02/28/2026
Today marks 50 years since Music Museum first opened its doors, on February 28th, 1976. We're all deeply grateful for the continued support throughout these years - in the near future, expect to see a greater Music Museum presence online and in general. Below is a transcription of a newspaper article announcing our opening, with a bit of background on the origin story.
"The Music Museum opened up this week at 405 S. Broadway in Pitman. The store's owner, Jim Zaleski, is what some people have termed a musician's musician. He worked his way up to this status by many years of musical study and hard work. Jim, who is now 25 years old, started playing guitar when he was 13. Before he took up the guitar he was already an accomplished pianist. He wanted to play professionally so bad, that he formed a band called the Mandells who worked socials and clubs at night, and he went to school during the day.
When he graduated high school he became a full time musician. He wanted to progress so he moved from band to band to learn different styles of playing & also meet a lot of musicians.
When he was 19 he started to study with world renowned Dennis Sandole. Around the same time he joined a band called "Goliath" who had an album out on ABC records.
After he left "Goliath" he met some other musicians that had also left bands. They rehearsed a few weeks & decided to hit the area with a new group called "Hereafter." Back in those days Jim was known as "The Dude" & Needless to say the band did very well and became one of the most sought after bands in the PA. and S. Jersey area.
Jim stayed with Hereafter for over 2 years and developed quite a following. Eventually, he started to get bored playing the same thing all the time and decided to move on. Because of the following he had developed and his reputation as a musician, someone from New York found out about him and he was offered a job with Mellissa Manchester, who now has 4 record albums to her credit and has been featured on such TV shows as Midnight Special and The Mike Douglas Show.
Jim took the job and was now doing concert work featured in front of thousands of people. While on tour, he had the opportunity to work with many people such as David Steinberg, Jonathin Edwards, Jesse Colin Young, Argent, Doobie Brothers, John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Ornette Coleman and many others. But now that he was up there he still wasn't satisfied. There was just too much involved with becoming a success. To him it meant giving up a lot things you believed in. It meant compromising with people whose only interest was the money you could make for them. They really didn't appreciate your abilities as musician.
This was the turning point in Jim's life. To everyone's shock and dismay he threw in the hat and gave it all up for a family life. At the time the only profession he knew was music so he started giving music lessons. Having been very successful with this in the Vineland, Hammonton and Williamstown area Jim decided to spread out a little. He has also become famous in collectors circles for his very exquisite guitar collection, some of which will be on display at the store."
