Ode to the Hep label

[BillF]

Have just skimmed through these pages and can find no mention of recordings (as opposed to reissues) undertaken by Hep. To set the record straight, here's an excellent album I bought recently which was recorded in Edinburgh by Hep eight years ago by visiting American musicians:

[jazztrain]

If you look more carefully, there are mentions of a few recordings that hep originated (such as a Jessica Williams, a Don Lanphere, and a Jay Clayton).

Strictly from memory, there are some more Jessica Williams cds on hep, along with some by Spike Robinson and by Joe Temperley that hep recorded and that reside on my shelves. A Gene DiNovi as well.

[Ted O'Reilly]

  On 3/6/2013 at 9:47 PM, jazztrain said:

. A Gene DiNovi as well.

I was going to mention that one... I think the original productions are in the Hep 2000 series. Some go back quite a way: Jim Galloway did an LP in the early '80s that was re-released on CD twenty years later

[ghost of miles]

  On 3/6/2013 at 12:47 PM, bichos said:

great, if not sensational news for all bunny berigan fans: according to michael p. zirpolo, author of a book about bunny berigan hep records will release some unissued airchecks of bunny berigan this summer:

"ANNOUNCEMENT!

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that an agreement has been reached between the University of Wisconsin and Alastair Robertson of Hep Records, which will allow previously unissued aircheck and other recordings made by Bunny Berigan in the late 1930s that are housed in the University’s Mills Music Library to be sonically restored, digitally remastered, and issued on the Hep label for worldwide distribution and sale.

Very soon, the acetate disks on which these recordings were made will be shipped from Madison, Wisconsin to sonic engineer Doug Pomeroy in New York City for digital transfers to be made, sonic restoration, and remastering. After that has been done, the acetates will be returned to the Mills Music Library, and the digitally remastered sound files will be sent to Alastair Robertson in Scotland. Mr. Robertson will then begin the production process.

The contemplated CD issue, which we hope will be out this coming summer, will include previously unissued Berigan recordings made while Bunny and his band were at the Hotel Pennsylvania in the spring of 1937, the Paradise Restaurant in the spring of 1938, possibly a recording from their stay at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan in October of 1938, and a recording that seems to have been made in a studio in the fall of 1938. “I hope to include at least a dozen previously unissued performances on this CD,” said Mr. Robertson recently. “I have heard dubs of the acetates that have not been optimally transferred or sonically restored. Although there is much great playing on them by Bunny and they are pretty good soundwise, until I get the final digital transfers that have been cleaned-up by Doug Pomeroy, I cannot say with certainty exactly how many of them will be of sufficient sound quality for commercial issue. But I hope that the CD will have at least a dozen previously unissued tracks on it. The balance of the tracks on the CD will be rare but previously issued airchecks that all have excellent Berigan playing on them, and range in sound quality from very good to excellent. My objective with this CD is to present as much previously unissued Berigan music as possible in the best sound possible with the best Berigan playing possible.”

Among the musicians who will be heard with Bunny on this CD are: Buddy Rich, George Wettling, Johnny Blowers, drums; Georgie Auld, tenor sax; Joe Dixon, Gus Bivona, Joe DiMaggio, alto sax and clarinet; Sonny Lee and Ray Conniff, trombone; Joe Bushkin and Buddy Koss, piano.

I will assist Mr. Robertson in any way I can with the production of this CD. I will be writing the liner notes, compiling the necessary information about each selection, and providing the photos that will be used.

I will provide continuous reports on the progress of this project on the “Mr. Trumpet” website. You can also go to www.hepjazz.com and scroll down to “Hep Jazz News,” and click.

MICHAEL P. ZIRPOLO"

great news, indeed!!!

keep boppin´

marcel

Great news--thanks for passing this along, Marcel! Listening right now to the new David Allyn comp on Hep, WHERE YOU AT? Also got the recent Hep Harry James of mid-1940s broadcasts... only one track overlaps with the excellent 3-CD Hindsight set of live James, btw.

[ghost of miles]

The Berigan is out and sounds wonderful:

http://www.hepjazz.com/hep_jazz_artist_biographies/bunny_berigan.html

[sgcim]

Great sound on the Berigan record.

When I was in HS, I played in a kid band organized by BB's clarinet/alto player Joe Dixon, and later did many gigs and recorded with him. He was interviewed on Phil Schaap's radio show, and they played one of the recordings we made, and Phil mentioned my name on air

Joe was featured with Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven, and was a world class clarinetist.

That picture of him on the link freaks me out...

[paul secor]

Up for additions.

[ghost of miles]

Hep new issues

 

The David Allyn is very good.  I picked up the Wilder Octets as well, which might not be to the taste of many, though I enjoyed them... haven't heard the Eddie Thompsons yet.  Not sure if Alastair is going to be putting out any more music in CD format, though.

[six string]

Interesting note on Jessica Williams, they state they are waiting for an update on her bio and include a link to a Wiki page instead of her own jessicawilliams.com website.

Edited July 4, 2016 by six string

[mikeweil]

Has the Hep Jazz label ceased to exist? Try reaching their web page and tell me what you think - or does anybody know about it? 

https://www.hepjazz.com/

Edited March 17, 2024 by mikeweil

[Fer Urbina]

I searched for it too back in January, and found that the label is now owned by 43 North Holdings. 

Their website is now down, but this is what they had back in January: https://web.archive.org/web/20230929105045/https://43northholdings.com/labels/hep-jazz/

I don't know whow "43 North Holdings" are, but when I checked im January they seemed to own quite a few independent labels active in the 1950s, like Period, Warwick or Everest. 

As for Hep, I'm not surprised at all. Robertson told me years ago he was thinking of quitting.

F

 

[AllenLowe]

I like the label, but for a while, and maybe now, they were/are using CDRs and not informing anyone. When I sent an email complaining politely the guy who answered got pretty nasty.

[Ken Dryden]

  On 3/17/2024 at 7:21 PM, AllenLowe said:

I like the label, but for a while, and maybe now, they were/are using CDRs and not informing anyone. When I sent an email complaining politely the guy who answered got pretty nasty.

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This seems to be trending with a number of UK jazz labels, including Acrobat and Sounds of Yesteryear. I don't like paying premium prices for CDRs and unlabeled ones at that. 

This is definitely an unsavory business practice that will cross these labels off of my shopping list.

[Fer Urbina]

  On 3/17/2024 at 7:21 PM, AllenLowe said:

I like the label, but for a while, and maybe now, they were/are using CDRs and not informing anyone. When I sent an email complaining politely the guy who answered got pretty nasty.

Expand  

For what it's worth, my copy of their 2-CD set of Alec Wilder's music, which is probably the last thing they ever released, is definitely regular CDs. 

F

Edited March 17, 2024 by Fer Urbina
Typo

[AllenLowe]

  On 3/17/2024 at 8:27 PM, Fer Urbina said:

For what it's worth, my copy of their 2-CD set of Alec Wilder's music, which is probably the last thing they ever released, is definitely regular CDs. 

F

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well, from the way this guy responded to me, I would still wonder; chances are that what they are doing is converting their back catalog to CDR,

[mikeweil]

Presto offers the Hep catalog as downloads. They seem to have some still in stock as CDs, I just ordered two missing in my collection. 

https://www.prestomusic.com/jazz/labels/674--hep-records

Edited March 18, 2024 by mikeweil

[romualdo]

that's interesting - I only ordered from them approximately a month ago - the website above was accessible then - just tried & coundn't access the site - maybe it's only temporary

I only ordered one disc (Stuff Smith) & it arrived super fast (Australia!!) - IIRC shipping was free (jewel case removed) - total cost £8.99.

It's definitely not a CDr - looks similar to my older Hep CDs

[hopkins]

A lot of the Hep records catalog is available on Qobuz. You can purchase the albums for download only. You can also sample the tracks. Unfortunately they probably don't include the liner notes.

Here's a link (in French)

https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/label/hep-records/download-streaming-albums/145563

Edited April 19, 2024 by hopkins

[Fer Urbina]

I've just got the news that Alastair Robertson passed away last year, on October 23.

Obit: https://ukjazznews.com/a-tribute-to-alastair-robertson/

F

[mikeweil]

R.I.P., and thanks for many excellent reissues, rare broadcasr recordings as well as fine  remasterings. 

[J.A.W.]

Sorry to hear that. He was not easy to deal with, but he did help me on several occasions, for which I'm grateful. His reissues were excellent, no exceptions. My favourites are the Basie, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman and Lunceford discs; I'm probably forgetting one or two others.

[ghost of miles]

Sorry to hear this as well. I had pleasant email exchanges over the years with him while placing direct orders, and always expressed my gratitude for the excellence and the breadth of his reissue work. Hep’s eight-volume series of Claude Thornhill’s 1941-53 recordings, for example, is and will likely remain for some time the best documentation we have of the band that helped birth the cool, etc. And glad that he kept at it long enough to get that Wilder compilation out. 
Forever thankful for how Alastair enriched my enjoyment of the midcentury swing era with his well-annotated, good-sounding curations. Though I didn’t know him at all beyond the lighthearted asides he often employed in his email replies, I always felt that his releases came from a place of great love for the music. 

Edited March 12 by ghost of miles

[Kevin Bresnahan]

  On 3/6/2013 at 1:13 PM, BillF said:

Have just skimmed through these pages and can find no mention of recordings (as opposed to reissues) undertaken by Hep. To set the record straight, here's an excellent album I bought recently which was recorded in Edinburgh by Hep eight years ago by visiting American musicians:

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RxGzZhZbL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

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This is really good. The two of them did 3 recording dates for Hep, released on 2 CDs, this and "Green & Blue". These dates were Mazurek's last hard bop dates. I don't think he plays in that style anymore.

[Fer Urbina]

  On 3/12/2025 at 4:18 AM, ghost of miles said:

Sorry to hear this as well. I had pleasant email exchanges over the years with him while placing direct orders, and always expressed my gratitude for the excellence and the breadth of his reissue work. Hep’s eight-volume series of Claude Thornhill’s 1941-53 recordings, for example, is and will likely remain for some time the best documentation we have of the band that helped birth the cool, etc. And glad that he kept at it long enough to get that Wilder compilation out. 
Forever thankful for how Alastair enriched my enjoyment of the midcentury swing era with his well-annotated, good-sounding curations. Though I didn’t know him at all beyond the lighthearted asides he often employed in his email replies, I always felt that his releases came from a place of great love for the music. 

Expand  

Hear, hear. Exactly my experience with him and my feelings about his work.

I would add his 5-CD series with all of Red Norvo's studio recordings 1933-42, as well as 2-CD sets with Woody Herman's V-Discs, Bennie Moten's 1930-32 recordings (including their legendary last session in full), Cab Calloway's recordings with Dizzy and Chu Berry, Benny Goodman's compilations by arranger...

F

Edited March 12 by Fer Urbina

[JSngry]

Boyd Raeburn!