Harvey Belair: A Tale of a 1920s Jazz Drummer, Part Two

This continues the saga of a Connecticut drummer, hailing from Maine, who lived a brief but exciting musical life during the 1920s.

Harvey (Fr: Hervé) Belair, born in Maine, as we chronicled in the last issue, played in the Emil Heimberger Orchestra at the once prominent Hotel Bond in Hartford, CT. It would come as no surprise that word of this drummer’s talent got around, and to some unexpected spots.

After making acquaintance with the grandson of Hervé, I was introduced to the family historian, Belair’s granddaughter, Esther. She shared transcriptions of articles from the Hartford Courant newspaper detailing goings on for the Heimberger Orchestra in the late ’20s, as well as a curious set of ship’s manifests with Belair’s name listed. They were linked to travelling entertainment of some sort, containing a list of unrecognizables easily dismissed. Neither of us sure what to make of the lists, I could only suggest perhaps another local bandleader of the era with a more travelled career hired Belair for a brief excursion or two outside the States. Heimberger, leader of the Hartford hotel ensemble, was not known to travel. The bigger picture wasn’t anything we expected!

Both ship’s manifests a century old, from 1926. The first manifest from February 1926 for the S.S. Pan America returning from Nassau in The Bahamas included four musicians, recorded as such, and records them as members of the crew. I take it on this trip, the four musicians including ’Harvey Blair’ were contracted to play for a soiree on a cruise, not necessarily on the Bahamas mainland. All four musicians are recorded in later periodicals available on the internet. Frederic Tscheil was a violinist, Constantino Ramos, saxophonist, and Alfred H. Sellers, pianist, hailing from Harvey’s Maine hometown! Sellers, a talented player who once played in Everett Firth’s Orchestra at Sanford, ME (as did Belair) and for Rudy Vallée at the University of Maine in 1922, who was later offered to be Rudy’s personal secretary and accompanist.

The other manifest from July ’26 for the S.S. Roosevelt returning from Bremerhaven, Germany records a Herman Jurnwoy (could find no matching records), John Christensen, David Shatz and Barney Zeeman. I did not find much from this log. An accompanying manifest for the same ship and voyage which is barely legible records the next of kin of the musicians. “Harvey Blair,” recording an Alfred of 6 Westfield St. in Biddeford, Maine. The others from Philadelphia and one from Brooklyn.

It would seem there is not much to ascertain there, as the names (other than Herman Jurnwoy and Barney Zeeman) were somewhat common, and don’t jump out as known big band names.

That is until I looked up Zeeman. Without a doubt, this Barney Zeeman was the same person as a well known radio artist from Philadelphia who led the “Kentucky Kardinals” orchestra on station WCAU. His band outlasted the 1929 crash, and can be found frequently mentioned in music magazines of the time. And lo and behold, this very trip of June-July 1926 was announced in at least two publications: both in Variety Magazine and The Billboard. Zeeman was known as a manager of bands as well, even managing Phil Spitalny’s overseas shows at one point.

But Zeeman also made at least five commercial recordings in 1926. Four for Gennett Records in New York, and one for Odeon in Germany. I think it is more than likely that Hervé was a member of Zeeman’s band at this time, and was included in these ventures. Linking the timeline of Zeeman’s travels to the proximity of the recording dates, it leads me to believe Hervé was the drummer in those sessions and those other unknown musicians from the July 1926 returning manifest were Zeeman’s regulars.

Belair had certainly earned himself a reputation in the jazz and dance band world, and a cosmopolitan one at that. If the paper trail allows, I imagine this shining percussionist of the 1920s has yet to secure himself in the jazz history books.