Hunter sides had been sold to Discovery Records in Los Angeles, which promptly issued two of them (both tunes were his compositions). There was one final release on the label in the summer of 1951, when a strong Chicago White Sox team with a new slogan prompted Schwartz to record and release "Go-Go-Sox." The Chicago White Sox fight song was also cut in the loft, with musical accompaniment by Seymour himself on cornet, Buddy Charles (1927-2008) on piano, and an unidentified individual beating on a wastebasket with a broom handle. In all, the Seymour label managed to get out 5 records. A Johnny Young Trio record never got past the planning stages, but Chance later acquired the sides and they belatedly saw release in 1953. Schwartz continued in the record retailing business, but in 1956 he opened a new record company called Heartbeat, which catered to jukebox operators. The label's very first offering featured Seymour's tunes, sung with accompaniment by "Sun-Ra and His Orchestra," but in March 1958 Heartbeat regrouped, trying standards performed "down the middle of the road," by Seymour himself with organ accompaniment. Schawartz's partner in the second Heartbeat, Jerry Allan, didn't stick around, but the first two 45s by Seymour and His Heartbeat Trumpet got onto a quite a few jukeboxes and in 1959 an LP on the Chess brothers' Argo label ensued. In 1959, Schwartz sold his record store and its remaining stock to Bob Koester, who moved it to another location and renamed it the Jazz Record Mart. Schwartz was now able to concentrate on Heartbeat, which recorded prolifically from 1960 through 1963. The mainstays of the Heartbeat catalog were Seymour himself and singer Dick "Two Ton" Baker, who specialized in novelty and children's songs, although other singers and instrumentalists also recorded for the label. After winding Heartbeat up in 1965 or 1966, Schwartz worked for a musical instrument company, making a few more records for his Sunny label and for a 1974 revival of Heartbeat. In 1993 and 1994, he brought Heartbeat back one last time, for two reissue CDs; the second included two Lurlean Hunter sides along with Heartbeat material. Well into retirement, Seymour Schwartz played his cornet every day, and blew the shofar at his synagogue for Rosh Hashanah. There was a revival of interest in "Go Go Sox" in 2005, when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series for the first time since his infancy. Seymour Schwartz died in New York City on October 3, 2008

Billboard Review: 20 July 1959:

*** TIME ON MY HANDS Seymour and His "Heartbeat Trumpet"
Argo LP 617. Sweet, melodious trumpet work by Seymour in the old Henry Busse-pre-swing style, that should appeal to many. Seymour plays over the organ accompaniment of Harold Turner and the sound is attractive. Tunes include old favorites such as "Tea for Two," "Peg 'o My Heart," "It Had to Be You," and "Time on My Hands."