EXCLUSIVE: Inside Hip-O Select’s Vault
Here’s a fantastic justification for the lack of posting today: The Second Disc has recently been preparing some interviews with some interesting characters within the reissue world.
One of the interviews was conducted today with none other than Harry Weinger, vice-president of A&R for Universal Music Enterprises and gatekeeper of the catalogues for great soul labels and artists from Motown to James Brown.
The full interview will be yours to read on Monday, but for now The Second Disc provides a few important morsels from the conversation – notably, some of the titles Hip-o Select is working on in the coming year.
Read on after the jump!
- Weinger is in the midst of compiling a box set of Stan Getz’s early recordings for Verve, Clef and Norgran from the 1950s. Not only is much of this material rare or unreleased on CD, but it will feature a good chunk of vintage artwork. Also coming on the jazz front: a collection of some of the earliest recordings of Dinah Washington on Mercury (and even a recording or two from Decca).
- The James Brown Singles series will conclude after the next two volumes (10 and 11) – but the J.B. train isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Expect a new James Brown Web site and, in time for the holidays, a collection of all three of Brown’s Christmas LPs with single mixes and unreleased material.
- Within a year, several more complete album collections for classic Motown artists will commence. The music of The Supremes in the 1970s will be properly put on CD, as will another volume of The Marvelettes (which will feature a whole disc’s worth of music from the vault). Next year may possibly see the creation of a box set devoted to the work of Lionel Richie.
- And fear not, fans – The Complete Motown Singles Volume 12A is not dead. Weinger cited the complexity of the artists’ contracts at the time as the reason the box set isn’t yet available. (Not a problem, to your catalogue correspondent: what would the set be without a luminary like Stevie Wonder?)
Read the full interview – in which Harry discusses The Jackson 5’s Live at the Forum, the Bon Jovi remasters and other musings on catalogue music – on Monday!
Permanent disclosure: From April-August 2009, this author interned directly with Weinger at UMe. Outside of a credit on the Hip-o Select box Oscar Peterson: The Clef/Mercury Duo Recordings and the impetus to start this very blog, nothing else has resulted from said internship.
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8 thoughts on “EXCLUSIVE: Inside Hip-O Select’s Vault”
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This is great to read! Especially the James Brown Christmas material! I just wish Motown 12A would get released soon, I stay worried that it isn’t going to materialize…
I would love to see some complete album collections of Stevie Wonder’s early work.
What has become of the planned continuation of the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles album sets and the Trouble Man OST from Marvin Gaye that was supposed to be expanded?
Trouble Man is moving steadily along. Same for The Miracles.
I’d like to see the following catalogs remasted & expanded from the urban side
* Salt N Pepa
* Parliament
* Commodores
* Lionel Richie
* Janet Jackson (Control & Rhythm Nation 1814)
* DeBarge (catalog is long out of print)
* Grace Jones
* Stevie Wonder’s Looking Back Hits package on CD
^sidenote stop repacking anthologies as GOLD and millienium collections over and over.
I’d heard rumors of expanded Janet albums and a Lionel box come out of UMe, but Harry didn’t expound too much on them. If nothing else, they might be a possibility for 2011.
I can do with out a Lionel Richie Box, just remaster his solo stuff and The Commodores which mainly will be on the box
I totally agree about releasing the same old stuff over and over again.