The Zerfas story starts as Jubal, which recorded an album at Gilfoy Sound Studio in 1970.  This album was remains unreleased.  By 1973, they were operating as Zerfas, when 700 West recorded and issued their landmark album, now an expensive collector’s item; only 500 copies were pressed.  Like most everything from 700 West, production is crisp and inventive, and far more realized than most privately recorded records of the time.  The band’s sound was described by one reviewer as “Indiana’s answer to Sgt. Pepper”.

Zerfas flirted with the big time; they reportedly turned down a contract from Capricorn Records, and declined an opportunity to join with guitarist Harvey Mandel.  By the mid 1970’s, they adopted the name Jubal Band amid multiple personnel shuffles and became a very popular night club act, touring around the Midwest and south, and holding down regular gigs in Indianapolis. One of those new members, Howard Phillips, played congas and sang lead vocals.  This later band played mostly covers of popular rock and soul/disco hits.

Recognition of the Zerfas LP as one of the finest private psychedelic records spurred a reissue.  Phillips released a deluxe vinyl reissue with a band photo and expanded liner notes, still on the 700 West label, in the mid 1990’s, but about 30% of the pressing was defective, yielding about 350 good copies.  This pressing was produced from the original master tapes and has the reputation for sounding better than the original pressing.  A CD was planned at the time, but never materialized, nor have other attempts to reissue not only the original record on CD but some of the many live recordings in existence, not to mention the fine 1970 recordings. Instead, there have been a series of pirated reissues on labels such as Radioactive, Phoenix and Lion, none of which approximate the fine sound of either the original or the Howard Phillips reissue.