Hot Jazz Club Of America

Bootleg label founded in 1947 by Sam Meltzer, the owner of a Brooklyn, NY, record store. Meltzer announced the first three reissues of the Hot Jazz Club of America in an ad in The Record Changer, January 1947, p. 5. The first releases were dubbed shellac white label pressings produced anonymously. This first pressing (two records of King Oliver's Jazz Band, one of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five) was immediately sold out. They were quickly reissued with the familiar blue 'Hot Jazz Club Of America' label and began a series of more than 100 discs. Later issues had a yellow label and were pressed on a plastic compound with improved dubbing techniques. The IRSM matrix prefix on the blue labels stands for Irving Ravinsky & Sam Meltzer; the RAV matrix prefix on the later yellow labels stands for Irving Ravinsky. In July 1950, RCA Victor began clamping down on the unauthorized copying of their old records by sending cease-and-desist orders to labels like Hot Jazz Club of America and Biltmore (Variety, July 5, 1950, page 35)