[78-L] "Zulu's Ball" was Gennett labels

[zimrec at juno.com]

I'm about a week behind reading the digests and trying to catch up.  The article by Russ Shor pertaining to the history of "Zulu's Ball" on the VJM site is a bit inaccurate.  Here are the details as I know them, first hand:

Bob Altshuler, a former record company executive -- he worked for Candid and subsequently became a VP at Columbia -- had became involved in dealing in collector records, primarily 78 rpm.  How that came about is another story which I won't go into here.  In the 1970s, Altshuler, who lived in Huntington, New York. purchased the record from Monte Ballou.  It is likely that he had, by then, already lined up sale of the record to Bernie Klatzko, producer of the Herwin LP reissue label in nearby Glen Cove.

I saw the record twice while it was owned by Klatko, but I can't recall now which of the two was first.  One time was in the basement of Jerry Valburn's house in Plainview, less than 5 miles  (about 7 km) from where I live.  The Herwon LP reissue of the Oliver sides may have already been issued by that time.  Among those present at that time were Klatzko and John R. T. Davies.  Jerry made a transfer to tape at the time.  The other time I saw the record was at Klatko's house.  I had gone with Alan Roberts, producer of the Sunbeam label.  Alan, from Van Nuys, California, was staying with me at the time.  Klatzko allowed us to handle the record, but I declined.  Alan accepted the offer and, on returning it to Klatzko, remarked that he wasn't ever going to wash his hands again.

Sometime around that period, I was over Altshuler's house where he had a black & white, 8-inch by 10-inch glossy of the record on display.  He then proceeded to tell me the story of having taken the record to a professional photographer in New York City where, while during the photo-shoot, he had asked the guy how much he thought the record was worth.  When told, Altshuler said the fellow didn't bat an eye.  Seems he was used to photographing jewelry that was worth many times more. ... I have to interject here that, nowhere along the way did I ever learn precisely how much anyone ever paid for the record.

The next thing I know, the record is in the possession of Max Vreede.  Whether or not Altshuler was an intermediary in the sale is something I don't know.  While Max owned it, John R. T., on one of my many visits with him in England, told me that the record's condition had lessened a grade since he first saw it.

Russ Shor acquired the record from Vreede or his estate.  I have no first hand knowledge of the terms.  I was told that Russ and Joe Lauro, owner of a film library business on Shelter Island, NY,  partnered in purchasing the Vreede collection and that the price was so high that they had to sell off some of the collection to pay for acquiring it.  Whether or not that is the actual case, I don't know.  On at least three separte occasions, Russ brought the record to the annual Jazz Record Collectors' Bash in New Jersey.

That, then, is the story of the original  "Zulu's Ball" record as I know it.

BTW, if Huntington, NY -- where Altshuler lived -- sounds familiar to anyone outside this area, it may be because that is also where John Coltrane lived.

Art

===================================
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:31:17 +0200
From: "Han Enderman" <jcenderman at solcon.nl>
Subject: [78-L]  "Zulu's Ball" was Gennett labels
To: "78-L" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Message-ID: <13C56316C3994B8399AB5287C63E4597 at uwm58xnn8gj9na>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

There is an article about Zulu's Ball on the VJM -site:
http://www.vjm.biz/articles2.htm

Rainer's website
http://www.rainerjazz.com/RecArchive/Gennett/Gnt_5275.htm
also shows the spelling of the Gnt reverse as Workingman Blues.
(as Working Man's Blues in Rust-6; Working Man Blues on Biltmore 1028).

Rather surprisingly I have no label picture of the Tempo R-29, so the
images of the Tempo reissue appear to be even rarer than those of Gnt 5275.
Laurie Wright's King Oliver book pictures the Zulu's Ball side of the Tempo, however.

Han Enderman



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