LP-619

Melavano and Orchestra - My Memories

Released 1958

Recording and Session Information

Tony Osborne, piano?; unknown Orchestra;
London?, 1958?

Falling Leaves
Me And My Shadow
I'll Be Around
I'm Walking Behind You
I Only Have Eyes For You
To Each His Own
If We Should Meet Again
You Tell Me
What Shall I Tell Paris
Who Am I
This Is Love
When Somebody Says I Love You

Falling Leaves	Knippel-Decimber-Marritz	1958
Me And My Shadow	Rose-Jolson	1958
I'll Be Around	Wilder	1958
I'm Walking Behind You	Reid	1958
I Only Have Eyes For You	Dubin, Warren	1958
To Each His Own	Livingston, Evans	1958
If We Should Meet Again	Osborne	1958
You Tell Me	Osborne	1958
What Shall I Tell Paris	Osborne	1958
Who Am I	Osborne	1958
This Is Love	Osborne	1958
When Somebody Says I Love You	Osborne	1958

Liner Notes

Out of England comes an album designed for easy listening...music with a message that says relax, be comfortable, and remember. And the selections that Argo's talented young Englishman has chosen enable you to do just that...for he brings you standards on the first side, standards that have withstood the test of time; and on the other, the pleasingly original comrositions of Tony Osborne, of whom we'll speak more later. At any rate, both sides seem to mold to your listening tastes with the flexibility and glove-soft quality of a well-worn shoe.

And Melavano has added a new formula here composed of equal parts delicate restraint and skilled musicianship. Listen for example. to "Falling Leaves" and it becomes a new thing...a means of transporting you back, back to a time and place when things were different... when time perhaps stood still and an eternity could have swept by with the roar of a jet; or "Me and My Shadow" — it carries with it the wistfulness of the early 30's when people had almost forgotten what a war was all about. Things were really different then and reality was not something to be afraid of. And then there is "To Each His Own", a song that first appeared at a time when ballroom dancing was at its peak and no one had ever heard of TV. Each of the other selections, too. has a special time and place for remembering, and remembering is good for it gives balance and context to the present.

Now these memories are shrouded by war and the atom, but Melavano restores them to you in a gentle soft-focus which only one of his skilled artistry can create. He catalogs these memories of what was once perhaps, a better time in such a manner that one listening enables you to cover the broad span of twenty years in the space of a half-hour's time.

And if you've ever experienced one of those "intimate affairs" that seem common to us all, identified a certain song with a love that remains carved indelibly in your heart, then one listening of this album will lead to another and then another. Because Melavano has the ability to touch the catch-spring that releases a flood of bitter-sweet memories, the remembered intimacies that only two can share.

Perhaps as you listen, catch phrases of a lyric will come to mind — haunting refrains, autumn, smoke. Paris in love...lyrics only lovers sing and if they are bittersweet, if they do spell out the rain of unrequited love, they are much the better artistically, for they convey a mood that has meaning for all of us. Chances are you won't want to play this album often, or for friends. Rather, it is music to be alone with and you will play it more when you arc receptive to the special mood it creates. But, whatever the mood. Melavano and his Orchestra have definitely produced an album of infinite good taste and one that Argo Records is pleased now to present for listeners on this side of the Atlantic.

Tony Osborne, whose compositions you will hear on the other side of the album, is without doubt, one of the most talented composer-arrangers yet to come out of England and Melavano exposes six of his works in the just light they deserve. Though they are all originals, they have about them all the necessary qualities to make of them. standards in ten or twelve years time; for example, soft lyric lines which are given voice at first through violins, then restated later in full orchesration. This is no mean feat musically, yet Melavano and Tony Osborne have melded their respective talents quite ably, and successfully continue the mood of the first side with gentle consistency.

As you put the album away, you may well find yourself humming Osborne's tunes. Perhaps you'll wonder why they sound so much like something else you've heard. Well, rest easy, they're new and original, but they have a staying quality which is absorbing — again, a tribute to the artistry of this man and to Melavano, who brings his music to life. Argo Records can well be proud of adding two such distinguished musicians as Melavano and Tony Osborne to its talent roster.

The fact that this album is strictly instrumental reflects a strong awareness of the delicacy of musical taste as expressed by Melavano. More is left to the imagination, and without being aware of it, the listener is drawn into the mood of the music — he becomes an active listener. A musician can't ask for much more from his audience because, after all, this is the true measure of enjoyment!

MUNRO VAN SWERINGEN
RECORDED IN ENGLAND
ALBUM PRODCCTION— DAVE USHER

OTHER NEW ARGO LP RELEASES

MAX ROACH. KENNY DORHAM. HANK MOBLEY LP624
JIMMY WOODE — LP630
RALPH SHARON AND FRIEND — LP635
AHMAD JAMAL — LP636
JAMES MOODY — LP637
PORTFOLIO OF AHMAD JAMAL— DLP638 (2 Record Album)

AND INTRODUCING THE NEW ARGO KANGAROO-SPLIT-PAK

JOHNNY GRIFFIN. WILBUR WARE, JR. MANCE — LP624
J. C. HEARD. JOE NEWMAN, FRANK WESS & OTHERS LP633
YUSEF LATEEF — LP634

Other Stuff

Billboard Review: 10 November 1958:

MY MEMORIES - Melavano Ork. Argo LP 619
Here's an album for easy listening, consisting of relaxed and warm arrangements of a collection of standards and originals played in smooth style the by Melavano Ork, a new English organization. The set could be called background music, but it's much better than the average background music set and the performance is also much better than average. Tunes include "Falling Leaves," "Me and My Shadows," and "To Each His Own." Release could grab sales if displayed and exposed.

LP-618

Al Russ Orchestra - Many Moods

Released 1958

Recording and Session Information

Chicago, 1958
Al Russ Orchestra

Concerto For Lovers
The Girl And The Fiddle
Mood For Piano
Paris Garret
The Violins Are Blue
Sarita Tango
Sympathy
Sunset And Vine
Melody For Maxine
Practice, Practice
The Island
The Light Touch

Concerto For Lovers	Al Russ	1958
The Girl And The Fiddle	Al Russ	1958
Mood For Piano	Al Russ	1958
Paris Garret	Al Russ	1958
The Violins Are Blue	Al Russ	1958
Sarita Tango	Al Russ	1958
Sympathy	Al Russ	1958
Sunset And Vine	Al Russ	1958
Melody For Maxine	Al Russ	1958
Practice, Practice	Al Russ	1958
The Island	Al Russ	1958
The Light Touch	Al Russ	1958

Liner Notes

In this collection of his compositions, Al Russ displays with greater polish than ever before, his extra ordinary variety of mood expressions, which capuvate audiences of all ages and musical tastes. His music stirs your every emotion ... from joy to utter sadness...demonstrating along the way, a keen insight into those subtleties of the musical arts, that make good musicians outstanding.

Back in 1943, when the Clyde Lucas Orchestra was riding the crest of success, Al Russ, a young ambitious lad of 23, joined the group as trumpet player and staff arranger. It was four on-the-go years, packed full of one night stands, theatre dates and night-clubs. In between constant traveling and rehearsals, Al wrote an entire library of swing arrangements and still had time to project his talent as a conductor, when the group played the theatre circuit.

In the four years of his New York stay, Al took on every free lance arranging job he could find...music publishers, orchestras, acts, singers! The name stars were sprinkled generously through his list of clients: Bob Haynes, Betty Brewer, Steve Lawrence, Betty Clooney, Mary Mayo, the DeCastro Sisters, Alan Dean...to mention just a few. Needless to say, the bold beauty of the Al Russ arrangements was talked up big around the music circles of New York. And in 1931, this talk sparkplugged a call from Studio Films, Inc, a New York firm which produced musical shorts for television. It was a gilt-edge invitation to join them...and he did, in the dual capacity of musical director and staff arranger. This was to become the turning point of his career, and Al says, "One of the busiest years I ever put in. I must have arranged for every singer in the country, plus doing five song arrangements twice a week for two recording sessions which I also conducted."

The experience with the Clyde Lucas Orchestra, the many facets of free lance arranging were all strong contributing factors to the development of Al's abounding talent, but he tasted the recording business and liked it... liked it very much! Here he saw an opportunity to compose his own special typr of music, and share it with all who love good music, as he did. Al cut his ties with Studio Films, set about and composed four beautiful string instrumentals...recorded them and scored a triumph, incidentally, these compositions are still being used by many disc jockeys throughout the country as themes. The exhilarating ambition which supported and thrust Al successfully through his years of apprenticeship had paid, as he planned, very satisfying dividends.

Now that he had found his "musical love", composing, Al wanted to find a home for it. And thus, in the capacity of musical director, he joined Audio Recording Studios in his native Cleveland, Ohio. In the summer of 1953, the internationally famous Cleveland Symphony Orchestra honored Al Russ, by presenting the world premiere of his two compositions, HIGHLY STRUNG and PEANUTS AND POPCORN. Then, the popular music critics sat up and took notice with the release of Al's DANCE ON MY PILLOW, followed by BLUE STREET and MOOD FOR TWO.

Now. turn to the album within...settle back and be pleasantly surprised. You are about to experience an intricate and moving music, threaded with warmth and tenderness. Whatever you're in, whatever you may be searching for...is yours for the playing.

The session supervisor and recording engineer of this album is Vlad Maleckar of Audio Recording Studias, A musician in his own right.

- NORMA G. MAURER

ALBUM PRODUCTION — DAVE USHER

Other Stuff

Billboard Review: 6 October 1958:

MANY MOODS - Al Russ Ork.
Al Russ and orchestra come thru with warm readings of a group and his own original compositions that make for enjoyable listening. The album is titled "Many Moods" and the moods are many in this set, ranging from "Concerto for Lovers," to "The Girl and the Fiddle," and "Sarita Tango." Deejays should spin this set and mood music fans will be interested.

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."