Ralph Kaffel | |
|---|---|
 Ralph Kaffel, President of Fantasy Records | |
| Born | May 10, 1932 Harbin, Manchuria |
| Died | April 26, 2023 |
| Citizenship | United States |
Ralph Kaffel was a noted music executive, distributor, and expert on Middle Eastern Prayer Rugs.
Overview
Ralph Kaffel is renowned primarily the a music executive who built Fantasy Records (originally founded in 1946) into a modern icon of Jazz music. His tenure at Fantasy lasted from 1971 to 2004, when the label was acquired by Norman Lear’s Concord Music company in 2004. Ralph was also one of America's leading collectors of and experts on Middle Eastern prayer rugs [1] .
Early Years
Ralph Kaffel was born in Harbin, Manchuria, China, May 10, 1932 [2] where he lived until 1941. His family, while en route to the United States, were detained in Shanghai after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor. Considered “White Russian” (as opposed to Red Russian), Kaffel and his family, while attempting to escape Russia, became officially stateless and were thus considered “neutral” during the Japanese occupation of China [2] . In 1948, after living in Shanghai for 16 years, Kaffel and his family were able to obtain exit visas. While in Shanghai, Ralph obtained a traditional education by attending the Shanghai Jewish School and later St. John’s University where he studied journalism. Afterwards he traveled from Shanghai to Paris via Saigon, Karachi and Damascus.
After a year in Paris, Ralph spent another year in Havana, Cuba. In 1950, at age 18, Ralph finally received his U.S. immigration visa and entered the United States through Miami. In Florida he worked at his uncle’s dairy and ice cream company in Pensacola before moving to Los Angeles. It was in Los Angeles that Ralph attended the Art Center School, studying advertising art and layout.
By 1952, Ralph moved to New York where he was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War conflict. While in the service, he met and married his lifelong wife Linda. While serving in the Army, Ralph was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland but was never shipped overseas. Ralph was honorably discharged in 1955 and was awarded U.S. citizenship [2] .
California Records Distribution Years
It was during his Army service that Ralph first became enamored with Jazz music.
“I went to see [vibraphonist] Terry Gibbs at a place called the The Tijuana Club in Baltimore and started reading Downbeat Magazine,” Ralph told the Atlanta Jewish Times in 1989 [2] . “One of the first records I bought was the Charles Mingus recording of Jazzical Moods, which received a five-star rating. I still have it.”
That Terry Gibbs gig in Baltimore ignited a long illustrious career in Jazz, starting with distribution. Moving west to Los Angeles, Ralph officially began his Jazz career working a warehouse job with California Records Distributors [2] (“CRD”), purveyors and distributors of Jazz and Classical records. By 1957, Kaffel along with a partner, Jack Lewerke, purchased CRD, changing the company’s emphasis to Jazz and pop [2] . In the years that followed, Ralph became involved with various distribution operations.
Among the labels CRD distributed were Chess Records, Roulette, Fantasy, Bell, the surf, Jazz and psychedelic sounds of Vault Records and countless others. At CRD, Kaffel's work led to the sale of over one million Creedence Clearwater Revival albums after the group released seven albums between 1968 and 1972. [3] CRD was eventually purchased by National Tape Distributors, based in Milwaukee.
During this time, Kaffel also formed Hitsville Inc. with Jack Lewerke to distribute Motown Records product [3] .
Fantasy Records Years
Kaffel initially joined Fantasy as Vice President in 1971 [3] , then after succeeding Saul Zaentz in 1973 as President, remained fully in charge of operations until 2004. During his time at Fantasy, Kaffel was directly involved in a myriad of the developmental projects including the signings and marketing of original Jazz releases as well as label and catalogue aquistions of famous musical imprints that included Prestige, Milestone, Stax, Contemporary, Pablo, Specialty, Debut, Takoma, among many others. In 1987, Kaffel was named among the BAM Power 100 for his impact on popular music [4] .
Fantasy Jazz Legacy
While at Fantasy, the artists Ralph worked with, or released collections and anthologies by, were both numerous and infamous. The list reads like a virtual who’s-who in the worldwide history of Jazz, including releases and compilations by such legends as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderly, Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Benny Carter, Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Vince Guaraldi, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader, Yuseef Lateef, McCoy Tyner, Ella Fitzgerald, Jim Hall, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter, Barney Kessel, Art Pepper, Sylvester and many others [5] . Ralph went on to shepherd the remastering, CD releasing and re-releasing of the Creedence catalog.
Under Ralph Kaffel’s helm, Fantasy became a beacon in the release, distribution and promotion of a wide spectrum of Jazz music, while obtaining and absorbing classic catalogs including some of the leading Jazz independent labels such as Prestige and Riverside [4] . Ralph’s talents included stitching together various independent labels under the Fantasy umbrella. Eventually under Ralph’s guidence, noted labels such as the original Fantasy releases (including Lenny Bruce’s notorious comedy records) Norman Granz’s Pablo, Lester Koenig’s Contemporary and Charlie Mingus’s Debut, all became part of the Fantasy family. A variety of spin-off labels, notably the reactivated Milestone and and Galaxy imprints, were launched under Ralph’s tutelage ranking Fantasy right alongside such heavyweight labels and distributors as Columbia, Blue Note, Impulse, Atlantic, Verve and ECM.
It was in 1988 that Ralph released one of the very first Jazz “box set” concepts, Miles Davis’ Chronicle:The Complete Prestige Recordings (1951-1956), which helped ignite the box set genre with subsequent releases by no less than Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Art Pepper, along with several assorted Jazz anthologies. It was those releases, particularly the power trio of the Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans box sets which set the standard for the creation of elaborate and all-inclusive reissued and remastered recordings. With Ralph’s background in journalism and design, Fantasy’s box sets and reissues featured historically accurate cover art and graphics, contemporary and critical album notes, exhaustive personnel information, selected biographical material, and never-before-seen-photographs. Ralph likewise pioneered the practice of releasing a "final reissue" of top albums.
During the 1970s, under Ralph, Fantasy established the concept of popular anthologies, including the invention of the two-for-one concept known as “Twofers,” highlighting the music of Jazz masters for both beginning and seasoned listeners. Additionally, under Ralph’s leadership, Fantasy became one of the very first labels--Jazz, Pop or Dance--to present the label’s Jazz, Pop and R&B music in CD format [4] .
In 2004, Kaffel and his team were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Historical album for their work on Sam Cooke with The Soul Stirrers—The Complete Specialty Records Recordings. [6]
Films, Recording, Distribution, Label Acquisitions and Music Mastering
Under the roof of Fantasy’s world headquarters located at Tenth and Parker in Berkeley, California, Ralph created a virtual soup-to-nuts music factory, ranging from the recording to the mastering of new and reissued music.
Also during Ralph’s tenure, Fantasy, through his partner Saul Zaentz, entered the film business, producing Oscar-winning film classics such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, The English Patient as well as Ralph Bakshi’s irreverent animation film, Fritz the Cat.
Under Ralph’s auspices, Fantasy Recording Studios were built and operated as a world class recording studio until its closure in 2018. In addition, Fantasy operated a music mastering suite operated by noted music masterer George Horn.
Throughout his music business career, from the fifties until leaving Fantasy after its eventual sale in 2004 [7] , from his earliest days in the music business to his retirement, Ralph showed incredible business acumen, as he, along with various business partners, left behind a legacy of buying, building and selling of companies on the distribution end of the record business, including United Tape Corp, Merit and Hitsville with partner Jack Lewerke.
Rugs and Collecting
In addition to his musical expertise, Kaffel had another side as an expert in Middle Eastern carpets and prayer rugs [8] . He was the author of Caucasian Prayer Rugs, an illustrated “coffee table” volume published in 1998 by HALI magazine, a company for which he served as a contributing editor for over thirty years. Kaffel’s richly illustrated book is still considered by experts as a bible of rugs, carpets and Islamic textiles, highlighting rugs and prayer rugs of the Turkis, Caucasian and Turkmen variety.
In his own words regarding his expertise and passion for accumulating a vast personal collection, Ralph wrote, “Linda and I have been collecting old rugs since 1979. We got into it in the ‘usual’ way, buying rugs at auction to furnish the house. Having been burned a couple of times, we decided to learn more about them, then started going to New York auctions like Edelmann, PB84 and Phillips. After a couple of faux-pas, Linda decided that we had to know a lot more about what were were doing and that’s when I started my picture ‘index,’ which tracked the types we were most likely interested in. This index grew to about 15,000 entries and became the basis for a large amount of of statistical information that I used in my book, Caucasian Prayer Rugs.”
As a collector, Ralph alongside wife Linda, approached rugs the same way he came to appreciate Jazz music, by absorbing and learning the cultural basics as well as the complicated heritages and histories of the textiles [8] .
“We were very fortunate in that we [Linda and Ralph] both shared the same passion for collecting. It is a truly wonderful avocation, and the opportunities are endless--the social [and community] aspects of collecting, the International Conferences on Oriental Carpets, the American Conferences on Oriental Rugs and rug studies tours added to the enjoyment.”
Regarding his collecting, like his tastes in Jazz music, Ralph confessed that he and Linda’s interests were wide and varied.
“We were not particularly ‘focused’ as collectors and we never knew what might interest us next.”
Ralph’s collection depended more on the “individual piece” rather than its category or provenance. Ralph and Linda subsequently collected Caucasian village rugs, Turkish village rugs [9] , Shahsavan Azerbaijan Soumak bags, South Persian village frilles and Baluch and Central Asian (Turkoman) pieces.
Again, like his love of music: “We looked at rugs first and foremost as art,” Ralph wrote, describing his approach to collecting. “Sometimes there is an immediate almost instinctive attraction to a particular piece. Very often emotion plays a part in reaching a decision to purchase or not.”
In addition to buying and collecting rugs, Ralph collected books written on the subject, which helped him stay on top of the marketplace.
“I find it almost impossible to collect one [rugs and carpets] and not the other [books]. We both regret the missed opportunties that in all probability will not come around again. Today’s prices for world-class pieces are deservedly stratospheric, while in the late 1970s and 1980s, those pieces were much more affordable. But we managed to build up a good-sized collection with some very high quality pieces included.”
After gaining expertise in the field and publishing his book, Ralph was awarded the esteemed Joseph V. McMullen Award for Scholarship and Stewardship in Islamic Rugs and Textiles in 2021 [10] .
Death
Though he died on April 26, 2023 short of his 91st birthday, Ralph's demise was unexpected. He passed away from pneumonia while traveling in Israel.
Upon hearing the news of Ralph’s death in 2023, Jazz scholar Ted Gioia wrote that Kaffel’s “Vision and advocacy still have an impact today. Ralph was a decent guy and a straight shooter, maybe one of the few people in the [music] industry that operated with the right motives and values.” [11]
Ralph was survived by his close family, including his longtime loving wife Linda and three sons including Bernie and Phil.