[Dixielandjazz] Oliver's "Zulus Ball" -- new information?

[Dick Baker]

Friends,

Oliver's famously rare Gennett 5275 (only one 
copy known to exist) shows this as "Zulus Ball" 
by Oliver-Robinson.  A later reissue of it on the 
Biltmore label added an apostrophe to the title 
("Zulu's Ball), but had no composer credits.

That "Oliver-Robinson" credit is what you'll find 
on most issues of either Oliver's original or 
revivalist recreations, although more recently it 
has been claimed that the co-composer is actually 
C. Alvin "Zue" Robertson, a trombonist whose main 
claim to fame is appearing on two sides by Jelly Roll Morton in 1923.

In trying to track down where the Robertson 
attribution came from, I went looking for a 
copyright for the tune, and look what I found:

         Zulu's ball; melody J. O., of U.S., arr. Alvin Robertson,
         of U.S. © 1 c. Oct. 25, 1923; E 574456; Joseph Oliver,
         Chicago.

So Robertson wasn't a composer, just the 
arranger.  And Oliver intended for there to be an 
apostrophe in the title, although the singular 
possessive is silly, since it presumably takes 
more than one Zulu to have a ball.  After all, 
it's Darktown Strutters' Ball for that same reason.

Bill Haesler, you've often quoted your Laurie 
Wright book on Oliver here; does he have anything to say about this?




--Dick Baker
Working on an updated version of the Stomp Off 
Records Tune Titles and Composers Index
See working draft at http://dickbaker.org/stompoff/index.pdf