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PAGE 20 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 10, 1986
Wishing A Happy & Healthy
New Year
Lynn & Mark Bressler
of
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by Edwin Black
Seymour Schwartz was raised in
the 1920s with about 200 other kids
in the Chicago Home for Jewish
Orphans. As he was growing up, he
always wanted to play the violin.
But people at the Home said, “We
don’t have a violin. Here, kid, try a
cornet.” So he did.
Seymour was natural for music.
His father, who died while Sey
mour was a child, was a simple
Russian tailor. But Seymour’s
mother trained for the Metropoli
tan Opera before the great influenza
plague of 1918 took her life; and
her father before her was a cantor
in Europe. Seymour’s music, how
ever, would go in a different direc
tion. He was coming of age in the
’20s. The Great War to end all wars
was over, and America was into
swing, big bands and steamy jazz
clubs. So when the cornet and
Seymour clicked, the music they
made together was of course jazz.
His Chicago orphanage encour
aged music ability. Seymour joined
the 50-kid dance band and quickly
it.
7 didn't believe an American
could describe the Soviet situation
so accurately!”
- YAKOV GORODETSKY...
O ne of the three
major Soviet
activists let out of
Russia this year, Yakov
Gorodetsky also wrote
to author, Stan Rose, co
publisher of the
Southern Israelite:
4 4 ¥ want this book
I
Photos by Shirley Rose
to be widely
read in the USA
because sometimes
Americans don’t know
the issue. MEMO FROM
RUSSIA is right to the
point!”
sg»5
Available nationally by special order at B. Dalton Booksellers!
Southern Israelite readers:
We will send you autographed copies of MEMO FROM RUSSIA. Just fill
out the information below and Include $2.00 shipping charge for each
order.
Your name
Addraaa
Number of book* ordered ( ) @ >9.95 each plus >2.00 chipping charge = >
. City .
State
Zip
Total
Pleaae aend check with thla order and mall to:
MEMO FROM RUSSIA
c/o Southern leraellte
Sun Book Dlvtaion
7373 W. 107th St.
Overland Park, KS 66212
NOTE:
Shipping charge appllea only to flrat book
ordered. Additional copies Included with
order are $9.95
I
J
earned a reputation for soulful
horn playing. “I was only 14 when
someone heard about my music
and asked me to play horn on Rosh
Hashana at a Reform Synagogue.
They told me the notes and asked
for a shofar effect. I did it, and it
meant more to me than all the
other plastic crap I had ever blown.
I was too young to figure out why,
but I knew blowing in a synagogue
was something special.” Seymour
kept trumpeting. But when the
Depression hit, Seymour couldn’t
afford to pursue a performance
career. He was forced instead to
take work as a shipping clerk for a
dress manufacturer. “But the truth
is,” Seymour remembers, “my music
slid.”
Eventually, however, in 1947,
Seymour was able to return to the
world of music. He opened a jazz
store under the “L” tracks in down
town Chicago. “It was one of the
hottest jazz shops in the country,”
recalls Seymour. “We sold all the
best records and sheet music, and
held jam sessions all the time.
Downbeat magazine writers would
hang around, and the big names of
jazz, including Louis Armstrong,
albums of Jackie Gleason, and
slowly my lip did come back,” says
Seymour. “Once, Louis Armstrong
came in to buy a record, heard me
play, and said “You ought to be
out playing, not in here.”
In 1958, Seymour sold his store
and settled in as a manufacturer’s
rep covering a six-state region for a
line of Japanese guitars and drums.
“But everywhere I went,” assures
Seymour, “that horn stayed with
me as a friend. Even in hotels, 1
would put a mute in and still play."
The next musical event for Sey
mour, however, was not of his own
doing. In the late ’70s, his grown
sons Gerry and Steve moved to
Israel and became Orthodox. “In
the process, I became indoctrinated
too,” says Seymour. “I started to
find new ways to express my new
religious feeling.”
About five years ago, the idea of
blowing the shofar began appeal
ing to Seymour. “It’s something 1
could automatically believe in,”
says Seymour, “both because it is
an instrument and it is religious.
Look, it was there with Abraham,
it was there with Moses on Mount
Sinai when he received the Ten
would always drop in when they
hit Chicago.”
Seymour continued playing his
horn, even as he became a mer-
Commandments. To me, it was a
way to get more deeply into my
Judaism.”
Seymour tried at least two dozen
chant rather than a performer. “I
would play along with the jazz
Continued next page.
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Best Wishes for a
Happy and Healthy
New Year
FOR THE BEST
OF BOTH WORLDS
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